Rod Dixon
For 17 years, Rod Dixon was one of the best middle distance runners in the World. He is an Olympic medalist, two time World Cross Country Championship medalist and the 1500m Champion of the United States, France, Great Britain and New Zealand. He ran the fifth fastest time for the 1500m in History in 1974, 3.33.89.
In the Pacific Conference Games, he won two Gold medals and is a two time World Masters Champion.
Rod Dixon won the 1983 New York City Marathon in the tenth fastest time in History, 2.08.59 and was the #1 rated Roadrunner in the United States, he is a four time Olympian and was a Coach for the 1996 Fiji Olympic Team.
Salya Mohamedy
Salya has been a member of Roadrunners since 1994 and has completed thirty-three marathons. To give back to the sport and to Roadrunners, she served as a Pace Leader for Group 6 for three years and as a Senior Pace Leader for two of those years.
In 2004, Salya took on the challenge to coach and administer the Pace Leader program and was in charge of the Run Only and Run/Walk groups. She is now concentrating on the Run Only program. Along with her fellow coaches, she is committed to bringing forth one of the best distance training programs available to the athletes and to elevate the Los Angeles Roadrunners to the highest level.
Salya attended the University of Southern California and is a huge fan of Trojan Football. She also enjoys traveling off the beaten path, good books, professional football and she is a gourmet chef in her own kitchen. Along with achieving her personal goals in life, she is committed to volunteer work and outreach programs.
Gary Deitsch
Coach Gary Deitsch brings an extensive running, coaching and professional background to the Los Angeles Roadrunners. Gary started his coaching career in 1968, completing his Master’s Degree in Physical Education at Pepperdine University. After teaching and coaching in the L.A. Unified School District for several years, Gary entered into his family business where he eventually progressed to the position of President and CEO of Westrim Crafts. Gary, while using his coaching and leadership talents, made his business one of the most successful in the country.
Gary has run 21 marathons, including 7 L.A. and 5 Boston. In 1996, he joined the LARR and completed his first marathon. In 1999, he served as the first Pace leader Captain. Gary’s leadership, foresight and coaching skills helped guide the LARR program to its current reputation and making it the outstanding marathon pace group training program in the country.
Gary is married to his wife of 42 years, Barbara, the Run/Walk Coach. They have 2 daughters, Dr. Laurie Lazarou, a Harvard Dental School graduate and Endodontist, and Lindsey Deitsch, current Pace Leader and a recent UC Berkeley graduate and Nutritionist. Son-in-law Nick was also a Pace leader. The Deitsch family has run an accumulation of 50 plus marathons.
Ginger Williams
Prior to joining the LA Marathon Staff as the Director of Community Relations in 2009 Ginger was with the National AIDS Marathon Training Program for 7 years were she was responsible for recruiting and training over 3000 charity runners using the Run/Walk method with a 98% finishing rate. These runners ranged from the advanced runner to the coach potato!
Ginger is very passionate about the Run/Walk method particularly when it help improved her marathon time by almost 40 minutes in one year. She has 10 marathons under her belt and will be returning to the Roadrunners for the second year as a sub pace leader.
Bob Hickey
For the past 18 years, Coach Bob Hickey has been the Walking Coach for the Roadrunners. He is a former race walker and distance coach with the AAU, TAC and USA Track and Field. Bob is a Master’s Track and Field Official and has been an IAAF Race Walk Judge for the past 28 years. Bob is a retired Sergeant from the LAPD, who truly believes that service to the community is integral to a healthy and successful society. He was a member of the LAPD’s relay team that successfully completed 3 major runs across the country, and he was one of the runners who set a Guinness Book World Record Run of 3,871.6 miles in a little over 19 days.
Bob has run and walked in his words, “More than my share of marathons.” He qualified for the Boston Marathon in 1972, with a time of 2:52:00. He was injured shortly after qualifying for Boston and could not train for two and half months. He ran through his fastest 15 miles, following the women’s winner in 1:29:00 and had to fall back. He continued on, walking and still finished in 3:30. His best time walking, which is far from any record, is 4:09. Walking is the longest event in the Olympic Games at 50K and the record is 3:35 range, which is under 7:00 per mile. It would equate to just a little over three (3) hours for a full marathon.
