Racing for the future of racing

When Alex Ho, a personal trainer based in San Francisco, won the Paso Robles Harvest Marathon last year with a time of 3:01:06, it couldn’t have been too big of a shocker. He had trained for two or three months, and had just come off of training for an Ironman 70.3 triathlon. He has also taken first place in the Sierra Recon Mud Run, and recently came in ninth place in a 100-mile race.

“The funny thing, is I used to hate running up until three years ago,” he says. “It wasn’t until I started taking an outdoor fitness class that I got into running and fitness as a lifestyle.” And that’s when the competitive nature he developed in high school—playing tennis and baseball—kicked in, he says, and pushed him to beat the person in front of him.

Hidden in his story lies the crux and motivating factor behind this year’s Harvest Marathon, to be held on October 27. The race, which has merged with the Wine Vine Run half-marathon race to offer both 26.2- and 12.1-mile distances in addition to a 5K and a Kids Run, is a benefit for the ailing Paso Robles High School Athletic Department. The hope is that enough people will register to offset some of the major funding cuts that have put the school’s teams at risk.
Paso Robles High School Athletic Director Tom Harrington, who is also directing the race this year, is counting on adult athletes to remember the early roots of their competitiveness and give back to the next generation of adult athletes still getting their start as Bearcats.

“We’re hoping that a lot of people who are athletes still—who are running marathons and half-marathons—were athletes in high school, and that it benefited them as a part of their education in high school, and that they’re going to want to continue that through this generation of athletes,” Harrington says.

The event organizers hope to raise as much as $20,000 this year, which Harrington claims won’t make up for recent budget cuts, but “will go a long way to keep the program afloat.” Some general uses of funds will include equipment like timing systems for swimming, tennis balls, volleyball nets and uniforms.

“Most of our sports have had to go without for the past two years. Teams have had to fundraise to pay coaches and sometimes [to cover] team travel, so they often forgo uniforms and new equipment. Those smaller sports like golf and tennis are most at risk.”

Luckily for those adult athletes interested in racing for the cause, the Harvest Marathon offers more than a few perks. The course is a Boston Marathon qualifying race; it begins and ends at Le Vigne winery; and it offers spectacular views of vineyards throughout. Staying almost entirely on paved roads, the route is also fit for the novice marathoner thanks to its not-too-steep rolling hills, starting at nearly 800 feet in elevation, topping out just above 1,000 feet (at mile nine) and descending again before offering one last climb at mile 21.

Ho, who will return to the race this year with some of his own clients who he has trained for the event, says he’d suggest to this year’s runners to do some heat-training (although he claims the weather was nearly perfect last year) and, in anticipation of that last hill, to add some elevation to the end of training runs.

As for Ho, he is headed for Boston in 2014, thanks to his qualifying time at the Harvest Marathon last year. And he is unfazed by the recent Boston Marathon bombings. “After this year’s race [in Boston], I didn’t really have any hesitations,” he says. “It actually makes me want to run it a little bit more just to show more support.”
And in that sense, you might say the Paso Robles Harvest Marathon is working to protect the future not just of local athletes, but of marathoners nationwide.
Find more details and register at pasoroblesmarathon.com.

Jamie Relth - local writer and photographer

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