The Los Angeles Marathon will begin soon

It's 53 degrees and drizzling at Dodger Stadium, the start of the Los Angeles Marathon. The 26.2-mile route ends at Ocean Ave. and California Ave. in Santa Monica, where it's currently pouring.

The average starting tempurature of the past 25 marathons has been 54.2 degrees.

The wheelchair race was supposed to begin at 6:53 a.m. but was delayed while the Los Angeles Police Department cleared the course. The athletes took off at 7:16 a.m.

The elite women were scheduled to begin running at about 7:11 and the elite men at about 7:28 a.m., but they will experience a delay as well. The first runner to cross the finish line -- man or woman -- will receive a $100,000 bonus.

Wesley Korir, a 28-year-old Kenyan, is trying to become the first runner in marathon history to win three races. He won in 2009 in 2 hours 8 minutes and 24 seconds and last year in 2:09:19.

On the women's side, Ethiopia's Mare Dibaba is favored to win. The 21-year-old has the fastest time in the field at 2:25:27.

-- Melissa Rohlin

Photo: A marathon competitor in a wheelchair warms up on the course minutes before the start of the race. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

L.A. Marathon: Michael Ward finishes race in his first marathon

Michael Ward, who was featured in a front-page story in The Times on Thursday, finished the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday. It was his first marathon and a race that he began training for after he was laid off from his job as an editor at an aviation newsletter last year.

"I made it!" he wrote in a short e-mail. "I struggled for a while with my knee, but kept going and finished really strong (which surprised me)."

The Santa Monica native was featured as part of a new group of marathon runners: the unemployed who lost their jobs and took up running as a way to help manage stress. He found employment in October after losing his job in April. 

Ward said he was still waiting for an official time to be posted Sunday. He said last week that he aims to run more marathons, if he can. One interesting aspect with this marathon, though, was that he ran past his old place of employment in Century City where he worked for 10 years.  

"I did have some emotions seeing old work ... and switched caps from a Road Runner one to an all-black one," he wrote. "Finishing just felt so wonderful, especially as I was RUNNING and not walking or staggering." 

-- Baxter Holmes

Marathon runner goes into cardiac arrest

A 21-year-old male went into cardiac arrest during the 18th mile of the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday and was transported to UCLA Medical Center, where he is breathing and has a pulse but remains unconscious.

"The great thing was that we got to him so quickly, but unfortunately he was in a bad situation," said Greg Gibson, battalion chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department. "He was in full arrest."

Gibson declined to give the runner's name pending notification of family members. He said there were 111 medical incidents during the marathon, with 30 runners transported to hospitals.

--Ben Bolch

Wesley Korir repeats as Los Angeles Marathon champion [Update]

Pulling away from a pair of fellow Kenyan countrymen in the 25th mile, Wesley Korir defended his Los Angeles Marathon title Sunday morning by winning in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 20 seconds. It was the third-fastest time in race history and about a minute behind the 2:08:24 Korir ran last year in setting the race record.

Korir, who is honeymooning in Los Angeles this week after marrying his college sweetheart a week ago, became the first repeat winner since Stephen Ndungo of Kenya in 2001-02. [Update 10:30 a.m.: Richard Limo finished second in 2:09:48 and Paul Samoei third in 2:09:54. Both are Kenyan.]

Edna Kiplagat of Kenya surged ahead of Teyba Naser of Ethiopia in the 23rd mile to win the women's race in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 38 seconds. Kiplagat also won a $100,000 bonus by becoming the first person to finish the race, having begun with a head start of 18 minutes, 47 seconds over the men's field.

-- Ben Bolch

Photo: Wesley Korir hits the finish line to win the L.A. Marathon on Sunday in Santa Monica. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Record field for Los Angeles Marathon

A record field of 26,054 will run in the 25th Los Angeles Marathon, according to race organizers. That eclipses the previous record of 25,947 in 2006.

The runners will enjoy a temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit at the starting line at Dodger Stadium, with 1 mph winds and 76% humidity. Pretty much ideal conditions.

-- Ben Bolch

L.A. Marathon petition drive is off and running

The local running community is taking a creative step with an online petition to move the Los Angeles Marathon back to a more traditional Sunday in March.

Launched by race organizers on Thursday evening, within 24 hours the drive had accumulated about one quarter as many virtual signatures as finishers in this year's May event.*

"The running community earnestly wants this on a Sunday early in the year because they can't risk the heat issues," said Howard Sunkin, Senior Vice President of the McCourt Group, which bought the event in 2008. This year's race was moved twice and eventually held on Memorial Day, much closer to L.A.'s hot summer temperatures. Another change would require City Council approval and has been traditionally opposed by local churches that hold Sunday services.

Sweaty alternatives to L.A. Marathon

Conditions for a marathon weren't ideal today in Iraq. Try 99 degrees Fahrenheit with a good chance of dehydration.

The Los Angeles Marathon inspired shadow runs in Iraq and Afghanistan, where soldiers staged their own 26.2-mile slogs through desert terrain in celebration of Memorial Day. Five hundred soldiers stationed at  Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, participated in a race where the finish line was flanked by howitzers.

Two other soldiers stationed in Afghanistan also ran a marathon. Officials from the L.A. Marathon supplied soldiers with race bibs, T-shirts and medals to commemorate their participation.

-- Ben Bolch

He can upgrade to footlongs now

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