Runner dies near finish line

Jenny Marder

He was triumphant, steps away from beating his own record. But

Sunday’s Pacific Shoreline Marathon was one Anthony Porras would

never quite finish.

The 45-year-old runner fell to his knees moments from the end of

the 13.1-mile Pacific Shoreline half-marathon as he was racing his

girlfriend Lisa Beck to the finish line.

“He loved life, and I really feel he lived it to the fullest,”

said Beck, his girlfriend of five years.

He died at his happiest, she said: at the beach, in motion.

“If he was going to go, I feel this was the best way for him,” she

said.

Porras was pronounced dead at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

in Newport Beach at 10 a.m., said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the

Orange County Sheriff’s Department. An autopsy showed that he died of

heart disease, although the Huntington Beach resident had no history

of heart problems. Porras was determined that the two beat their

previous time at the Long Beach Marathon, 2:13, Beck said.

“Right before it happened, we were right toward the finish line,

right there,” Beck said. “We probably would have been 2:06 or 2:07.”

To friends, Porras was an emblem of good health.

“It just floored me,” close friend and co-worker Kevin Smith said.

“He was in top shape, he worked out constantly, and he rode his bike

to the beach almost every night.”

Porras was an athlete and a creative cook, with an avid interest

in auto racing and old cars -- he owned a 1963 red convertible Falcon

that he treated like a child. He loved fishing, softball, sailing,

hiking, water-skiing, anything that got him outside and moving.

“He was real active,” Beck said. “He couldn’t hold still. Even

talking on the phone, he would pace, just walk around and around.”

He urged people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, Beck said,

citing a Thanksgiving camping trip that Porras talked her into last

year.

“I didn’t want to go camping, ‘cause I’m a hotel type of gal,”

Beck said. “But I just had such a good time. We barbecued the turkey.

We were supposed to go in a couple weeks -- camping again.”

Just weeks before, Porras had been promoted to assistant manager

of facilities in the social sciences department at UC Irvine. Before

that, he had worked for three years as a maintenance worker.

“He got his first new paycheck Friday,” Smith said. “He was all

excited, you know.”

Friends praised Porras for a spirited personality and lively sense

of humor.

“He laughed a lot. That’s what I liked about him,” Smith said. “He

and I just laughed all the time.”