Friday, December 18, 2015

Will the force be with Nick Arciniaga on February 13?

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Home / Race / Trials Blog / Will the force be with Nick Arciniaga on February 13?

December 17, 2015
When “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” comes alive at the Harkins Flagstaff 11 at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Nick Arciniaga will be there.
Of course, he will already have seen it in 3D at 7 p.m. Thursday, and he’s planning to see it a few more times with his family in California over the holidays. That likely will be just the beginning: He estimates that he’s seen the Original Trilogy—the first three Star Wars movies—at least 100 times.
And then there are the Expanded Universe series of novels, more than 100 of them—most of which he’s read.
Arciniaga, 32, is the #9 qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials, in a time of 2:11:47, just off the personal best of 2:11:30 he set as runner-up at the Chevron Houston Marathon in 2011. Later that year, he ran the marathon for Team USA at the IAAF World Championships, and in 2013 he was the USA Marathon Champion. The Trials will be his 19^th marathon, and he’s counting that experience as a huge plus as he heads for Los Angeles.
“This will be my best shot to make the Olympics, for sure,” he says, adding that he’s aiming to be in 2:09 shape. “I’ve been doing this for nine years, and still feel my best days are ahead of me.”
But, with apologies to R2-D2 and C-3PO, Arciniaga is no running robot. Walk into his house and you’ll see an R2-D2 trash can right by the door, used as a candy dish. Enter the kitchen and there’s a Death Star cookie jar over the fridge. Stay overnight and you’ll be greeted by a Death Star mural in the guest bedroom and a Boba Fett toilet seat in the guest bathroom. Say goodnight to Arciniaga knowing that when he goes to bed, he and his tolerant wife, Carolyn, will be watched over by a Boba Fett bobble-head.
The initial Star Wars movie came out in 1977, well before Arciniaga was born but just in time for his eventual parents to see it on one of their first dates. They became huge fans, and passed their fascination with all things galactic on to their children. Little did they know they were setting the stage for the family to cheer on Arciniaga as he won the inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon last January at Disneyland.
“I knew I had to run it,” he says. “It speaks to me more than anything else. That will be the race where I want to have a streak.”
Already, Arciniaga is contemplating the choice of whether to defend his title next month in an Under Armour singlet emblazoned with Darth Vader or in one displaying a Stormtrooper. In the 2012 Boston Marathon, he rocked a special singlet with a Rebel Alliance logo made for him by a former sponsor, and recalls the reaction as he briefly led the race. “To see an American guy running in front of the Boston Marathon in a Rebel Alliance singlet was pretty sweet to a lot of people,” he says.
When the native of Fountain Valley, CA—in Orange County, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles—toes the line for the Trials, he expects about 100 friends and family members cheering for him on the loop course. Just as they will be with him as he runs, so too, perhaps, will be the spirit of Jaina Solo, the daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo and a character from the novels whose personality he calls the closest to his own.
Presented with a passage about Jaina Solo from one of the Star Wars novels—“… like tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen. Always you shall be in the front rank, burning a brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends … Take comfort in the fact that, though you stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow that you cast”—Arciniaga said that he likes to think it describes him well.
Which could come in handy on February 13.