Strive for Your Personal RecordPresented by: Kiwanis Club of Rolling Hills Estates as Part of the Lexus LaceUp Running Series
Saturday, Nov 14, 2015
Start & Finish Adjacent To Terranea Oceanfront Resort,
Pelican Cove, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Proceeds benefit local high school scholarship programs, children, elderly, and disadvantaged families through programs sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Rolling Hills Estates.
The Kiwanis Club of Rolling Hills Estates is once again pleased to offer scholarships to deserving students from our local South Bay area. Applications are welcomed from students planning to go to a four-year college or university as well as those planning to attend a community college or vocational program.
For more information and to download the application go to Scholarships.
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On December 6th, the Kiwanis Club of Rolling Hills Estates held their annual Christmas party at the Boys & Girls Club in Harbor City. Fifty five eight year olds from the Boys & Girls Club and Volunteers of America were treated to Santa, pizza, chicken, presents, gift making for their families, music and in general a great time.
The gift making for their families is in concert with the philosophy of giving back rather than just getting. There were fifteen Key Club members and ten KIWINS members from Peninsula and Palos Verdes High School there to help with the gift making and assist with activities associated with the event.
D. J. Tony Aguilar provided Christmas music as he kindly does every year and the gift making project was headed up by Evelyn Salinas and Joan Davidson. Santa was played by Ben Carter. Santa’s wife was played by Joanie Keluche and Mona Dill was in her Elf costume.
The 49th year of the Kiwanis PV marathon was held on Saturday November 15, 2014 as part of the Lexus LaceUp running series. This is the third year that the race was a half marathon and included both a 10K and 5K run.
One thousand runners participated in the event which started at Pelican Cove in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and proceeded along the scenic coastal roads of Palos Drive South and along Palos Verdes Drive West into the City of Palos Verdes Estates, returning to finish at Pelican Cove.
The weather was perfect for the 7 am start with the leaders maintaining a 6 minute per mile pace. The half marathon was won by Ryan Buetzer of Hermosa Beach CA in 1 hour 19 minutes and 13 seconds, the 10 K was won by Michael John Stanley of Riverside CA in 37 minutes 50 seconds and the 5K was won by Samuel Silva of Los Angeles CA in 18 minutes 44 seconds.
This was the first year that the pavilion included a wine and beer garden where the runners received a free lunch as part of their entry fee and were able to sit and talk to their fellow runners. The runners also were also able to visit the various other sporting booths at the pavilion.
The Kiwanis of Rolling Hills Estates thanks their many sponsors whose generosity will enable the Kiwanis to support their community scholarships and outreach programs this coming year.
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes
Johannessen Trading Co.
Medawar Jewelers
Torrance Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Group
South Bay Orthopaedic Specialists Medical Center
Shorewood Realtors
Carolyn Elliott
Richard Sherman Trio, Bill Hallett, Joanie Keluche
Marathon and half marathon runners conquer the first hill at the start of the race in the 45th annual Palos Verdes Marathon on May 14, 2011. Steve McCrank — Daily Breeze Staff photographer, File
Runners can lace up their shoes and tackle the Hill now that the Palos Verdes Marathon is back on with financial help from Lexus.
The Kiwanis Club — which began putting on the event in the 1960s to unite the cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula — announced earlier this year that an additional $6,500 in law enforcement and traffic control costs had forced it to pull the plug on the race altogether.
Indeed, the event has struggled recently. Two years ago an increase in city fees forced organizers to shorten the country’s second-oldest continuously run marathon to a half marathon.
The race, known for decades as one of the most visually stunning — and topographically challenging — runs in Southern California, had already been moving in that direction. More participants were opting for a 5K and half marathon. And because the steep hills of the race added length to finishing times — numbers used to qualify runners for bigger races such as the Boston Marathon — the full marathon wasn’t a big draw for elite runners.
Word of this year’s cancellation spread in the running community, eventually reaching Becky Hall, a race director for promoter Mountain Sports International. Lexus was putting together a series of runsthis fall and she thought Palos Verdes’ coastal, all-ages race would be a perfect fit.
“It’s a beautiful course and the history of the event is really cool,” she said. “With everything Kiwanis has done with this event in 48 years, it would have been really sad to see it go.”
The race, still scheduled for Nov. 15, has been reincarnated as the Lexus LaceUp Running Series Presented by Equinox Palos Verdes Half Marathon. This year’s race will feature a 10K route in addition to the half marathon and 5K.
Lexus is underwriting the costs of the event and hopes to raise $10,000 to $25,000 for both the Kiwanis Club and nonprofit Back on My Feet Los Angeles, which helps those who are homeless get back to independent living.
The race is one of the biggest fundraisers for Kiwanis’ student scholarships every year, according to John Williams, who has chaired the event for the past two decades.
“It just got to be too much for us to cover, so Lexus really saved our bacon,” he said. “We would have gotten zero out of this, otherwise.”
Bonuses this year include free T-shirts, medals and a post-run brunch and Sierra Nevada beer. Chip timing — in which computer chips worn by runners track performance — will provide real-time results on monitors set up for spectators as well as an app for smartphones.
“Lexus wants to do a first-class event, so they’re adding some embellishments to make it a really nice run,” Williams said.
The half marathon and 10K start at 7 a.m. at Pelican Cove Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the 5K starts at 8:30 a.m. The longest route spans Wayfarers Chapel, the Point Vicente Lighthouse, Lunada Bay and the Paseo del Mar bluffs in Palos Verdes Estates. Organizers aim to have 1,200 runners sign up this year (1,000 finished last year), including the 100 who signed up before the race was initially canceled.
“It’s going to be a great run,” Williams said. “There won’t be as many people, so that’s an advantage, I suppose, and the amenities are going to be first-rate.”