Runners seek fast times over downhill course

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 9:47 a.m.

For the 37th consecutive year, the Las Vegas International Marathon will be run Sunday, from Jean to Sunset Park, at the southeast corner of McCarran International Airport.

"The way some events and teams come and go here, that's an enormous shelf life for this city," said sports broadcaster Tim Neverett, who helps coordinate the event. "It just gets bigger, which is good."

The mostly downhill desert run will feature a variety of classes and begin at 6:30 a.m., serving as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon, the world's oldest and most prestigious distance event. The half marathon will start at 6 a.m..

Those in the latter group who are record-seekers will be challenged, since the best half-marathon marks in the world have been set on this course.

In February 1997, Benoit Zwierschieski zipped over that nearly 12-mile distance in a scorching 59 minutes, 53 seconds. Two years earlier, Claudia Metzner set the women's half-marathon record in 1:08.12.

Las Vegas resident Frank Plasso Jr. established the men's marathon record, in 2:12.37, in 1986. He runs a health food company and has bulked up in recent years with weights, and one race official said Plasso is quite proud that he has held the record for so long.

Dereje Tesfa (of Ethiopia), Matt Capeluoto (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.), Eric Lavigne (West Springfield, Mass.) and Rich Byrne (Ridgewood, N.J.) are expected to compete for the men's marathon title Sunday.

Of the women, Kari Anne Bertrend (Gilroy, Calif.), Julie Peterson (Beverly, Mass.), Diana Qualls (St. Louis, Mo.) and Sayuri Kusutari (Honolulu) will battle for first place.

In the half marathon, Englishman Mark Steinle, Frenchman Rolly Phillipe and Brad Pace, of Fort Collins, Colo., should set blistering paces. Nadia Prusad, a French native now living in Colorado, is the women's favorite.

Ron Futrell, sports director at KTNV-Channel 13, has run the Las Vegas half marathon twice, and the condition of a knee injury will determine whether he tries it again.

He ran marathons in St. George, Utah -- whose quadriceps-shocking decline is steeper than the one from Jean -- and New York in the last two years, and he said there is nothing like dashing through the streets and thousands of fans of Gotham.

It would be similar in Las Vegas, he said, if director Al Boca could coerce city officials to cooperate and a host of major corporations to offer their sponsorship.

"It really needs to be run through The Strip of Las Vegas," Futrell said. "The city is missing out on a great opportunity to have a phenomenal running event. That would make it a true Las Vegas event and so many more people, from all over the world, would run.

"At some point, the marathon needs to be run down the most famous street on the planet."