Count Down, Psych Up and Get Wheel!

When Jeremy NC Newman, a personal trainer, puts clients through their paces, he often uses the “countdown” technique to help them endure. “Only four more!” he’ll say as an exerciser struggles to finish a set of abdominal crunches or another set of repetitions with free weights. He gets much more effort out of exercisers this way, Newman says, than by counting up, which can make people want to give up sooner.

Newman will use the same strategy when he joins more than 100 wheelchair athletes in the City of Los Angeles Marathon on March 14, his second as a wheelchair athlete and sixth marathon overall. Says Newman, 31, of Reseda: “Counting down allows me to think the number of miles to go is not as great.”

The countdown strategy along the 26.2-mile course is also used--especially after mile 17--by Ellen Stohl, 34, of Northridge, who plans to compete in the wheelchair race for the fifth time and hopes to break 4 hours, bettering last year’s 4:08 finish.

“At 17 miles,” she says, “you’re out of double digits in the number of miles you have to go. It’s kind of like, ‘Whew, I can do this. I have almost done twice what I have to go.’ ”

Another wheelchair athlete, Richard Radford, 39, an El Segundo computer programmer, admits that his preparation for this year’s event--his 14th L.A. Marathon, 17th overall--has been more mental than physical.

“I’ve only been in a racing chair twice since the last [L.A.] marathon,” he says. Still, he is hoping to come in at about 3 hours, the same finish time as in years past.

The secret to his high hopes despite his lack of training?

“It’s a very natural movement,” he says. “I look on it as a Sunday stroll with lots of people running and screaming for me.”

Like other wheelchair athletes, Radford says he must call up the most control when going downhill.

“The scariest scenario is going downhill, when the runners have caught up to the wheelchair athletes, who begin the race before them.”

The water stations can be especially precarious because of the throngs of racers and volunteers. Radford’s simple solution is to slow down. “It’s much better to finish with a few more minutes than to hit someone.”

Pride plays its part in Radford’s endurance too.

“After the third L.A. Marathon, I told my wife, Candi, that I’d do the marathon every year until I’m 88 or I’m old, whichever comes first. So if I don’t do it, it’s like admitting I am old.”

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Another marathon event, the 25-mile bike tour, is often regarded by non-cyclists as less strenuous than running or walking the marathon or competing in the wheelchair race. But veteran cyclists say they still rely on endurance strategies for the bike course, which is expected to draw about 15,000 this year.

“About midpoint, you start to realize how far 25 miles is,” says Troy Sheesley, 36, of Lakewood, an automotive technical specialist who plans to compete in the tour for the third time.

“You start to feel a little fatigue. So at 12 miles, I say to myself, ‘Hey, I am at the halfway point. I can turn around and go home, but it’s the same distance if I keep going and finish.’ ”

If that strategy falls short, being passed by someone he knows usually gets Sheesley pedaling harder. Or, he also thinks about the meal he’ll have soon after crossing the finish line, eating as much and whatever he likes.

Senior Walk

For the second time, the City of Los Angeles Marathon will also include a two-mile Senior Walk on March 13 at 8:30 a.m. Meant for people 62 and older and their family members, the Senior Walk course winds through the Los Angeles Zoo. There is no fee, but reservations are required by March 1. For a registration form, call (800) 978-7788.