Runnerville

The 2008 Los Angeles Marathon presented by Honda begins year 23 Sunday morning March 2nd at 7:30 a.m. on KNBC4 (KNBC.com on line). Once again the professional fields have been weakened due to late payment of previous years L.A. prize purses and other Devine Racing events. That said, athlete recruiter Anne Roberts, who recruited here in L.A. years ago before the Bill Orr era, and now following Larry Barthlow, has gathered 16 men and 8 women who will vie for $215,000. Of that amount, $100,000 awaits the winner of the Banco Popular Challenge, the gender challenge concept now in its fifth year in which each gender has won twice. Get past the jump to read about this year’s field.

The differential this year is 19:38, or 46 seconds per mile. There are only eight women in the professional field and sixteen men. Last year the differential was 19:51 and the men cruised by the lead woman after 2:12:08 of racing.

Neither of the defending champions have returned (Fred Mogaka and Ramilia Burangulova). The leading contenders for the women include:

Mary Ptikany, 30, of Kenya. With a PR of 2:29:45 set in Frankfurt 2005, Ptikany is the most consistent female in the field. Between her 2:32:04 debut in Amsterdam 2000 and last year’s 2:30:08 in Essen, she has maintained a solid string of 2:30-:232 performances.

She will be challenged by her niece, 24 year-old Jacqueline Nyetpei who will be making her marathon debut. Nyetipei has run a series of strong half-marathons in 2008, including victories in Carlsbad in 1:11:37 and Austin, Texas four weeks ago in 69:35 (though that was a decidedly downhill layout. Jacqueline, her husband Frederick Kiplimo have been living in the Tucson area since last October as he awaits entry into Central Arizona College. Their one year old son, Kevin, remains at home with family.

Claudia Camargo, 36, of Argentina ran just seven seconds behind Nyetipei at the 3M Half in Austin on Jan. 28th in a PR 69:42. But Camargo lives in Danbury, Connecticut where the winter has been very difficult, and has limited her training to just 60 miles per week. Is that enough to carry her through the 26 mile limit?

2001 World University Games 5000-meter silver medallist and 2003 Russian national 5000-meter national runner up Tatiana Aryasova (nee Khmeleva) is returning from maternity leave after giving birth to a daughter in 2006. L.A. will be in her marathon debut, and she is said to be in very good condition, trained by the husband of defending Boston Marathon champion, Lidia Grigoryeva who also won the 2006 L.A. Marathon in the event record 2:25:10. Tatiana feels capable of sub-2:30 which should win this women’s race if she can pull it off.

Ethiopia’s Abebe Tola, who led the race last year till 30K before finishing third returns in 2008, but hasn’t come close to her2:29:54 PR from Amsterdam 2000 since.

MEN

The men are sixteen deep at L.A. 2008. The fastest man in the field is Joseph Ngolepus, the 2004 Rock `n` Roll Marathon champion having run 2:07:56 in London 2003. He also won the 2001 Berlin Marathon and the 2006 Madrid Marathon. But he admits that he was only able to train just once a day back home due to all the political unrest in Kenya.

Hillary Kimaiyo ran three 2:11 marathons in 2007, so he’s a very solid guy. In March of `07 he was 2nd at the La La Marathon in Torreon, Mexico. Then in May he was 5th in ING Ottowa in 2:11:13, before winning the Mexico City Marathon in August in 2:15:48, an excellent time for a marathon held at 8000 feet altitude. He lives in Mexico City, and has run several 1:01 to 1:03 half-marathons down south as well.

Benjamin Kipchumba’s last marathon was 4th at the 2006 Rock `n` Roll in San Diego in 2:11. He injured his back in that race which transferred to his hamstring, so he’s been returning to form since. He’s only had a one month focus, however. He ran 2:13:11 finishing 3rd at Beppu, Japan in 2006.

2000 L.A Marathon champion Benson Mbithi is back for the fifth time in Los Angeles. He’s taken two thirds and a sixth as well as his 2000 win.

Tesfaye Girma of Ethiopia could challenge. This is his second marathon, the first coming in Beirut back in 2004 in 2:17. But he’s spent 2 ½ years living in Japan running for the Honda Motors team. There he focused on half-marathons. He finished 3rd at the 2007 Sapporo Half in 1:01:24 last year. He is managed by Dr. Rosa who doesn’t invest in people who don’t make returns on that investment.

Christopher Kiprotich won two marathons in 2007, Detroit Free Press in 2:15:15 and Monterrey, Mexico in December in a course record 2:13:26.

L.A. is in a hang-on year in 2008. They didn’t produce a hard-copy media guide, the 20 year start line coordinator quit, and rumors continue to swirl that the event will be sold in the very near future - a possibility that should hearten all who care for quality management in the running business in general, and for all those who hope that Los Angeles will finally live up to its status as a world-class city with a world-class marathon. We will have a wrap up of L.A. 2008 on the next Toni & Matt Show.

Be sure to tune in to knbc.com for full streaming video beginning at 7:30 a.m. pacific time.

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