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# Santa Monica Daily Press to poll readers on the 2003 California recall election
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/retired-marathoner-looks-for-a-new-team/
- Published: 2003-09-01T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:50:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Events, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

A retired Santa Monica attorney was so encouraged by a recent community event to raise cancer that he’s already started preparing for next year’s Relay for Life.

Jerry Condon, 72, knew nothing about the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life 24-hour event when he showed up at Santa Monica College’s Corsair Track this past July.

But he threw down $100 as a donation anyway, and walked around the track for an hour and a half with hundreds of community members who formed their own teams to raise money for cancer research.

Condon, a 20-year survivor of Leukemia and a 40-year veteran of marathon running, walked away from the event inspired to organize his own team. And he wants to do it now despite that next year’s event is 11 months away.

It’s also a chance to bring people together who enjoy health and fitness, as well as to resurrect the Santa Monica Track Club, which was once an elite group of marathon runners and Olympians that formed in the late 1960s, Condon said.

“Basically I want to deal with people who have the ‘lose it or use it’ (mentality) not the ‘no, pain no gain,’” he said.

Condon started running 40 years ago but gave it up in 1985 when his body told him to ease up.

He’s hoping to get between 20 and 40 people to meet at 5 p.m. every weekday and at 9 a.m. on Sunday on San Vicente Boulevard to train, bond as a strong team, and raise money for Relay for Life and the Santa Monica Track Foundation.

Joe Douglas, the current coach of the Santa Monica Track Club and former coach of Olympian Carl Lewis, will also be on hand from time to time to help train the Relay for Life team, Condon said.

The Relay for Life is an around the clock event that just finished its second year in Santa Monica and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fight against cancer. More than a dozen teams camped out at SMC and had at least one team member always walking around the track at all times.

Sonki’s Fitness, a new Santa Monica business that offers fitness training, raised the most money this year — nearly $6,000.

Condon hopes to raise at least that much and by starting early, his team could easily surpass it.

Participants can be any age and of any fitness level. Condon is asking people to meet at 5 p.m. on San Vicente Boulevard between 14th and 17th streets. For more information, call (310) 451-4139.

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![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090103-03_01.jpg)

(Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090103-03_02.jpg)

(Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)