Riverside, Calif., April, 2000--In 490 B.C., Greek forces routed the Persian army at Marathon. A soldier named Pheidippides was sent back to Athens to inform the king. After making the arduous 24-mile trek, the weary runner gave up the good news and then promptly gave up the ghost, collapsing dead at the king's feet. Here's hoping that Roger Handysides is in better shape than that guy.

The British-born Handysides is chair of Educational Psychology and Counseling department at La Sierra University. On April 16, the college professor will be back in his native country to run the London Marathon. More than 30,000 runners are expected for the widely proclaimed "world's biggest" marathon.

Seems that neither Pheidippides' sad tale nor the notoriously fickle English springtime weather is enough to intimidate Handysides, who has taught at La Sierra since 1990. Though he has run extensively in the last several years, the London Marathon will be his first full marathon - all 26 miles and 385 yards of it.

He will run as one of the event's "gold ribbon runners," so named for a runner's efforts to raise money for a designated charity. Handysides is being sponored by London's Multiple Sclerosis Society, for which he raised more than $1,000. His sister, Cynthia Benz, has lived with the degenerative muscle disease for 20 years and is secretary of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in London.

The marathon starts in Greenwich (home to "Greenwich Mean Time") and makes it way through the picturesque streets of London, runs along the storied Thames River and concludes at the Houses of Parliament, site of the majestic Big Ben clock tower.

Handysides said he expects to complete the marathon in just under four hours, but it turns out that the timeclock is not the only measure he's running against. Since he celebrated his 50th birthday this year, the La Sierra professor said he has something to prove - and he's got 26.2 miles of painful pavement to prove it in.

Pheidippides would be proud.

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