THEIR GIFT IS A RUNNING TRIBUTE.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

To the casual observer, nothing much will seem different about one of the sets on the April 5th episode of ABCs ``The George Lopez Show.'' Most people won't bother to look closely enough to see that two new jerseys will be hanging from the walls at Tipsy's sports bar, a popular hangout for the characters on the show.

Right next to an Artis Gilmore basketball jersey, there will be a soccer jersey with the last name ``Hanson'' on the back. On the opposite wall, another soccer jersey with the last name ``Johnson,'' will be hung.

To the average viewer, they will barely draw a second glance. But Frank Pace, the former soccer coach of Jessica Hanson and Jenna Johnson, and a producer on the show where Johnson worked as a production assistant, will notice them.

So will former teammate Lauren Johnson, former coach Kathy Desmond and all the countless others who loved Hanson and Johnson.

The jerseys won't bring them back. Neither will running the L.A. Marathon as a tribute to them this Sunday, as 40 of their friends, family and co-workers will do.

They are still grieving. Some will always be.

So they have done the only thing they can, when there are still only tears and no answers. They will honor them. Not with a plaque or ceremony. But with action. By completing what they started.

Last August, Hanson and her father, Kelly, were killed in a car accident. She was 20.

Last December, Jenna Johnson died of a non-detectable congenital heart defect while she was training for the L.A. Aids Marathon. She was 22.

Hanson and Johnson, two bright young women, brought together by soccer, loved by so many of the same people and taken from us too soon, did more in their short time here than many do in a full lifetime.

Hanson was the quiet one, the underdog who willed herself to greatness, but had to be convinced by others that she deserved it. She barely made the varsity as a freshman at Flintridge Sacred Heart. But by the end of her four years there, she was among the area's best and good enough for a scholarship to LMU.

Johnson was the natural leader, confident and self-assured. She'd light up a room just by walking through the door and everyone inside couldn't help but smile. She was a finalist for the Rhodes' Scholarship at the University of Miami, where she played soccer collegiately.

After graduation, she came west to work in show-business, where Pace gave her a job as a production assistant on ``The George Lopez Show.''

``I only had two conditions: That she showed up on time and that she helped out with the soccer team,'' said Pace, who coached both Hanson and Johnson on the U.S. national select team.

Johnson passed away on December 18, a Sunday, one day after Flintridge Sacred Heart played its best game of the season, a 3-1 victory over Flintridge Prep.

The following Tuesday, the teams met again.

``That was the hardest one for me,'' said Tologs' co-coach Kathy Desmond, who will run the full marathon in honor of Hanson, her former player, and Johnson, her former assistant coach. ``Everybody's lives had gone on except ours.

``Saturday, she's sitting on the bench, coaching with us. And now Tuesday, she's gone.''

Desmond and Pace were still reeling from Hanson's death in August. Johnson's death was almost too much to take.

``It felt like we were under a black cloud and the only time the sun came out was when we were playing soccer,'' Pace said.

Desmond had planned to run the marathon before these two tragedies. She'd run a few before, but wasn't sure if her body would handle the strain of a marathon the same way it did before she had her three young sons. Now, no matter what, she knows she will finish.

``When you're training, sometimes you feel like quitting,'' she said. ``But you just say no. (Jenna and Jessica) would be right there with us in a heart beat if they could.''

Lauren Johnson (no relation), was Hanson's teammate at FSHA. She played collegiately at Northwestern, and worked with Jenna Johnson as a production assistant on ``The George Lopez Show.''

Jenna Johnson showed her around the set on her first day.

``She just knew everyone,'' Lauren Johnson said. ``She was so outgoing and everyone seemed to love her. I was a little nervous about working in Hollywood, because you hear what a tough business it is. So to meet somebody like that on your first day was amazing.''

Lauren Johnson and Pace are two of the only people to know Jessica and Jenna through Flintridge Sacred Heart and ``The George Lopez Show.''

Hope Erickson, and assistant production coordinator on the show, organized the group, tag-team style marathon run after Jenna Johnson's death. At first, only people from the show were involved, but the group has expanded to include people from FSHA like Desmond, assistant coach Annie Beltran and Belinda Hanson, Jessica's mother.

``I didn't even have to ask people to do it,'' Erickson said. ``A lot of people asked me about it. We put up a sign-up sheet and it was filled up within a week. ...It just feels like the right thing to do.''

This run will not give them closure. It will not bring Jenna or Jessica back. But it will honor them. And it will inspire others to live with the same spirit they did.

``They were both so selfless, always trying to help others. I always want to volunteer more, and to help others,'' Lauren Johnson said. ``Not to help build up my resume, or for recognition, just to do it. Like they always tried to do. Even though this is what got me out there, I will continue on.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) From left, Annie Beltran, Lauren Johnson, Frank Pace, Hope Erickson, Kathy Desmond and Adrian Elizondo will run Sunday's L.A. Marathon in tribute to Jessica Hanson and Jenna Johnson.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) JOHNSON

Map:

2006 L.A. MARATHON XXI

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist