Here's your chance to run with the elite

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Some may wonder if it's a good idea, if it's fair, to have elite runners in today's Pear Blossom Run.

John Lucas competed in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in the fall, and he'll toe the line. Four-time Pear winner Max King returns, a couple of months before he'll try to make the U.S. Olympic squad as a steeplechaser at the trials this summer in Eugene.

Yet they'll line up with teachers, receptionists, doctors, laborers, you name it.

Is that good or bad?

I'm thinking it's pretty good. More than 1,200 people are in the race. You can count on one hand the number who realistically believe they have a chance to win.

Likely, they and most others will relish the opportunity to run with a King or a Lucas, both home-grown young men who have much respect for this 32-year race that is a Southern Oregon institution. King is from Central Point and competed for Crater; Lucas is from Eagle Point and ran against King in high school in the late 1990s.

It's neat that they want to stay connected to the community. And I'm guessing most entrants will think it's neat to be in a race with Olympic aspirants.

That is the foundation of the Pear, after all. Two-time Olympic medalist Frank Shorter — gold in 1972 in Munich and silver in '76 in Montreal — won the first Pear in 1977.

At the core, runners know runners. They feel the same agony that comes with training, wage the same battles to catch air, harbor the same sense of anxiety at the base of a torturous hill.

The training and times might not compare, but the process does.

"What other event," says race director Jerry Swartsley, "do you get a chance to participate where everybody is equal. It doesn't matter what strata you're in financially. You can be very wealthy or very poor, but you put on your running shorts and shirt like everybody else."

He allows he can't drive an Indy car or play in an NBA game. But he can run alongside the elite, if only for a few strides.

"You don't get the opportunity to do that in any other sport," says Swartsley. "I think it's a positive."

If anyone should have misgivings about having the favored King in the field, it would be Damian Baldovino.

Baldovino has had more seconds here than a Thanksgiving dinner. His four runner-up finishes nearly overshadow his lone win, in 2002.

And this year, the Lakeview runner is in better shape than he's been in some time. At 41, he's climbed the ranks of masters competitors and is considered among the best in America. He has been invited, expenses paid, to compete in the mammoth Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Wash., next month.

His reaction to the return of King, who skipped last year because of conflicts but triumphed in the previous four Pears?

"I notice Max is in there, so I probably won't be winning the thing," he laughed.

Baldovino plans to use King as an aid as he attempts to break the 40-44 age-group record of 52:06.

Similar to his strategy recently in winning his division in the Shamrock Run in Portland a month ago, Baldovino will hitch a ride with King — or whoever else goes out fast.

"I'll let them pull me away from a lot of people who wouldn't go out with the faster guys," he says. "I'll sit on the younger guys for a while."

Baldovino's target time of sub-52 minutes might actually put him within shot of winning the whole shebang, according to King.

King has wrestled with a head-and-chest cold since returning from the World Cross Country Championships two weeks ago in Edinburgh, Great Britain. His predicted time, based in part on tough training sessions this week, is anywhere from 50 to 54 minutes, he says.

Don't be fooled, however. That's probably his modesty talking.

He also said he's not ruling out a record effort if things fall into place. That would be a time better than the 49:29 he ran in 2005 in sublime weather, which we'll have again today.

It would be exciting if others joined the dash for the title. Lucas, for instance, who was 44th at the Olympic Marathon Trials. Or two-time winner Tim Julian. Or accomplished ultramarathoners Hal Koerner and Erik Skaggs of Ashland.

That might be asking a bit much. King has speed to burn. The long-distance guys have endurance. They run 26.2- or 50- or 100-mile events. Stamina might not help them here.

"There's kind of a stigma that ultramarathon runners tend to be kind of slower," says Skaggs. "I guess that's true to a degree. But I like to run faster, shorter races, too. I don't like to limit myself."

He's shooting for a time around 52 minutes.

That might not catch King or Lucas.

"Those are two really fast guys," says Skaggs. "It'll be fun trying to run with them."

I bet a lot of runners are thinking the same thing.

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