Running and swimming on a Gray morning

William Lobdell

As annual Newport Beach traditions go, the Christmas Boat Parade is

spectacular, and the Fourth of July -- from the red, white and blue

bikinis and surf trunks along the boardwalk to the fireworks show

above the Newport Dunes -- are pure fun. But neither compares to one

of its lesser known cousins, the Gray Lunde Ironman Race, an event

put on each August by the Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard Program.

It’s a tough race with about seven miles of running and another

mile of swimming, from the Santa Ana River jetty to near the Wedge.

Despite its grueling nature, it attracts hundreds of the heartiest

junior lifeguards, ages 8 to 15, who want to challenge themselves

with a test of endurance.

As the Ironman started Saturday, the beach was filled with tanned,

bleach-blond boys and girls in lifeguard-red swimsuits, nervous about

whether they had what it takes to complete the course. Alongside of

them were Newport guards and a dozen or so mom and dads who competed

side by side with the kids, offering encouragement throughout the

race.

If that wasn’t enough, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters

lined the sand and stood on the Newport and Balboa piers, cheering

for every ironman who passed by.

Part of the beauty of the race is that back-of-the-pack

competitors get louder cheers than the winners. Which puts a bigger

lump in your throat: A yacht decked on in a bazillion Christmas

lights with Santa Claus waving from its stern? A hometown Fourth of

July parade with little kids’ bicycles decorated in red, whit and

blue bunting? Or a 9-year-old girl smiling as she crosses the finish

line of an hour-and-45-minute race that included four swims a quarter

mile out into the chilly Pacific and back.

I’ll take the girl every time.

The Ironman is named after Gray Lunde, a popular and humble young

man who died eight years ago during a water polo practice at Newport

Harbor High School. He was a freshman, all of 14 years old and had

heart problems.

Gray, a longtime junior lifeguard, excelled at the Ironman, and

naming the race in his honor is typical of the thoughtfulness and

family-first attitude of the Newport Junior Lifeguard Program, under

the direction of Reenie Boyer.

Under a rainbow of balloons at the finish line, competitors and

spectators cheer on those still in the race. As the time the last

ironman approached the finish Saturday -- more than two hours after

the start -- the clapping and yelling and hooting reached its

loudest. The little guy, about 10 years old, had a big smile on his

face, like he’d just won the Los Angeles Marathon.

Afterward, the newly minted ironmen and their supporters gathered

in the sand outside Junior Lifeguard Headquarters near the Balboa

Pier. (By the way, can someone in the city find money to get them out

of the rickety double-wide trailer on the beach and into a building

worthy of the program?)

The awards ceremony honors not only the top five finishers in each

division, but each person in the race. The day’s highlight is always

when a member of Gray’s family takes the microphone.

This year, it was his older brother Ty, a former Newport lifeguard

who is now a paramedic-firefighter with the city. He competed in the

Ironman for the first time in years, powering his bulked-up body

through the course in about 90 minutes.

“I won the over 225-pound division,” he joked.

With his father, Bob, manning the video camera, Ty told the kids a

little bit about his brother. How he always did well in the Ironman,

but never bragged about it. How Gray and the rest of the Lundes saw

the race like a concentrated slice of life: It was tough, it was

thrilling, and encouragement helped you get through it. But when you

crossed the finish line -- no matter how many people were in front of

you -- you were a winner.

On a personal note, each year I try to do the Ironman with at

least one of my boys. I do it because of Gray. I remember, as editor

of the Pilot then, how shocking his death was -- to his family and

friends, the community and to me.

Gray’s Ironman race reminds me annually to live in the moment with

my boys, to love them, hug them, encourage them, appreciative them.

The amount of time we have with each other is unknown. We always say

that, don’t we, without meaning it. Gray allows me, for at least one

day each August, to live it.

This year, my 11-year-old Tristan competed. It’s a thrill to do a

difficult race running and swimming alongside your son or daughter

and watching them overcome the obstacles. The annual event also makes

for an easy measure of your kid’s development. The first year Tristan

did the race, he was, along with me, an unofficial entry. He managed

to keep up with his big brother on the run, but at age 7, he couldn’t

make the entire swim. So I towed him around the buoys.

Saturday, though I could swim faster, he had somewhere over the

years become a better runner than me. So as we got out of the water

after our last swim, he smiled at me and took off. I couldn’t catch

him.

I told the story to Bob Lunde after the race, and he said the same

thing happened to him when Gray was about the same age. During the

annual Harbor Heritage Run, Gray suddenly appeared at his shoulder

with a smile on his face, and he was gone. It was the moment that the

son passed the father, and the dad loved every minute of it, each

detail still fresh in his mind.

It’s a lesson for all of us parents.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: William Lobdell, editor of the Daily Pilot for 10

years, is now a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. His e-mail address

is [email protected].