Big changes coming to Los Angeles marathon

The new operators of the Los Angeles Marathon are moving the annual race to Memorial Day, marking the second calendar change since September for the race that, for 23 years, had been run on a Sunday in early March.

Going The Distance, the new race operations company funded by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, in September agreed with a city request to move the race to the President’s Day holiday starting next year. But the Feb. 16 date caused concern on several fronts, according to race operating company President Russ Pillar, largely because many Southern Californians work on the Monday holiday.

"We think the Memorial Day date does two things," Pillar said during a phone interview with The Times.

Read the rest of this article at The Fabulous Forum, the Times' sports blog.

--Greg Johnson

Photo: LAT file

Comments

[Allen Young]

I was hoping to run the La Marathon on the first Sunday in March however a nasty fall and severe sprained ankle postponed my training and I decided not to do it. Then......I was given a second chance when it was moved to the end of May. I still think that date is a very bad idea but having grown up in the Palm Springs area with 125 degree heat I would rather run in heat than cold. I was all set to do the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego but the memories of my very first marathon in Los Angeles was too overwhelming to ignore. The shear number of participants and the wonderful kind spectators left a lasting memory for which I will always be grateful.

[Johnny C.]

No big picture or foresight.

If the LA marathon had ever a chance to rise to the top tier of marathons such as Boston, New York, Chicago, they have blown it. Moving to the holiday Monday date was risky but still reasonable for a runner. It was also a good attempt to establish an association with annual big race event and the Presidents day weekend holiday. Now trying to move to Memorial day several months later, they have put themselves in a crowed calendar of other races and normal summer activity. They owned the calendar in the late winter, early spring on the West coast for such a big event.

Looks like heading to LA for a marathon is off the list. Might as well wait a couple weeks and head to San Diego in mid June for a newer race that has established its place on the calendar.

cheers!

[CEB]

I am a participant of SRLA (students run los angles) and I train with my school. Running the marathon was a big step for me but I figured it would build endurance and confidence. Running in EXTREMELY HOT conditions is NOT what I call endurance and confidence! I call it plain STUPID!!!! Do the organizers of this program not realize that it is HOT in southern California in May? Well they need to get their act together and change it back to March!!! Plus, I and many other kids have asthma and running in the heat hurts our chest! It has been my dream to run the LA marathon and I am seriously concidering not participating in it if the date stays to May. Oh and have they ever heard of heat stroke? I bet if they were running 26.2 miles in May they would beg for the marathon to be changed to a different day. For goodness sake, switching the marathon to Febuary was a jolt but changing it to May is a shock!!!! WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE DO THIS?????

[Jose Maldonado]

This is an OUTRAGE! It was one thing to move it to the President's Day Monday for one thing, now they've gone and moved it to an EVEN WORSE day!!

What was so bad about having it on the first Sunday of March? It was ALWAYS ideal weather, we planned our training schedules for it and everybody came to expect it. If businesses, neighborhoods, churches complained TOUGH! It's once a year for God's sake!! People have to make adjustments for parades, county fairs, marathons everywhere! Like there won't be any complaints now? Either way, the city has to deal with it. Why not just deal with it the same day we've had to deal with it?

I'm so furious!! As an L.A. County Lifeguard, my job DEMANDS that I be there on the first weekend of the summer season. There were at least five us from our work station, sometimes more, participating every year and now we won't be able to.

[TK]

Beyond unconscionable to move our marathon to a day that can potentially be 90 degrees. Did the new organizers see what happened in Chicago last year? Every other city in the U.S. manages to hold their marathon on a Saturday or Sunday - and L.A. did so for 20 years. Do we really have to change it now?

[BGTG]

I don't live in LA, but my parents live about an hour from there and I was hoping to combine a trip to visit them with a marathon. I will not run a marathon in LA in late May. I think the best date remains the first Sunday in March. It's hard to believe that Christian churches in LA aren't willing to make accommodations/adjustments one Sunday per year for an event like a marathon. They do in all the other cities....

By the way, a starting temperature in the 60s is NOT ideal marathoning weather for runners. It's nice for spectators and volunteers, but ideal running conditions for the marathon start in the 40s and warm into the 50s.

[BT]

I thought the marathon was suppose to be about the runners.....I guess things work a little different in LA. I live in New England and was going to make the trek to LA for this race. I hear a lot of talk about greed and money being partially responsible for the date change. Well, I must say, the $1000 (hotel, meals, entertainment, etc.) that I was bringing to the local LA economy will now be spent elsewhere.

[Julie]

I agree that the new May 25, 2009 date for the LA Marathon is NOT NOT NOT good at all. Memorial Day is usually a HOT day, and with approximately 20,000 runners, more consideration should be taken into account for those RUNNING, and not for those who are NOT running. I think we should just stick with the first sunday in March for the LA Marathon. What McCourt doesn't realize is that some people can't run in hotter weather, and many more people can get heat exhaustion when the temperature is in the 80's and 90's. Please bring back the marathon to the date of March 1, 2009, for all of us RUNNERS.

[Bill]

The change is being forced by the churches who were pissed about the marathon being held on their "holy day". The churches have no regard for our nation's fundamental belief in a separation of church and state. Thanks to those who voted for Prop. 8, the churches are feeling like they can bully anyone who disagrees with them. Expect more of the same in the coming months/years.

[C Montague]

May 30 - average low 59 degrees
average high 75 degrees

At the 7 am start, the weather would be great for runners. Los Angelista sounds a bit ignorant.

Source: LA Almanac
-- runner of 24 marathons

[Mr Shenanigans]

Utter crap.

Guaranteed predication: this is such a stupid idea that the event will receive yet a FOURTH 2009 date. That date will either be a Sunday in February or March - or a date called "CANCELLED" entirely, with a promise (possibly one that will never be fulfilled) for a 2010 restart.

We didn't need a football team. But a marathon? Isn't Southern California supposed to set the pace for fitness lifestyles? Shameful.

[Running4Life]

This is absolutely ridiculous. Changing the day to a Monday (when most people work and would be forced to take time off) is bad enough, but pushing the date back 3 months is creating a disaster.

I just completed 13 miles this past weekend. I'm focused on a 6 month training schedule. This blows the training schedule out the window. Adding 3 months to a 6 month schedule means you have to keep up your peak training for 3 more months, half the time of the entire training schedule. That is crazy. The human body isn't meant to endure that.

Moving it to Memorial Day not only creates a traffic nightmare, the heat would create a danger for every runner out there. This isn't just resisting change on my part, it's concern for the runners' safety; from both the drastic change they will need to make to their schedules to what their bodies will feel come race day.

[Los Angelista]

Wow, it sounds like the folks managing the preparations for this race really lack critical thinking skills. I'm training for this race and could totally deal with it being switched to the February date, but to move it to May is an AWFUL idea. One, it's hotter at the end of May than it is in February or March. Who in the world wants to come run a potentially super hot race at the end of May? Two, thousands of people have been planning for a February (initially March) race. It's disrespectful to those of us who are in the process of preparing for this race to constantly have the date juggled around.

If these folks are too stupid to respect the traditions of this city and keep it in February/March, maybe somebody needs to buy the marathon back from them. Clearly they don't know how to handle the responsibility of managing an event so important to our city.