A Placentia woman ran her 58th marathon Sunday in Orange County, fulfilling a goal she made in 2017 when her husband was shot and 58 people were killed at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas.
Christine Mayfield had stopped running marathons after the shooting, but the longtime runner eventually returned to the sport, deciding to honor the victims by reaching 58 marathons — one for each life lost.
“We realized how special that number was,” Mayfield said before completing Sunday’s OC Marathon in 4:52:29. “Fifty-eight lives didn’t come home like we did. It easily could have been 63.”
Mayfield attended the festival with her husband Lennie, daughter Anne Marie, son Charlie and his girlfriend, Bekah Scheussler, now his fiancée.
All five had been near the front of the stage, where the gunman aimed his fire, but Mayfield said she, her husband and daughter moved to the back when the area became crowded.
Carrie Barnette, who had been standing next to Scheussler, was among those who were shot and killed.
The 58-year-old Mayfield called it “an absolute honor” to have fulfilled her goal by running in 34 marathons since the shooting.
“It’s been a beautiful journey,” Mayfield said. “Just to know that hopefully the families and close friends of the 58 angels will know that their loved one will never, ever be forgotten.
“We know their stories. We love their big, beautiful, bold lives. And we hope to honor those lives in the way we spend our days.”
Mayfield emphasizes this moment isn’t about her.
“The spirit of the story is on the 58 angels and not about me,” Mayfield said. “I’m fortunate my story is still alive. I want their families to know we cherish them.”
The marathon’s field of approximately 3,600 people also included Tyler Schimpf, who pushed his roommate Hawken Miller in a wheelchair to raise awareness for CureDuchenne, a nonprofit organization that is seeking to find and fund a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, one of the most common and severe forms of muscular dystrophy.
“He’s a strong guy, and he just wanted to use the gift God has given him to help someone like me who couldn’t do anything like this on his own,” said Miller, a Newport Beach resident. “It’s a team effort. We’re going to eradicate this disease once and for all.”
Schimpf pitched in the San Francisco Giants organization from 2017-2019 and 2021-2022. Baseball’s minor leagues did not operate in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Xavier Smith of Lake Forest was the men’s winner in 2:23:41. Stephanie Mundt of Tempe, Arizona, was the women’s winner in 2:52:08.
“It was perfect weather, and the view of the ocean during the first half of the race was spectacular,” Mundt said after her first marathon victory.
The 26-mile, 385-yard marathon began at 5:30 a.m. in front of the VEA Newport Beach hotel, then went through Corona del Mar and the Newport Harbor area. The runners then entered Costa Mesa, passed the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, went around the South Coast Plaza and through Segerstrom High School.
The course continued for one mile in Santa Ana, then turned onto the Santa Ana River Trail for 1.5 miles, exiting at the Gisler foot bridge to run through the Mesa Verde neighborhoods and then the “Bird Streets.”
The race ended at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa.