Distance race brings Simi family closer together
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

CHALLENGE AHEAD- Mike Randolph is preparing to run in the Santa Clarita Half-Marathon with his daughters Dana, left, and Jodi. Jodi and Dana's mom, Lori Randolph, will be shouting her support.

Dana Randolph was running with her father, Mike, around their neighborhood in Simi Valley one summer day.

Mike Randolph had already competed in the Los Angeles Marathon three times and was thinking of calling it quits as he approached 50. But Dana expressed interest in running with him in a marathon, and her younger sister, Jodi, wanted to join them.

So instead of cheering their father on from the sidelines, the Randolph sisters will join their dad in Santa Clarita for a 13.2-mile half marathon on Sun., Nov. 4.

"I'm really looking forward to it. It's something I've never done before," said Dana, 21, a senior at California Lutheran University. "I'm excited to see how we do. I'm looking forward to finishing it and I'm happy that we're all doing it together."

Working in the construction business and leading an active lifestyle, Randolph said he didn't think too much about his health while in his 30s and 40s.

Then three years ago, his physician told him he needed to get on medication for high cholesterol or completely change his lifestyle. So Randolph just started running, and running, and running . . . and never stopped.

Three years ago the 6-foot-1 Randolph weighed 180 pounds. Thirteen weeks after he started running, he had dropped 15 pounds. He now weighs about 158. His cholesterol has dropped from 280 three years ago to under 200 without medication.

Randolph tries to run every other day, and cut his time in the L.A. Marathon from 6½ hours his first time out to 5½ hours in 2006.

Perhaps just as important as becoming healthier, Randolph gets to spend more time with his daughters, both of whom are busy college students.

"It's really cool to run with my girls," Randolph said. "I was going to try to stop running long marathons when the girls said they wanted to run with me at Santa Clarita. Dana said let's do it, and then Jodi said, "If you're going to do it, I'm going to do it.'"

The sisters started serious training with their father in midAugust. Randolph tries to run with Dana at least once a week in Thousand Oaks. When the sisters come home on weekends, they all train together.

"It's been really fun getting a chance to bond while getting in our training," said Jodi, 20, a junior at Loyola Marymount studying marketing with a minor in dance. "After a run, we sit in the spa together and get to socialize and talk about the day."

More important than making a certain time, the Randolphs said, is their determination to finish the race.

"We don't have a set goal for the time," said Dana, who ran 10 miles with her father last Sunday around Simi. They ran at a steady pace of one mile every 10½ minutes. "We just want to finish it and be able to walk the next day. We're trying to stay together no matter what, even if one of us needs to slow down and walk."

Besides training and going to school, the sisters remain busy with work and extracurricular activities.

Dana, who started cheerleading in elementary school with the Simi Valley Vikings, is now a cheerleader at Cal Lutheran. The Simi Valley High School graduate is a senator for the student government and a peer advisor to 17 freshmen in a mentoring program. Dana has already lined up a job at an accounting firm in Woodland Hills after graduation.

Jodi, who has studied dance since she was 2 years old, also teaches children ages 3 to 15 at Pam Rossi's Dance Ten studio in Moorpark.

"I love working with kids," Jodi said. "It's nice to be with kids and at a job where you don't sit at a desk, and instead you play with 3-year-olds who get a kick out of headshoulderskneesand-toes."

The junior also works in the student leadership and development office at LMU.

Jodi would like a job in marketing after college.

As the big date approaches, the Randolphs are all looking forward to the race and spending that time together.

"I'm so proud of their effort," said Lori Randolph, Mike's wife and the girls' mother. "I'll have to cheer them on this time."