L.A. Marathon changing race date to Memorial Day

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.

LA Marathon LLC, 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. "It lets us honor the city’s wishes that we have the race on a holiday Monday, and it lets us create a better runner’s experience than we could have on President’s Day. We've spent a lot of time talking to all of our constituencies -– runners, charities, volunteers –- and while there's never a good time to be changing race dates, the fact is that this will give us enough time to put on a great event."

We'll have more details soon on latimes.com.

Editor's note: Going The Distance, the new marathon operating company, recently changed its name to LA Marathon LLC.

-- Greg Johnson

Comments

[Tutor Ted]

Ugh...it's already too hot to run the marathon in early March...and now we're moving it to Memorial Day? I think I'll stick to Las Vegas from now on.

[Frankie DoRight]

This is a bad idea. Not a whole lot of people who work in the private sector have either presidents day or memorial day off. It is just a bad idea to have such a big event on a monday. And then such short notice.

[Peter]

This is ridiculous! Now LA residents have to battle street closures on a national holiday when people travel to visit family, friends and the beach. Worse still, LA taxpayers are going to pay "holiday time" to City employees for the additional inconvenience!

[Steve]

Changing the date at this point is asinine. I had already made arrangements for the February 16th date (having had to change it from the previous March 1st date. Most people take vacations over Memorial Day weekend and marathoners are no different. I already have plans for that weekend so now I will no longer be running it, assuming this is true. I have a feeling this will be the case with many other runners who had planned on it. Way to screw it up folks.

[Alan]

And the problem with the traditional March date was???

[Corey Lanum]

This change is unfortunate. The March date was perfect with nice crisp weather and generally good air quality. Running in May has the potential to be very smoggy and hot. I won't be running again this year.

[Jeronimo Banuelos]

This is absurd. The race date should be left the way it was--in March. The weather and air quality is way better than in May. We are already accustomed to this. Why break the tradition?

[K Akers]

Another date change? Going The Distance offers up another blunder in the decision to change the date in my opinion. I for one have little faith in this race management company. Do they realize that people make plans well in advance in terms of their training, travel and race schedule?

May is not the ideal time to conduct a marathon in So. Cal. With warmer temperatures I hope officials are prepared for a lot of heat related illnesses.

McCourt and Going The Distance....pick a date and stick with it. How about this....go back to the original March date.

[dan]

labor day would be a great day for a race...If we lived in the upper penninsula of Michigan!! Septmeber is one of the hottest months in socal and a marathon at that time will add great danger to some runners...Even Chicago moved its october marathon back to wait for cooler weather...Time to find a new race...

[Mas]

What are these guys doing....TRYING to ruin the Marathon?

Change it BACK TO SUNDAY!!!

[Fred Ascher]

It will be too hot for the race on Memorial Day Monday. Remember what happened in 2007 when it got so hot? This is a terrible change.

[Sean]

This is HORRIBLE idea. I ran it two years ago in March and it was hot as hell. It could be 100 degrees over Memorial Day Weekend. People need to think this through a bit - you could literally have runners keeling over in the street due to heat exhaustion. At the very lease, the organizers should step up and start the thing at 5 a.m. Otherwise, this could be headed towards a very foreseeable disaster.

[Jason J McCabe]

I'm curious to see how many more people than average drop dead during the race if and when we get an unusually hot Memorial Day.

[Ben]

I raced last year and was signed up for this year but didn't make the start line die to injury. I would be signing up again for a March or February race but there is no way on earth that I'm running a marathon in LA on Memorial day due to the likely temperature.

[Jaime]

That's NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you say warm tempatures.....

[Mike Delgado]

I have run the LA marathon for the past 14 years. I am officially bringing that steak to an end. This move is a bigger joke then the move to Monday in February. And I work for Honda.. the presenting sponsor

[Erica Hui]

It's sad to hear how the new owner and organizers have no idea about running 26.2 miles. It they insist on that day, please make sure there are plenty of paramedic standing by and enough emergency rooms available. However they can surely cut the no.of volunteers and workers since there will be a drastic drop in attendees (I'm one of them after 6 years of running it!) Of course it's more sad to realize how politics continuously ruin people's tradition, behavior and belief. We felt it from Prop 8 and now we have to deal with it just because we want to run a marathon in our beloved city.

[KateNonymous]

Memorial Day will be brutally hot. Runners are going to be hospitalized, assuming none die--which is a big assumption, considering that runners have died in March.

This race is doomed. Way to go, church leaders. You've killed it because a tiny percentage of your members weren't in attendance one Sunday per year.

Another piece of municipal spirit gone. Job well done!

[Erin Thomas]

This is absolutely terrible I agree. It is way too hot to run in May especially when we get early heatwaves. March is the perfect time. If it ain't broke don't fix it. If they want to have a race on a holiday weekend why not add a 10K/5K run?

AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. I can't believe what I just read. Someone do something to stop this!

[CRyan]

I completely agree with the above comments. Many years it's too hot in March for a healthy marathon. MAY??? In Los Angeles. Count me, and a lot of others I'm sure, out. This really stinks because I've run the marathon 6 years in a row. Forget it.
San Diego can have theirs in June because the temperature is lower and the ocean breeze helps. Running on the asphalt in the May heat on Pico will seriously endanger a lot of inexperienced runners. Most of the runners in the L.A. marathon are inexperienced.
Have extra paramedics and ambulances ready.
See you in San Diego.

[CJ]

Good luck getting elites to come to this one. It was hard enough when the marathon was run during a time when it MIGHT be cool. But downtown LA at the end of May?? No doubt it will be hot, hot, hot.

I think most runners will be running the San Diego marathon the following week where it is almost guaranteed to be better weather.

[M]

This is a bad idea. I live near the starting point of the Marathon for the last few years and essentially this will trap everyone that lives along the Marathon route in their homes until the marathon is over. Security prevented me from even WALKing around the Marathon area to get to my apartment this past year. This isn't as much of an issue on a random sunday morning. On a holiday where people commonly go to the beach and other outdoor activities this is an issue. They are also competing with a common time of the year for college and high school graduations

[Pablito]

The average daily temperature on Memorial Day is 10 degrees warmer than the usual race date in early March. This is a selfish, dangerous move.

[Raymond]

Terrible heat for a marathon. Can't imagine how many runners and spectators drop from the heat. Maybe we can pray fro June Gloom in May?

[Kay]

The organizers changing this date AGAIN is just very inconsiderate, Many of the runners have already booked flights and hotels that are non-refundable. Trying to book on Memorial Day weekend is just going to be a huge mess. Bad idea all around....I don't even need to mention the weather in detail!