Runner
won't let a mistake he made stop his patriotic quest
Meet
Bob Alessio. He's a bandit.
Not
in the rob-and-run sense. Just the run part.
Alessio
plans to compete in today's Pikes Peak Marathon, and has run about
1,000 miles - from Los Angeles to here - to do it.
He's
in Colorado Springs on a stopover in his patriotic quest to run from
L.A. to Boston, dedicating his journey to the victims and families
of the terrorist attacks.
As
a side trip, he planned to run up Pikes Peak. America's Mountain.
The mountain where Katharine Lee Bates stood atop the summit, gazed
upon those amber waves of grain, and wrote "America The Beautiful,"
one of the most stirring, patriotic songs in U.S. history.
Alessio's
timing was perfect. Or so he thought.
Turns
out the officials at the Pikes Peak Marathon won't let him in the
race.
Alessio,
58, tried to enter two months ago, but missed the June deadline by
a couple of days.
Understandable.
He was swamped with trying to plan and start his run, which began
in April. Because he doesn't have a TV or computer in his support
vehicle, Alessio wasn't aware the deadline was approaching.
"I
could have signed up in March. My fault," he said.
So
Alessio will run the race illegally, as one of a projected half-dozen
bandits who sneak in annually.
He
won't get a number. He won't get an official time, or an official
finisher's souvenir.
First-year
race director Ron Ilgen had a soft spot for Alessio, but he got outvoted
by the race's board of directors.
"As
much as I admire his cause, if you crack the door open you just open
it wider and wider as you go along," Ilgen said.
Others
don't agree with the decision.
"That's
just butt-stupid," said Matt Carpenter, defending marathon and
Ascent champion and Pikes Peak expert.
"It
bummed me out, yes," admitted Alessio, after some prying.
"But
I'm always running with a positive attitude. I wish I had a number.
I still hope I get one. People register late all the time."
Then,
trying to be cheerful, he said, "On the other hand, I recognize
the importance of having some kind of procedure."
Alessio
will don a pair of red, white and blue running shorts, and his T-shirt
with a red outline of the United States on it and "Run Across
America" splayed on the front.
He'll
take his place at the back of the 800 or so runners, where bandits
traditionally go.
Race
organizers have invited Alessio to speak at two pre-race gatherings,
and he will. They've apologized about not giving him a number. They're
agreeing to look the other way as he runs up the mountain.
"It's
just the greatest thing that I've been in contact with for a long
time," said Judie Game, 60, who met Alessio near Grand Junction
earlier this summer. She and a friend wound up manning his support
vehicle from there to here. "He's got such a purpose."
