He can upgrade to footlongs now

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Move over, Jared.

Subway might have found a new marketing icon this morning in Wesley Korir, the 26-year-old Kenyan who broke the Los Angeles Marathon record after fulfilling his pre-race routine of wolfing down a 6-inch tuna sub. It’s a habit that dates to Korir’s days as a track star at the University of Louisville.

Korir finished the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 24 seconds after ordering a pair of Subway sandwiches Sunday. He planned to eat them both -- one for lunch, the other for dinner -- but gave one to a homeless woman he encountered outside a hotel in downtown L.A.

Asked whether he preferred 6-inch subs or footlongs, Korir said, ‘Six inches. I can’t finish a footlong.’

Subway executives hadn’t contacted Korir immediately after the race, but it could only be a matter of time.

‘I would be open to that suggestion,’ said Korir, who could afford plenty of $5 footlongs after taking in a winner’s haul of $160,000 and a 2009 Honda Accord EX-L.

-- Ben Bolch