Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Tekoa’s Susannah Scaroni won the L.A. Marathon with a time one minute off the course record.
On the first weekend of her spring break, she got up at 4 a.m Sunday morning and went to Dodger Stadium.
A couple hours later she won the L.A. Marathon.
Susannah Scaroni of Tekoa took first in the Women’s Wheelchair Division, her first marathon win in a racing career which includes the 2012 Paralympics in London.
“It was a beautiful day, I just really loved the course,” said Scaroni. “A lot of hills, I love climbing hills. I tend to be lighter than the competition, they usually pass me going down the hills.”
Part of that competition was American Shirley Reiley and Great Britain’s Shelly Wood, the gold and silver medal marathon winners from the London Paralympics.
Scaroni’s win in Los Angeles came after racing in the Chicago Marathon (twice), Boston Marathon and Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. Her second-place finishes in Duluth and Chicago, along with fifth-place in Boston qualified her for London last summer.
Scaroni, 21, is a junior sports nutrition major at University of Illinois. A member of the wheelchair track and road racing team, she transfered from Carrol College last fall.
Since 2010, the course of the Los Angeles Marathon is “Stadium to the Sea,” beginning at Chavez Ravine, the home of the Dodgers and stretching through Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Century City and eventually to the Santa Monica Pier.
“There was never a place where someone wasn’t cheering you on,” Scaroni said.
One of her favorite spots was on Mile 4.
“It was a steep hill. It was just kind of straight up,” she said.
As the race wore on, Scaroni was on pace to potentially set the course record, although she wasn’t aware of it.
The second-place racer, Reiley, was a minute behind her.
“But I never looked back. I just wanted to push as hard as I could,” she said. “That’s all I really think about.”
Eventually the ocean came within view and she gunned toward the finish line.
Approaching it, people yelled, “Go right, go right!” as the finish divided into two chutes. Scaroni didn’t know why they were yelling and she stayed left.
It turned out photographers were waiting at the other chute for her.
Nonetheless, her finishing time was 1:54:39, a little over a minute off of the record (1:53:12). She won $2,500, and just missed another $1,000 for the record.
“I felt really energized crossing the finish line,” Scaroni said, before finally feeling drained while awaiting the press conference.
She competed in L.A. independent of her U. of Illinois team, as did another of her teammates.
The L.A. Marathon committee covered the cost of Scaroni’s registration and hotel room downtown.
She has been racing since she was 12, beginning at Bloomsday in Spokane for Team St. Luke’s.
A car accident paralyzed her when she was in kindergarten. Graduating from Tekoa High School in 2009, she went to Carroll on an academic scholarship.
Scaroni will race next in what is called the Boston-London Challenge, which is back-to-back events, The Boston Marathon April 15 followed by London’s April 21. Prize money expands if an entrant places in each.
As part of the Illinois team, Scaroni trains indoor in the winter on rollers – like a treadmill for runners – and rowing machines.
At Carroll, she trained with weights and in the swimming pool, along with 20-mile pushes on the roads of Helena three times a week.
Scaroni and her whole Illinois team will be at Bloomsday in May. In November, she and the team will travel east once again for the New York Marathon. They were there last year but it was cancelled right before due to Hurricane Sandy.
Meanwhile, her trophy from Los Angeles stands on her dresser.
“I feel really blessed everything went so well,” she said.
The most decorated performer in L.A. Marathon history is Mexican Saul Mendoza, who has won the Men’s Wheelchair Division seven times.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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