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The 23rd annual City of Los Angeles Marathon presented by Honda returns on Sunday with its controversial men vs. women format where the top elite woman hopes to stay clear of the elite men based on a predetermined headstart. At stake is a $100,000 bonus for the first athlete to reach the finish line opposite the Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. The $100,000 bonus is part of a total $215,000 prize money purse on offer.
While three of the five commercial marathons of the World Marathon Majors use an early start for elite women (Boston, London and New York), there is no competition between the sexes for awards or prize money. Instead, the early start for women is designed to highlight the women's competition, providing then with a fair race without the possible interference of men, and showcases them for television. In Los Angeles, however, close to half of the prize money which will be paid is based on the gender battle: the winner of one gender will receive $120,000 plus a Honda automobile, while the other will receive just $20,000 plus the car.
Unlike other races which have a gender battle component, like the Halve Marathon von Egmond in the Netherlands and the Gate River Run 15-K in Florida, the headstart given to the women is only determined after the elite fields have been set, just days before the race. The other races use the difference between the male and female course records. For the women at Los Angeles, they have been given a 19 minute and 38 second headstart.
The women's elite field is small and relatively weak, including only eight women, two of whom are masters runners: Russians Albina Gallyamova and Tatiana Titova. That leaves just half a dozen women to fend off 16 elite men. The two strongest women are Kenyans Mary Ptikany and Jacqueline Nytepi. Ptikany has a 2:29:45 personal best to her credit, set in Frankfurt in 2005. She's also run a 1:09:06 half-marathon. Nytepi (whose last name may be spelled "Nytipei") will be making her marathon debut, and has a 1:09:35 half-marathon personal best to her credit set on the downhill course in Austin last January (she's also run 1:11:37 on a record-standard course in Carlsbad).
Leading the chase behind the women will be Kenyans Joseph Kahugu (2:07:59 PB, but from ten years ago), Benjamin Kipchumba (2:09:23), Benson Mbithi (2:11:12), Philip Tarus (2:08:34, but from nine years ago), and Joseph Ngolepus (2:07:56). The men have an inherrent advantage because they have a bigger group to work with and can visually spot the women ahead of them as they begin to catch up.
Will the 19:38 gap be big enough to let the first woman snatch the big prize? Ptikany and Nytepi could run in the mid-2:29's, meaning that top man would have to run 2:10. That will be challenging for this group, especially if they get too caught-up racing each other. They must first work together to catch the women, then race for the tape.
In last year's contest the men won the gender battle when 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Fred Mogaka ran 2:17:14 (the slowest winning time in the history of the race) overcoming a 19 minute and 51 second gap given to the women. The first women's finisher was 45 year-old Ramilya Burangulova of Russia in 2:37:54, which means Mogaka "won" by 49 seconds, passing the masters runner at the 2:12:08 mark in the men's race.
The City of Los Angeles Marathon has long struggled to find an identity, never reaching the top echelon of the sport under different managements. With live television coverage locally, and a global webcast, they have staked their elite race on the gender battle which can produce exciting finishes regardless of the quality of the athletes entered. That's because the headstart is determined based on the athletes who are actually running, and if their analyst does a good job in determining the gap, the finish should be close. That was not the case last year.
Also, this will be the second year that the race will use a point-to-point course which begins out of town in the valley. Hence, Mogaka and Burangluova are the course record holders. The event records are held by Kenya's Benson Cherono (2:08:40, 2006) and Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva (2:25:10, 2006).
The event will be televised live on KNBC and KNBC.com and will begin at 7:55 a.m. Pacific Time (10:55 a.m. Eastern Time/4:55 p.m. Central European Time).
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