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FUTURE AFOOT: ELSIE ALLEN GRADUATE CELEDONIO RODRIGUEZ, A RISING STAR IN DISTANCE RUNNING,
HASN'T FORGOTTEN HIS ROOTS OR HIS FAMILY

DATE: Sunday, November 6, 2005
BYLINE: By RALPH LEEF
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
PAGE: D1

Celedonio Rodriguez is racing ahead in life, just as he has since that day 13 years ago when he got
on a bus in Mexico for an illegal three-day journey to Santa Rosa.
First there was a language to learn, then the intricacies of a foreign school system. He took on
athletics, becoming a top distance runner at Elsie Allen High School. Next came a college career, fueled
by a scholarship to Adams State in Alamoso, Colo.
Last month, at age 24, he took another leap forward by winning the prestigious Boston Half-Marathon
against international competition. His coach believes Rodriguez has the potential to make the U.S.
Olympic team as a marathon runner.
``I think he's that good,'' Adams State track coach Damon Martin said. ``He showed in Boston that he
can run with world-class runners.''
Rodriguez is proud of his athletic achievements, but he's equally proud of other things, especially
his mother, Mariana, in Santa Rosa. And his three siblings. And, most recently, his U.S. citizenship.
Rodriguez approached his recent swearing-in ceremony in Denver in businesslike fashion, without emotion.
But that quickly changed.
The woman sitting a row in front raised a clenched fist. A man to his right squared his shoulders and
looked straight ahead as tears rolled down his cheeks.
Rodriguez didn't think he would cry. He had convinced himself that this was just a formality after all
the paperwork and testing. But the tears came as the 1999 Elsie Allen graduate pledged his allegiance to
the United States.
``All of a sudden, as I watched others around me, I realized what what was happening and I started
living the moment,'' Rodriguez recalled. ``A lot of things started going through my mind.''
Like that morning in Mexico when he got on a bus with his mother, sister and an older brother.
``I'll never forget the faces of our friends when we were leaving town,'' Rodriguez said. ``Seeing them
waving and trying to figure if I would ever see them again ... it chokes me up even now thinking about it.
The life I knew was gone, just like that.''
Mariana Solis de Rodriguez had a single-minded goal when she decided, against her husband's wishes, to
cross the border illegally: to get her children the best possible education. And her son, now a senior at
Adams State, has never lost sight of her efforts.
``He's (Celedonio) always thanking me for my sacrifices, for deciding to come to this country,'' said
Solis. ``I tell him it was not a sacrifice but an obligation a parent has.''
Rodriguez feels his own obligation. That's why he isn't getting carried away with his distance running
successes, even though the Oct. 9 Boston win carried a $5,000 check.
In only his third half-marathon, Rodriguez beat Kenya's Samuel Ndereba and Morocco's Abderrahim Haji
in the event that drew more than 3,000 runners. Rodriguez is a three-time NCAA Division II national
champion and 14-time cross country and track and field all-American. He appears to have unlimited potential
as a distance runner, but his focus remains on completing his education.
``I want to be a secondary high school teacher in math and Spanish,'' Rodriguez said. ``I'm living the
moment and right now -- the most important thing is to get through school.
``I don't know if I have a career in running. I enjoy it and if something comes out of it, good, but
I'm not expecting anything.''
Coach Martin wasn't surprised to hear his star athlete downplay the shocking Boston victory.
``Cele is very humble,'' Martin said. ``But he won't be a secret much longer. He's about to explode onto
the running scene.''
Rodriguez refuses to look far into the future. Right now he's happy he won enough money to pay some bills.
Having used his NCAA athletic eligibility, the fifth-year collegian no longer receives an athletic
scholarship and describes himself as just another ``broke student'' who must pay his way as he attempts to
add a math minor to his resume.
``The money means I can get my car fixed, which is great because it started snowing here and now I can
drive my car instead of riding my bike this winter,'' Rodriguez said.
He said his mother has dedicated her life to her children and to helping support them -- she has worked
at a plastics factory in Cloverdale and a clipboard assembly plant in Windsor and assembled keyboards in
Rohnert Park -- and so she isn't fully aware of his athletic accomplishments.
``She knows I run, but she has no idea'' of my achievements, Rodriguez said.
But Solis knows more than her youngest son realizes. She said his successes have made her extremely happy,
as have the strides made by all her children since that night she hired a young trafficker to get her and
the three youngest across the border in Tijuana. Her oldest son, Gerardo, 17 at the time, had crossed the
border by himself a year earlier.
Solis and the three children who arrived with her were able to petition for legal residency through her
husband, who had legal status in the United States.
Her husband eventually returned to Mexico. Her daughter, Mariana, is a criminal-psychology student at
Sacramento State University and her second-eldest son, Juan Pablo Rodriguez Solis, is a truck driver for a
fish distributing company in Santa Rosa. Gerardo, also a driver, is taking electronics courses at SRJC.
Solis said Celedonio's athletic talent became very clear to her when she and other family members
attended a high school championship race in Fresno. He was all alone in front in the final stretch.
``He didn't know that we were going to be there,'' she said. ``I was hiding so that he wouldn't see me.
We didn't want him to be nervous.
``When he won, I went running toward him and when we saw each other we both started crying. He asked me,
`Why did you come, now I'm crying?'''
Staff writer Martin Espinoza contributed to this story. Contact staff writer Ralph Leef at 521-5268 or
rleef@pressdemocrat.com.

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