“From the Stadium to the Sea” is what they call the Asics L.A. Marathon, but don’t let the idyllic slogan fool you – as major marathons go, this is a very tough course. Not at all like the fast, flat-as-a-table route runners are accustomed to in Chicago, London and Berlin.
Ethiopians handled the course best this year as Gebo Burka, 26, won the men’s race in 2:10:37 and Amane Gobena, 31, took the women’s title in 2:27:37 at the 2014 Asics L.A. Marathon, Sun., March 9.
These are fast times on a course that starts at Dodger Stadium near downtown L.A. and finishes at the Santa Monica Pier area beside the beautiful blue Pacific.
The men’s course record for the race is 2:06:35, held by Markos Geneti since 2011. The women’s course record is 2:25:10, set by Lidiya Grigoryeva in 2006.
On Sunday Amane Gobena also won the Asics L.A. Marathon Gender Challenge – a unique competition within the race pitting the elite women versus the elite men in a staggered start. This year the elite women started 17:41 before the elite men, and the Gender Challenge winner was Gobena, who reached the finish line 41 seconds ahead of her countryman Burka, netting her an additional $50,000 prize in addition to the $25,000 she and Burka each received for winning the women’s and men’s divisions.
Whether it was because of the staggered start and the Gender Challenge, the elite women in the race (this was the 29th annual L.A. Marathon) went out very fast and were slowing at the end, while the elite men ran a more tactical, conservative pace early on and speeded up at the end.
American Lauren Kleppin, now living and training at Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and coming off an impressive second-place finish in the U.S. Half-Marathon Championships in Houston, Tex., Jan. 19, was among those mixing it up at the front in the first half of the women’s race as the leaders reached the halfway mark in 1:12.
The women gradually slowed down over the last half of the race, but two Ethiopian women slowed the least. Gobena, a somewhat stocky, powerful runner, took over in the last 4-5 miles on scenic San Vicente Boulevard, which first goes gradually uphill, then refreshingly and noticeably downhill leading to the final finishing straight on Ocean Boulevard.
Gobena finished in 2:27:37, relieved no doubt that no male runner had overtaken her, so she automatically became the Gender Challenge winner as well as the women’s overall champion.
Tigist Tufa, 33, of Ethiopia finished second in 2:28:04, and Lauren Kleppin, 25, running her first marathon, finished an impressive and promising third in 2:28:48. She will be part of the U.S. Team at the World Half-Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 29.
In the men’s race, Kenya’s Lani Rutto, 24, was in the lead, Gebo Burka of Ethiopia on his heels, the rest of the field having been dropped, as they passed the Veteran’s Administration complex on Wilshire Boulevard just before turning right onto San Vicente about 5 1/2 miles from the finish. Rutto motioned to Burka to take the lead – as in “Help do your share of the work.”
It might not have been the best move. Burka not only went in front, but proceeded to up the pace so aggressively he soon dropped Rutto and then ran the San Vicente stretch on his own, opening a sizeable lead, before turning left onto Ocean Boulevard.
He finished in 2:10:37, but was not able to overtake Amane Gobena in the Gender Challenge. Rutto was the runner-up in 2:10:48, and another Kenyan, Erick Mose, 27, finished third in 2:12:56.
Afterwards Burka said through an interpreter, “Our preparation (went) very well. That’s why I ran this fast.” Regarding the Los Angeles course, he said, “It’s hilly, up-down.”
Gabriel Proctor, 23, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was the first American, finishing sixth in 2:16:17.
Aaron Braun, 26, of Alamosa, Colo., who had finished second in the U.S. Half-Marathon Championships in Houston, Jan. 19, ran strongly in the first half of the Asics L.A. Marathon, but faded over the last half to finish seventh in 2:19:51.
Adam Roach, 29, of Monterey, Calif., finished 10th in 2:32:38.
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