Wave Staff Report
LOS ANGELES — The 38th edition of the Los Angeles Marathon will be held March 19 with about 25,000 runners traveling the 26.2-mile Stadium to the Stars course.
The course will follow the same route it followed the last few years, starting at Dodger Stadium and ending in Century City on Avenue of the Stars.
Asics is again the sponsoring presenter of the marathon with Volvo, Big 5 and Electrolit serving as partners for this year’s race. Johnson Fitness & Wellness and Matrix serving as official specialty fitness retail cosponsors.
Among those entered in this year’s race is Julie Weiss, who will be competing in her 116th marathon. Weiss began running marathons in 2010 after her father died of pancreatic cancer. She runs to raise money for pancreatic cancer research and is expected to reach a milestone of $1 million raised in this week’s marathon.
The portion of the route that runs through Hollywood and West Hollywood remains unchanged.
The marathon route will guide runners westbound into the city of West Hollywood along Sunset Boulevard at Marmont Lane, just west of Crescent Heights Boulevard. From the Sunset Strip, runners will turn south onto San Vicente Boulevard; then west onto Santa Monica Boulevard; then left on Doheny Drive, where they will enter the city of Beverly Hills at Beverly Boulevard.
The West Hollywood stage of the course comes between miles 14 and 15 of the course.
To ensure the safety of the large numbers of Los Angeles Marathon runners, there will be several street closures in the city from 4 a.m. to 2 p.m.; crews will work to reopen roads to vehicle traffic as quickly as possible as the marathon moves through the city.
Among the street closures are: Sunset Boulevard between Marmont Lane and San Vicente Boulevard; San Vicente Boulevard between Sunset Boulevard and Melrose Avenue; Santa Monica Boulevard between La Cienega Boulevard and Doheny Drive; and Doheny Drive between Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard.
Parking will be strictly prohibited along the marathon route. “No parking” signs will be posted prior to the event. Vehicles in violation will be ticketed and towed at the owner’s expense.
The 2022 race was won for the second year in a row by John Korir of Kenya, who completed the course two hours, nine minutes and seven seconds, three minutes and 40 seconds faster than his winning time in 2021. Fellow Kenyan Delvine Meringor won the women’s race last year in 2:25:03.
Both received $6,000 in prize money with Meringor winning an additional $10,000 bonus for beating Korir to the finish line as part of a gender challenge feature of the race that has the women’s elite field starting 16 minutes, five seconds before the men’s.
The challenge is not being offered this year.
Kenyan men have won all but three Los Angeles Marathons since 1999, with Ethiopians winning in 2011, 2014 and 2020. A U.S. runner last won in 1994.
African women have won 10 of the last 13 races, with runners from the former Soviet Union winning twice and Natasha Cockram of Wales winning in 2021. A U.S. runner last won the women’s race in 1994.
