Runnerville

2010 LOS ANGELES MARATHON

The brand new “Stadium to the Sea” racecourse introduced for the 25th City of Los Angeles Marathon will take the runners from Dodger Stadium in Echo Park to Santa Monica by the sea via some of the most iconic sections of the Los Angeles area. The event has “sold out” for the first time in history at 25,000, and will include 233 “legacy” runners who have run every L.A. marathon since 1986. That, in itself, is a remarkable number.

What’s most intriguing about the new course isn’t just the point-to-point passing of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Brentwood, and on into Santa Monica. This new course has a net elevation drop of 480 feet, with the second half descending a whopping 325 of those feet! Boston, by comparison, drops 430 feet in total and just 120 feet in its second half. Who knows if all the down hills will affect the quads the way Boston does (watch for how many runners walk downstairs backwards on Monday). There is only one significant hill in the entire second half, coming from miles 20-21, same place as Heartbreak Hill does in Boston. The elevation gain is similar, as well, Heartbreak rising 80 feet, and Purple Heart Hill (it’s at the Veteran’s Administration complex) marching 77 feet up. While Boston is a mild series of downhills through Brookline into Boston’s Back Bay, miles 24 - 26 from Brentwood into Santa Monica descend 81’, 103’, and 73’ respectively. Again, on paper that may make it fast, but we will have to see how the runners legs hold up after the previous pounding. 

Defending men’s champion Wesley Korir (2:08:24 in 2009) came to inspect the course a few weeks back, and said it had 2:06-2:07 speed. I spoke with Runner’s World’s Bart Yasso who also thinks it will be fast based on running the last 8 miles several times. This is the first time the course has had a net elevation drop in its history, as all previous L.A. Marathon courses stayed within the city limits, forcing the runners to return uphill into downtown.

If the runners can manage the first eight miles which have a lot of turns, and can negotiate a 90-foot hill in the fourth mile up First Avenue as the course passes the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall, there is a chance for L.A.’s first significant world-class finishing time. Field analysis below the break. Read more…

John Hancock Financial announced the elite field of 44 athletes from ten countries for the 114th running of the Boston Marathon on April 19. A complete field list follows.

Headlining the field, and recently announced, are defending champions Deriba Merga and Salina Kosgei, and past champions Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, Catherine Ndereba, Dire Tune and Lidiya Grigoryeva.

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Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon & 1/2 Marathon will showcase perhaps the most dynamic half-marathon duel ever staged on American soil. 2008 Olympic Marathon gold medalist and half-marathon world record holder Sammy Wanjiru will battle head-to-head against fellow Kenyan and three-time London Marathon champion Martin Lel as both men set their sites on the April 25th Virgin London Marathon where Wanjiru broke Lel’s course record by five seconds in 2009 after Lel bested Wanjiru in the 2008 race (picture above). Morocco’s  Abderrahim Goumri, third in `08 London, was to have joined Lel and Wanjiru in New Orleans as a tune up for the April 19th Boston Marathon, but has pulled out with an unspecified injury.

“To draw the likes of Sammy and Martin to New Orleans demonstrates our commitment to attract the biggest names in the world of running,” said Matt Turnbull, Elite Athlete Coordinator for the Competitor Group. “We’re excited to have two of the greatest road racers in history at the start line this weekend.”

The first Kenyan to ever win the Olympic Marathon Gold Medal, Wanjiru set the standing half-marathon world record of 58:33 in 2007 at the City-Pier-City Loop in The Hague, The Netherlands. That record marked the third time he had broken the world record at the distance, the first set at age 18.

“The timing of the Mardi Gras Half-Marathon is perfect for athletes like me who are preparing for a spring marathon,” said Wanjiru. “For me it’s a great opportunity to see where I am before London. Really, I am just looking to come and run a solid race and this gives me a great chance to see where I’m at and what condition I am in.”

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American Alan Webb Highlights 23rd Annual Carlsbad 5000 on April 6, 2008
Opportunity stands to take down American road 5k record prior to U.S. Olympic Team Trials

by: Elite Racing
March 27, 2008

CARLSBAD, Calif., (March 27, 2008) — After breaking Steve Scott’s quarter-century old American mile record last summer in Brasschaat, Belgium, 25-year-old Alan Webb will have an opportunity to take down San Diego native Marc Davis’ 1996 American road 5k record of 13:24, also set at the Carlsbad 5000. Webb has chosen to open his 2008 Spring campaign in Carlsbad as he prepares for an Olympic bid. The Southern California race, set for Sunday, April 6, 2008, was made famous by Scott 23 years ago as both the course designer and champion of the first three events.

“I’m really looking forward to my first trip out to Carlsbad,” said Webb, a Reston, Virginia native. “I’ve always heard about what a great course and event it is, and how fast people have run there. Plus, Steve Scott has been something of a mentor to me over the years, and to run on a course he designed and won on three times just makes it that much more special.”

In this Olympic year Webb is gearing toward the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field set for Eugene, Oregon in June, and the early season road 5k will plays well into his Olympic timing.

“I’m in good form,” Webb confirmed. “Carlsbad fits my schedule perfectly this year.”

Webb first gained national acclaim when he smashed Jim Ryun’s legendary 36-year-old American high school mile record in 2001 (3:53.43). Since then he has steadily moved up the ranks of the world’s top middle distance runners. In 2006, Webb ran the fastest-ever debut by an American at 10,000 meters (27:34.72), winning at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. For calendar year 2007, Webb ran the fastest mile (3:46.91), fastest 1500 meters (3:30:54), and second best 800 meters (1:43.84) in the world.

Click to read the rest of this article. Read more…

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. Read more…