When searching for the Carlsbad 5000’s soul, check Bailey Benton’s soles.
“If we can see the bottom of her shoes,” Tricia Benton said. “We know she’s very happy.’’
We’re pleased to meet Tricia, Bailey’s mother. She leads a group on Sunday’s Carlsbad 5K that never leaves a dry eye in its wake.
“I was raised to give the shirt off my back for others,’’ the elder Benton said.
Benton does better in connecting athletes with special needs to those with special hearts. The latter push the former at road races, and good luck deciding who is having more fun.
Benton resides in Carlsbad and is the ringleader of the runners and their helpers, as the Southern California ambassador for Ainsley’s Angels. It’s a nonprofit organization that puts wind under people’s wings, especially those needing a little extra grace.
“We probably do a race a month, from San Diego to Los Angeles,’’ Benton said. “Our goal is to get them off the sidelines and to the finish line.’’
That includes some of the most scenic 3.1 miles in North County, as runners, walkers and yes, pushers, flock to Carlsbad’s streets. It’s an event that has few peers and abides by its slogan of the world’s fastest 5K, drawing elite runners and 8,000 others in a series of races for all ages and abilities.
Standards were set to be shattered, and Benton’s brigade will do just that on Sunday. After filling 28 seats last spring, it’ll have 35 chairs covering the course, a new high.
“This is my hometown,’’ Benton said, proudly. “I wanted a record turnout.”
On any given weekend, the group puts in the road work. Bailey Benton, an eighth-grader at Carlsbad’s Valley Middle School, has participated since 2018. She’s completed 12 marathons, 25 half-marathons and enough other distances to soar her medal haul to 150 and counting.
“She absolutely loves these runs,’’ Benton said. “She’s non-verbal, but it’s very easy to see when she is happy. Her feet fly up in the air and she slaps her hands.”
It matches the back slaps to those supplying the love and energy, with the questions from well-wishers on and along the courses usually the same.
“That is really cool” and “How can I help?”
For those lending a hand through their feet to those challenged to walk or run, the benefits are countless.
“For a lot of the runners, it puts them in a new element,’’ Benton said. “They are running for somebody else.”
“Being a mother myself, I absolutely love that I get to be a part of getting Bailey across the finish line while her mom beams with love and pride watching her collect another medal to add to her collection,” Smith said.
It takes a bounty to keep the tires rolling, with Benton estimating that the runners’ wheelchairs average about $5,000 each. The group received a generous donation from a Huntington Beach road race recently and it is always appreciative of any support.
The tireless Benton tipped her cap to Cardiff’s John and Jean Smith, the Carlsbad 5K owners, for embracing the wheelchair runners.
Benton, who learned to serve others through her mother, Maureen Simons, is also active in other Carlsbad special needs programs. She may not give you the shirt off her back, but we know underneath it is a heart of gold.
“I was taught to help the underdog,” Benton said.
Go over and cheer her pink-clad clan at the Carlsbad 5K. Give those runners, and their helpers, a high-five as well.
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports.
