J.J. Jauregui, owner of Azteca Mexican Restaurant in Garden Grove, is running his third at the Orange County Marathon on Sunday, May 5, on behalf of Acacia Adult Day Services.
His goal: to raise $10,000.
J.J. Jauregui, owner of Azteca Mexican Restaurant in Garden Grove, is running his third at the Orange County Marathon on Sunday, May 5, on behalf of Acacia Adult Day Services.
His goal: to raise $10,000.
Those wishing to help with J.J.'s goal can write a check to Acacia Adult Day Services, 11391 Acacia Parkway, Garden Grove, CA 92840. Acacia is a non-profit that has been providing services to Orange and Los Angeles counties for more than 33 years.
Last year, J.J. said he reached one of his goals by running his first marathon and did it in 5 hours 11 minutes.
This year, he ran in the Los Angeles Marathon with 24,000 competitors and improved his time, completing in 5 hours 4 minutes.
On May 5, his goal is to complete the marathon in 4 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. To date, he has run 20 half marathons and two full marathons.
He is very civic minded and cares about the city and Historical Main Street, where his restaurant participated in Acacia's Casino Nigh last year.
“He is always willing to help his neighbors where he can and he exemplifies the mission and vision of Acacia,” Acacia organizers said.
The race starts in Fashion Island in Newport Beach and goes to the Orange County Fairgrounds at the Event Center.
The marathon will include a full marathon, half marathon and, a day before, Wahoo's OC 5K Kids Run the OC.
J.J. plans on beginning the race at 5 a.m., so to cheer him across the finish line, you'll need to be at the Orange County Fair Grounds at approximately 9:30 a.m.
“This is the second time running for the Acacia Adult Care Services and last year was my first full marathon,” J.J. said. “March 17, I ran in the L.A. Marathon for HOPE … It's a wonderful feeling crossing that finish line. Only 5 percent of the world has finished a marathon.”
J.J. said that running has changed his life.
“When I took up competitive running approximately three years ago, I was going through a bad time financially and emotionally and there was a lot of drama going on in my family,” he said. “Since I'm already a drinker, I didn't want to drink more martinis so I took up competitive running to relieve the stress and now I'm a runner not a jogger.”
His goal is to finish the full marathon and to finish under 5 hours; to do that, he has been training five days a week with running and weight training.
“When you cross that finish line, every muscle, bone, your hair and eyes hurt because you've been using them for five hours. Every part of you hurts,” he said. “I even had a toe nail fall off. That's a badge of honor.”
J.J. said he is the only one in his family who doesn't have athletic genes, so what motivates him is running for Acacia Adult Day Services.
“Garden Grove means everything to me,” he said. “And Mallory Vega, the director of Acacia, who lives in Garden Grove, does a lot of good for the needy . They made me a poster about the marathon to have in my restaurant and also made me a brochure to hand out to help me ask for donations for the run. Every bit of the money goes to Acacia.”
Last year, Acacia raised $6,000.
“This year, we are a little behind in raising funds, but hopefully we can catch up,” J.J. said.
J.J. said after mile 20, to keep himself going, he begins to think about the beer at the finish line and “Elvis takes me to the finish line; I love Elvis and Elvis memorabilia.”
When J.J. was 6 years old, in 1962, he said he was watching his parent's black and white TV in their Long Beach home when the movie “Loving You” came on and they sang “Teddy Bear.”
“That's still my favorite song. I saw Elvis, the good looking guy, singing a great song and I was transfixed,” J.J. said. “Running and Elvis changed my life.”
J.J. said he doesn't have any musical talent but that he's going to learn how to dance.
He even has Elvis tattoos on his arms and has original Elvis posters, some signed, on the ceiling and walls of his Azteca Mexican Restaurant.
“People know I'm a real fan and proud of that — I'm an Elvis freak,” he said.
He has 33 rpm record albums on the wall above some of the booths in the restaurant from when he was growing up.
“It's a snapshot of my life for the last 21 years.”
J.J. said he started collecting Elvis memorabilia in 1992 when he put up one picture on table No. 1 in the bar area and it's grown from there.
There's no design of an Elvis restaurant, but now there is on Historic Main Street in Garden Grove.
“This was my aunt's restaurant; I took over in 1992 when she took ill for the first time,” J.J. said. “And I started by accident with one picture. That first picture was one I ordered from the National Enquirer magazine,” he said.
J.J. grew up knowing the restaurant business because his father ran the Mexico City Restaurant in North Long Beach for 52 years from 1951 to 2002.
His favorite booth is No. 13 because he can look over the entire restaurant and see Elvis looking over his aunt's picture on the wall across the room.
His aunt lived on “Elrey” street in Garden Grove, which means, “The King.”
J.J. said what he tries to run marathons for charity, but in San Diego in June he ran a full marathon just for himself.
“If HOPE and Acacia let me run for them every year, that's my goal,” he said. “I want to live to be 95 years old and run for the rest of my life and die at the finish line with a smile on my face.”
