A spirited success

Luis Pena

Size and stamina took a back seat to spirit Sunday, when more than

5,000 runners of all ages came to work up a sweat and pound the

pavement at the 21st annual Spirit Run at Fashion Island.

PTA leaders from Anderson, Newport Coast, Lincoln, East Bluff and

Harbor View elementary schools spent a year planning the event with

the help of Kinane Events.

The organization knows how to put the races together and keeps the

schools on track, said Dina Mead, the chairwoman for Andersen

Elementary School.

“The money goes to the elementary schools, to all the different

things that the PTA basically funds which are: teacher’s aids,

computers, art, music -- all the things that we’ve lost in the public

schools,” Dina Mead said.

Of the 5,000 runners, 2,600 came from the schools involved through

sign-ups of students, parents and neighbors.

The event included a 10K run, 5K run and a 5K family walk. There

were also stroller 5K, mile, half-mile and quarter-mile races split

into age categories, along with a toddler trot for children under 3.

“It’s good for the community and exciting to be here,” said Marco

Ochoa, Orange Coast College track and cross country coach.

Ochoa would normally be running an event like this, but he decided

to volunteer instead.

“As a coach, it makes me feel good because it shows that there are

a lot of people involved in running,” Ochoa said.

Lou Silverman of Newport Beach has been running the event with his

family for 10 years and thoroughly enjoys the race because it’s for a

worthwhile cause and a well-run event. As soon as the event’s date is

released, he makes sure his family circles the day on their calendar.

Mary Stayart of Rancho Santa Margarita pushed her two children in

a stroller during the race, while her husband, Todd Stayart, took

over when the course went downhill.

“It was a lot of fun,” Mary Stayart said. “[My children] talked to

me most of the way around and we tried to chase the bananas and just

basically talked the whole way and made it a family event.”

But the race had a special meaning in one man’s heart. Organizer

Dina Mead’s husband, Jamie Mead, 44, ran with a new heart. He

received a heart transplant from an 18-year-old six months before. He

had ventricular tachycardia, which causes the heart to pump

inadequate levels of blood through the body.

“It’s been a great milestone for me,” Jamie Mead said. “Six months

ago, I couldn’t walk up two flights of stairs and today, I ran a 5K

and I didn’t walk.”

It was only after he began running that he realized he was finally

in good health.

He ran the 5K with his 14-year-old daughter Christi, who beat him.

Mead vowed that he would return next year and maybe beat her.

“I’m very happy because I never thought that he would be able to

run this soon after the heart transplant,” Christie said. “I never

thought that I would be able to run with him again.”

* LUIS PENA is the news assistant and may be reached at (949)

574-4298 or by e-mail at luis.pena@latimes.com.