26 Miles and a Bit Later, It’s Boileau and Ditz : L.A. Marathon Attracts 14,937, but the Field’s Not a Strong One

Art Boileau liked what he saw Sunday at the start of the second City of Los Angeles Marathon--the lack of a clear-cut favorite.

An already-thin field of elite runners was further pared down last week when Gianni Poli of Italy, the 1986 New York Marathon winner, and Gidamis Shahanga of Tanzania, runner-up in Los Angeles last year, both begged out of the race.

And the psyche of New Zealand’s Rod Dixon, the 1983 New York Marathon winner, was an unknown quantity following the death of his father last Tuesday in Auckland.

That left Boileau, runner-up to Rob de Castella in last year’s Boston Marathon, only a handful of legitimate contenders with which to concern himself.

The two-time Canadian champion ran away from all of them on a sunny, hazy day, winning in 2 hours 13 minutes 8 seconds after leaving a pack of three runners behind in the 15th mile.

Defending champion Ric Sayre of Ashland, Ore., made a late charge at the fading Boileau to finish second in 2:13:38.

Nancy Ditz of Woodside, Calif., a reporter at television station KPIX in San Francisco, won the women’s division for the second straight year, overtaking Cal State Los Angeles sophomore Sylvia Mosqueda, who had led the entire way, in the 24th mile.

Ditz’s time in the warm conditions--temperatures reached the mid-60s during the race--was 2:35:24. Mosqueda finished second with a time of 2:37:46.

Checks for $15,000 and a Mercedes-Benz valued at $31,000 were awarded to the winners.

The race attracted 14,937 official entrants, about 4,000 more than the inaugural race last March.

Boileau, 29, won despite running what he described as a “pretty stupid” race.

The Edmonton native and former University of Oregon runner, who has lived in Oregon since he was 10, most recently in Eugene, ran the first 16 miles at a sub-five-minute-mile pace.

He put together back-to-back miles of 4:52 and 4:53 in the 14th and 15 miles to overtake a pack that included John Esquibel of South Pasadena, Jose Gomez of Mexico and Ivo Machado Rodriguez of Brazil.

Boileau continued to build his lead through the 18th mile, then slowed considerably while hanging on until the finish.

“I didn’t know if I was cutting my own throat or what,” he said. “Running five-minute miles was maybe a little too aggressive. I kind of wanted to get off and run my own race--sort of separate myself--but I paid for it in the last eight miles or so.

“I get kind of antsy and have to take it out in five-minute miles, but in this heat that’s a little bit too much.”

At the Commonwealth Games last August in Edinburgh, Scotland, Boileau said he used 1984 Olympic bronze medalist Charles Spedding of Britain as a pacesetter, only to have Spedding fall back.

“I said, ‘What’s going on, what’s going on,’ ” Boileau said. “People were pulling away from us. I said to myself, ‘Be patient.’ And then I said, ‘Charlie, you feeling all right?’

“He looked back at me and said, ‘I’m absolutely knackered.’ ”

Boileau decided then that he should set his own pace.

It nearly cost him on a course that started and ended at the Coliseum.

Sayre, 33, closed fast, but Boileau’s lead was too much to overcome, especially under the conditions. “It wasn’t overwhelming but it took the edge off,” Sayre said of the heat.

Sayre said he felt stronger than he did last year, when he was a surprise winner over Dixon, who finished third, “but I didn’t feel quite as comfortable.

“I wasn’t as smooth as I was last year. That may have been because I was in the lead last year, and I was able to relax a little bit. This year, I was catching people, so it was more of a strength run, rather than maintaining my pace.”

Sunday’s victory was Boileau’s first against an international field.

He finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games after finishing second at Boston, where he ran a personal best of 2:11:15, only to finish about three minutes behind Australia’s de Castella.

In part, he said, he chose Los Angeles over Boston this year because of the lack of a strong field in Los Angeles.

“I kind of wanted to get off by myself and win a race,” he said. “Running against the top six or seven marathoners in the world, it’s pretty tough. Not that I’m dodging competition or anything like that, but definitely to win is a good thing.”

Boileau was a clerical assistant at Oregon until he landed a shoe contract after finishing 11th in 1983 at the World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

In the 1984 Olympics, bothered by the heat, he finished 44th.

“The Olympics was kind of a nightmare,” he said. “That’s kind of why I wanted to come down here--to redeem myself in a way.”

Ditz, who prefers to try new races, returned to Los Angeles to defend her women’s title.

That she did in a race that was eerily similar to last year’s, when Mosqueda, running unofficially without a number, led through the first 19 miles before dropping out.

Mosqueda said later that she was only running for a workout.

This time, she was a legal entrant, but still didn’t consider herself a serious contender. On Saturday, she won the 800 meters and 1,500 meters in a track meet at Cal State Northridge.

But she felt strong and when she passed the 21-mile mark, she decided she might as well finish.

“I said, ‘What the heck? Five more miles, I can jog it in,’ ” Mosqueda said.

At about the 24-mile mark, Ditz passed her and went on to win easily. “I was really delirious out there,” said the 20-year-old Mosqueda. “So when she passed me, I just let her go.”

Ditz, who won the U.S. marathon championship in 1985 and will represent the United States this summer at the World Track and Field Championships in Rome, said she was never worried.

“Nothing’s certain but I was confident,” she said.

At one point, Ditz said, she was about two minutes behind.

“It was a little difficult to tell exactly where Sylvia was because the lead vehicle was next to her, but it kept stopping,” she said. “I kept thinking I was catching her, but then I’d find out I was just catching the lead vehicle.”

Ditz said she went into the race assuming that Mosqueda would go the distance, but hoping she wouldn’t.

“Last year, it was very confusing because she didn’t have a number on,” Ditz said. “But this year she was a legitimate entered competitor, so I had to assume she was trying to run the best race she could.”

But after 19 miles, Ditz said, “she came back to me very quickly.”