Bob has also done New York, as a guest of Mr. Bill Burke, former President of the L.A. Marathon. He claims that their time was not the fastest, but giving credit due, Dr. Burke never quit, finishing in 5:36:46 for his first marathon.
Pat Connelly had been his coach for forty (40) years and he is and always will be, indebted to him for his leadership and guidance.
Lindsey Goldbloom
Lindsey Goldbloom joined the L.A. Roadrunner program in August 2001 as a participant. After finishing the 2002 Los Angeles Marathon—her first—she decided she wanted to play a more vital role in the LARR Walking Program and approached Coach Hickey with her ideas. Under her leadership, the Walking Program has expanded from two to five pace groups and increased the membership with an impressive number of walkers. Lindsey has trained to improve her racewalking technique with Coaches Bob Hickey, Philip Dunn, Dave McGovern, and Elaine Ward. She has generously shared her knowledge and inspired her fellow Roadrunners, not least by winning the LAM female racewalking division in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Lindsey is married to Jeff Goldbloom and they have two boys, Noah and Alex. Jeff and Lindsey’s mom are both members of the L.A. Roadrunners, and she hopes her sons will participate in the coming years. They have helped at the water stations, and Alex has attended track workouts and completed a 5k race. Noah’s focus has been soccer.
Lindsey has a B.A. from UCLA. Professionally, she is a Human Resources Manager.
Her dedication and leadership, combined with a magnetic personality, have helped make the L.A. Roadrunners’ Walking Program the elite program it is today.
Barbara Deitsch
Barbara has been involved with the L.A. Roadrunners for the past 14 years and has been a pace leader with both Run and Run/Walk Groups. She has run 14 marathons, 6 of which were L.A. and 2 Boston. She has been Chairman of our after-marathon party for the past 8 years, and will do so again in 2010.
This year Barbara will again be Coach of our Run/Walk program and is looking forward to another successful year. Barbara got involved in running because she got tired of waiting around for Gary to finish his marathons and decided she would join him.
Besides running, Barbara plays tennis, loves to travel and enjoys reading. She is the wife of Gary, one of the LARR coaches and lives in Woodland Hills. She and Gary have 2 daughters, Laurie and Lindsey (Lindsey is one of our Senior Pace Leaders of). Laurie and her husband Nick have given us 2 adorable grandchildren, Alex and Sophia.
Ken Itahara
Ken Itahara is the Program Manager for the L.A. Roadrunners / Inland Empire training group in Chino Hills. He has been with the Roadrunners training program since its inception in the Inland Empire in the fall of 2005 training for the 2006 LA Marathon.
Ken has led a pace group every year since the 2006 LA Marathon and has enjoyed each pace group that he leads. He feels there is a high level of satisfaction, achievement, grace and pride in not only completing a marathon but a higher level of fulfillment in leading a group to the finish line.
Eddie Romero
In addition to his coaching contribution to the Inland Empire Roadrunners, Coach Eddie is also the head coach for the Inland Empire Running Club. His first experiences with running were viewed not as a sport, but as conditioning, as he completed miles of training as part of the police academy and participation in collegiate sports. After becoming a police officer, he continued to participate in competitive sports and medaled three times over the years at the Police Olympic Summer Games. As with many people, however, age and lack of time crept up, and he slowly gained weight over the years. Finally, in his early 40’s, Eddie realized he was getting out of shape. He then became re-involved with running as a way to improve his fitness and lose weight. Through a healthy diet and running, Eddie successfully lost and kept off over 50 pounds. During the next few years, he became an avid marathon and half-marathon runner as well as a great coach and mentor to others. Over the last seven Los Angeles Marathon Training Seasons, Eddie has successfully coached hundreds of runners to fulfill their marathon dreams!
Coach Eddie’s personal experiences give him a great deal of understanding of what it’s like to be a beginner in the sport. What Eddie feels he has most to offer is “a second chance” for people coming into running. Now at 51, he has the experiences of an older runner, but still knows what it is like to be at the start of a running program. He also knows what it takes to succeed and does whatever is in his power to encourage and motivate others to do the same! Eddie’s enthusiasm, combined with his wealth of knowledge, patience, and desire to see others reach their personal levels of success, makes him a true blessing to the sport and to the Inland Empire Roadrunners Program.