Either way the James Joyce Ramble is not your average trot. Along the race path of this morning's 10 kilometer race beginning at 11 o'clock in Dedham Center, some 40 professional actors clad in period 19th Century costumes read from from the works of the Irish bard. Accompanied by the riot of Celtic bag-pipes, the run has more the feel of a Mummers' parade than the Boston Marathon.

Yet beyond its bazaar theatrics, the race is a somber plea for free speech, human rights and a Dana Farber Cancer Institute fund-raiser bundled into one raucous pageant.

"Ours is an event of a type not offered by any other group in the world, fully integrating the elements of art, politics, literature and athletics for three thousand runners and thirty thousand spectators," said Martin Hanley, founder of the 16 year-old charitable road race.

No mere tee shirts and cups of tepid Gatorade tempt these runners. No college co-eds cheer the field as they do at the Wellsley Hills. But those in this jaunt do get pumped by passages from Ulysses, The Dubliners and Finnegans Wake as they pad the Dedham pavement and meander across the Noble and Greenough School campus. Waiting for them at the finish line are pints of Boston brewed Harpoon Ale, plates of Vinny Testa's pasta and tins of Irish grown oats.

A film and television actor and veteran marathon runner himself, Hanley says he was tired of the trite theme music and thousands of forgettable miles most races offer. "I wanted something people could remember with more than a tee-shirt and make it the kind of extravaganza Broadway producer Joe Papp would have cooked up," he says, "And the idea popped into my head while out for a run at a time I happend to be plodding through Finnegan's Wake."

But Hanley intends more to be remembered than a carnival atmosphere. His fun and games are serious business. The Ramble is dedicated to raising awareness about imprisoned writers, artists, and political free thinkers around the world. Today's Ramble will focus on Ismail Besikci, Turkish sociologist jailed by the Turkish government for his writings about Turkey's persecuted Kurdish minority. During the race representatives from Pen, an international writers' rights organization, will circulate a petition to the Turkish authorities demanding Besikci's release.

The Ramble's first celebrated writer in 1984 was then imprisoned Czech dramatist Vaclav Havel. Havel, the current president of the democratic Czech Republic, had to cancel an appearance at this year's race because he will attend the NATO conference in Washington this weekend. Past Rambles have brought attention to Xu Wenli, founder of China's Democracy Wall movement and Wei Jingsheng, one of China's leading voices demanding increased freedom and human rights in the People's Republic of China.

In 1995, the event focused on Aung San Suu Kyi, Noble laureate and general secretary of the National League of Democracy. At the time of the race she was jailed uncharged and untried for her peaceful protests on behalf of the Burmese Democracy movement. Her resistance efforts were, in her words, "no more violent than is necessary in banging the keys of a typewriter."

Beyond a political mission and street theater, the Ramble has a charitable identity. All proceeds are donated to the Claudia Adams- Barr Program at Boston's Dana Farber Cancer Institute. This fund supports innovative research at Dana-Farber, often for non-traditional therapies for which corporate underwriting is lacking. Since 1984 the Ramble has contributed more than $127,000 Dana Faber.

The once bespectacled and gangly James Joyce seems an unlikely poster boy for a top flight athletic event. But Hanley has built-in geek prizes into addition to $5000 for the swift. At the post-race party runners slow of foot and quick of mind may emerge victorious in a special competition on James Joyce literary minutia.

Goldie Hawn, in Boston for the weekend, may make a cameo appearance. Pop vocalist Michelle Lewis perform a post-event show. It's a race former Massachusetts attorney general and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Scott Harshbarger routinely loses without fretting. "I didn't run last year because of a torn Achilles tendon, but this year marks my big comeback, in more ways than one," said Harshbarger.

Among the jesters and pipers, the Ramble's pedigree as a top shelf athletic event is easily camouflaged. The USA Track and Field's New England 10K Championship was held at the race in 1995 - music and drama notwithstanding. Andy Ronan, a 1992 Irish Olympian, and Lorraine Moller, a New Zealander who won the marathon bronze medal at the same Games, hold the men's and women's records. Simon Peter, world class Tanzanian runner, has won the Ramble three times.

New England senior favorite, Arlene Appleton, 83, of Dedham, who mastered the course 13 times, will again watch this year's Ramble from the sidelines since injuries suffered in an automobile accident several years ago left her unable to run. "The last time I ran it I was 81, wearing number 81 and I finished it in 81 minutes," she said, "But I will be cheering at the finish line, until I can't walk anymore I suspect."

Unlike other major races which draw similar world class talent, the James Joyce Ramble has no mega-corporate sponsorship. Instead a collection of local underwriters "runs along side us," according to Hanley.

For Martin Hanley, with twin cell phones still chirping and a screen stacked with unanswered e-mail messages on the eve before the opening gun, the finish line is far, far in the distance.