The thought of being stalked in broad daylight by an unarmed, skinny, 5-foot-1 man normally wouldn't be all that terrifying, at least not to someone a good foot taller.
Just such a diminutive person mugged 6-foot-1 Bob Kempainen, however, in the 10th Los Angeles Marathon on a cold, rainy Sunday.Rolando Vera, a 29-year-old from Cuenca, Ecuador, ran in the shadow of his taller rival to limit the effects of strong winds and preserve energy after the two broke away from a small pack of runners at around 20 miles of the 26.2-mile race.
And the strategy worked. After Kempainen tried unsuccessfully to pull away, Vera shot past the American at mile 23 and cruised to victory in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 39 seconds - 20 seconds ahead of Kempainen.
The winning time fell more than a minute shy of the course record - 2:10:19 by Martin Mondragon in 1988 - the apparent result of the wind and relentless rain.
In the women's race, Nadia Prasad of New Caledonia, who used to train in Cedar City, Utah, pulled away from her nearest rival at six miles and was never challenged. She won in 2:29:48.
"We don't have many good athletes in Ecuador," said Vera, who thrust his arms in the air and nearly leaped across the finish line.
Vera, who won $15,000 and a Mercedes, doesn't have the name recognition of such rivals as Kempainen, Mark Plaatjes and Arturo Barrios, perhaps the favorites in what was billed as the best field in race history.
The race didn't turn out as many had expected.
First, there were the conditions. The runners were confident they would crack the 2:10 barrier, particularly if temperatures were around 60 degrees (it was 59 when the starting gun was fired), but warned that wind and rain could hurt their chances.
And, second, Paul Pilkington, hired to be the pacesetter after winning the race in that capacity last year, dropped out only four miles into the race after injuring his ankle, according to his agent Bob Wood.
As a result, the elite runners had to establish their own pace. For the first half of the race, Kempainen, Plaatjes, Barrios and Martin Pitayo rotated as pacesetter, an energy-sapping job that might have come back to haunt them.
According to Plaatjes, who helped recruit the runners, Vera was the only one of them who failed to take his turn, as they had agreed before the race they would if Pilkington were unable to fulfill his obligation.