Pyciors Get a Running Start on 12-Hour Race : Racing: The 24-hour version is gone, but the annual Orange event still draws participants who are crazy about the sport.

ORANGE —  When runners line up for the Orange 12-Hour Run Saturday at El Modena High School, an era will end.

The 12th annual event, which benefits the Canyon High School cross-country teams, will no longer feature a 24-hour run.

No more all-night monitoring of the runners for co-race directors Don Pycior and his wife, Kathy. No more running from sunrise-to-sunset-to-sunrise under the lights of Fred Kelly Stadium.

“This is still the only 12-hour run in the area,” Kathy Pycior said. “I think the kids are the only ones really disappointed. Since the race is just a day thing now, they can’t party all night.”

Budget cutbacks within the Orange Unified School District and the increasing popularity of the 12-hour race forced the Pyciors to cancel the 24-hour run.

Still, the 12-hour marathon madness continues with competition in both individual and relay team divisions.

With tents, cots and sleeping bags scattered about the football field, the participants run in a relaxed atmosphere, continuously running around the quarter-mile dirt track.

The runners change direction every few hours to help break the monotony and reduce the chance of injury to one side of the body.

“With a relay team, you wind up running about one mile every hour,” Kathy Pycior said. “So running about 12 miles in 12 hours, that’s not too much for the high school kids.

“It’s something to tell people that you’ve done,” she said. “It’s different, it’s crazy.”

How crazy?

In 1989, one runner completed 40 miles . . . while juggling three tennis balls the entire way. Another time, a runner tried to enter a dog in the race.

Former participants include Jack Rohde-Moe, a native of Norway. At age 58, Rohde-Moe, who smoked up to three packs of cigarettes a day, completed 110 miles in the Orange 24-Hour Run of 1987.

David Warady of Huntington Beach competed in the 12-hour race of ‘91, finishing fourth. The following summer, Warady ran across the country to win the TransAm ‘92, a 3,000-mile, 64-day footrace.

The mother-daughter tandem of Vicki Huffman of Acton and Pat DeVita of Granada Hills also has competed. One of DeVita’s ambitions is to run across the Sahara Desert.

Rob McNair of Huntington Beach is one of the favorites in this year’s race, which should have a field of about 30 individuals and more than 10 relay teams, Kathy Pycior said.

McNair and Warady had a friendly dinner wager on the 1991 race, but competition and breaking records is not what the 12-hour run is about.

“This isn’t a race ,” Kathy Pycior said. “It’s about having a good time. We don’t like to keep track of the records because this should be for everyone who likes to run.”

Don Pycior, who coaches cross-country at Canyon, started the event in 1982. He entered his first 24-hour run at Valencia High in 1977, and when that event folded, he started the Orange race.

“It just started as the fund-raiser, promoting it for the kids and within the community,” Kathy Pycior said. “Then it caught on with the adults. It’s fun, but it’s hard to explain. You kind of have to be there.”