L.A. Marathon changing race date to Memorial Day

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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