'Monster mentality'

By Joseph Serna

July 31, 2008 12 AM PT

As the head-high waves crashed on the shore just off 10th Street, 10-year-old Lauren Castleton’s face was green.

Was it because she had to run there from the Balboa Pier, a mile jog in the heavy sand under the July sun, or that she now had to charge into those waves and swim the mile back to the pier?

No, Lauren’s face was green simply because she painted it that way, and she wasn’t alone. About 1,200 of her fellow junior lifeguards stepped into the water Thursday in all kinds of monstrous get-ups, from skull-painted faces or wrestling masks to pink hair with sparkles.

If you looked off the Newport Beach coast between Balboa and Newport piers Thursday morning, you might have seen a slow-moving stream of red, yellow and green swimming caps bobbing along the shore. For Newport Beach junior lifeguards and their families, its an annual “Monster Mile” competition to see who can run a mile and swim a mile the fastest.

“It’s like, ‘Whoa. A mile,’” said 11-year-old Sam Silverman, as energetic as ever after his swim with smeared paint streaming down his face.

“When you look at it [from the shore] it doesn’t look that far. But it’s so far swimming!” said 12-year-old Paris Mamatas.

Not all the junior lifeguards were able to participate in Thursday’s swim, organizers said. The waves were dangerously big for the youngest at the 10th Street starting point, so they could only look on.

Jake Carlis, 11, may have wished he were in that group.

“You’re just out there swimming and there’s these huge waves towering over you and crashing,” Carlis said with a smile.

Even Fire Chief Steve Lewis gave the Monster Mile a try.

“I don’t think I was competing. I was trying to survive,” he said with a laugh. “It’s pretty scary to turn around and see 1,200 kids on top of you. The kids run over you and say, ‘Sorry, sir.’”

With only two weeks left in the city’s junior lifeguard program, this is a culmination of most of the summer’s training, Lifeguard Capt. Jon Mitchell said. The eight-week program teaches kids the basics of ocean safety and first-aid.

The mile run and swim took on a monster theme about 10 years ago, Mitchell said. This year the finish line was inside a giant cut-out of a monster’s mouth.

The theme matches well with Castleton, the girl with the green face, who said the best part wasn’t the competition or how far she went, but simply that she finished. That’s what the Monster Mile is all about, Mitchell said.

“This is about having that monster mentality: relentless and won’t give up,” he said.

For more photos, click here.

RESULTS

Monster Mile Top Finishers for boys and girls:

A Division, 14 and 15 year olds

Blake Bogin – 33:50

Katie Polich – 30:15

B Division, 12 and 13 year olds

Christian Garkani – 28:40

Allie McCormick – 30:42

C Division, 10 and 11 year olds

Landon Theis – 31:58