Riverside, Calif., May, 2000--Whatever happened to Roger Handysides?

Last we heard, the La Sierra professor of educational psychology and counseling was training for a run in the London Marathon. The English native planned on celebrating his 50th birthday in a most unorthodox fashion: by putting his body to the ultimate physical test. (And proving, at least among the more sedentary on campus, that he needed counseling.) April 16 was to be his day of reckoning - just Handysides and 33,000 other runners pounding the storied streets of London and its picturesque environs. Well the results are in. Handysides is alive and well, and it turns out the La Sierra professor put in a right respectable showing (to use what sounds like a British expression).

No, he wasn't ever really in sight of Antonio Pinto, the Portuguese runner who won the marathon and turned in a course record at just over two hours and six minutes (20:06:36, to be exact). Of course, first place would have been nice. But 11,197th place meant Handysides finished in the top third and met his personal training goal of four hours for a marathon.

All along the 26-mile course, crowds cheered on the passing runners, Handysides said. Past smoky pubs, quaint stores and famous landmarks, runners made their way to the finish line in central London. The legs might have been weary by mile 22, but the scenery was straight out of a Michelin guidebook: the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and a finish in the sylvan fields of St. James Park.

"My legs were getting pretty tight toward the end, but all of the cheering helped a lot of us to make it," Handysides said. Turns out his pain was all for a worthy cause. Running as a "gold ribbon runner" on behalf of the London Multiple Sclerosis Society meant the swift-footed professor was able to raise $4,000 for the organization.

Back in the California, he's got a photo album of memories and a London Marathon medal to wear when the occasion seems appropriate. But he said he's still not certain about repeating the feat for his 51st birthday. Will he run it again?

"That's kind of like asking a woman who's just given birth if she'll have another baby," he said. "You'll have to ask me a few weeks from now."

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Roger Handysides' e-mail is rhandysi@lasierra.edu.