A Marathon is not Enough: Dean Karnazes to Run 100 Miles to L.A. and Then Run the...

A Marathon is not Enough: Dean Karnazes to Run 100 Miles to L.A. and Then Run
the L.A. Marathon

LOS ANGELES, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Running one marathon is plenty for most
people, but not Dean Karnazes.

The 46-year-old ultra-marathoner who grew up in Southern California will
return - on foot - to run in the 2009 Los Angeles Marathon next Monday on
Memorial Day, May 25, by running approximately 100 miles from Santa Barbara to
Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday!

"I'm an L.A. native, so I feel a certain affinity for the L.A. Marathon and I
so look forward to running it every year," he said on a video posted on
YouTube on May 9. "In fact, one of my fondest memories ever is my Dad running
the L.A. Marathon; he ran the inaugural L.A. Marathon and I was there to watch
him cross that finish line. It left an impression on me forever.

"So the weekend of the L.A. Marathon, I'm actually going to be staying in
Santa Barbara. It's about 100 miles from Santa Barbara where I'm staying to
the L.A. Marathon, so I'll take off about 24 hours in advance to run the 100
miles. I'll run right down the Pacific Coast Highway, right along the coast.
It will be extremely beautiful, so I look forward to that. I'll run to the
Expo, actually, on Sunday and I'm going to give a talk, so if anyone wants to
come listen to me talk, I'll be at the Expo on Sunday afternoon and then I'll
probably kick about and run the Marathon with everyone on Monday. It seems
like a great weekend."

Karnazes will appear at free-to-the-public Run/Ex/09 at the Los Angeles
Convention Center on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. to share his experience of running
down the coast over the prior 24 hours.

"My earliest recollection of running was running home from kindergarten," he
noted. "I started running at six years old." He recalled that he ran his first
marathon at age 14, but then gave it up as he matured, graduating from San
Clemente High School and then majoring in food science technology at Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo.

"I found myself in a bar on my 30th birthday," he remembered in the video. "I
said to my buddies at 11 o'clock at night, 'I'm going to go running tonight.
I'm going to run 30 miles to celebrate my 30th birthday.' And they said,
'You're drunk,' and I said, 'Yeah, I am, but I'm still going to do it.' So I
walked out of a bar at 11 at night and literally ran all night long." That
marked his return to running and he's been on the roads ever since. "You
really stretch the boundaries of the human spirit and human endurance," he
said, noting that he's run as much as 350 miles non-stop.

Asked how many marathons he's run, he replies that, "I stopped counting at
100; I don't think I've quite run 200." But he respects the distance and the
effort required, "Completing a marathon is an incredible achievement; it's
something that 99.9% of people will never do."

Karnazes, who lives in Marin County, isn't planning on resting much after
Monday's L.A. Marathon, though. He'll be on the road to race again in San
Diego the next weekend.

>> For more information on the Los Angeles Marathon, visit www.lamarathon.com
>> For more information on the Acura L.A. Bike Tour, visit
www.acuraLAbiketour.com

"We inspire athletes and connect communities. Anchored by the iconic Los
Angeles Marathon, our three sporting events draw more than 25,000 athletes,
5,000 volunteers, and one million spectators along the route to sunny Southern
California for the L.A. Marathon, the Acura L.A. Bike Tour, and our 5K
Run/Walk, making race day one of the world's largest days of
participatory sport."
~ Russ Pillar, President, Los Angeles Marathon

The Los Angeles Marathon is presented by Honda and sponsored by Acura (title
sponsor of the Acura L.A. Bike Tour), KNBC-4 Los Angeles, Springfield Water,
Emerald Nuts, Gatorade, Clif Bar, Salonpas, Don Francisco's Coffee, Michelob
ULTRA, New Performance Nutrition and Whole Foods Market.

SOURCE L.A. Marathon

Pat Harris, +1-323-965-4900, pharris@perelman-pioneer.com, for L.A. Marathon