It Has a Foothold in Tradition : Outside of Boston, Few Races Can Rival the Storied History of the Western Hemisphere Marathon

In glamour and size, the Western Hemisphere Marathon in Culver City hardly approaches the magnitude of the Los Angeles Marathon.

But not even L.A., which has grown into one of the world’s largest marathons, can match the legacy or tradition of the Western Hemisphere Marathon.

The 26-mile 385-yard footrace held the first week of December celebrated its 45th anniversary last month. It is the second-oldest consecutively run marathon behind the 96-year-old Boston Marathon.

“The Western Hemisphere Marathon was one of the marathons we studied,” L.A. Marathon President Bill Burke said. “You can’t judge a race by numbers alone, they have an identity. We tried to incorporate the community style and get the local civic leaders involved. We copied all those things. We just did it on a bigger scale.”

What Burke was unable to duplicate, however, was the Western Hemisphere Marathon’s storied history.

The race was the first to allow women to compete with men in 1971 and was the site of three women’s world bests.

Cheryl Bridges won the first race in 2 hours 49 minutes 40 seconds. In 1973, Miki Gorman lowered the record to 2:46:36. The next year, Jacqueline Hansen ran a course-record 2:43:55.

Hansen, who also won the Western Hemisphere marathon in 1972 and 1977, became the first woman to break 2:40, setting a world best of 2:38:19 in Eugene, Ore., in 1975.

Acting as executive director of the International Runners Committee, Hansen also led a movement among female middle-distance runners to include the women’s 5,000 and 10,000 meters as exhibition events in the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials.

“Culver City was really at the forefront of the women’s movement,” said Hansen, 44, of Topanga. “They didn’t go halfway with it. They encouraged it and went on record with it.”

Twenty years earlier, the Western Hemisphere marathon was the first to encourage wheelchair participants, establishing the category in 1951.

Tom Ryan of Costa Mesa has participated in the Western Hemisphere marathon as a runner and in the wheelchair division.

Ryan, 63, a former U.S. record-holder for the one-hour run, won the race in 1959 and finished second in 1963. Ryan lost his right leg in a traffic accident 11 years ago but came back to finish the race in 1983 as a wheelchair competitor.

“Boston had tremendous prestige and brought the marathon to the public,” said Ryan, who has run in six Boston Marathons. “Culver City started off pretty small and I’m surprised they have last this long.”

The race, though, almost never made it through its inaugural year in 1948.

The first Western Hemisphere Marathon was held in conjunction with the Coliseum Relays, one of the largest track and field events in the nation at the time, and run over the 1932 Olympic course from Long Beach to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

Only 37 runners started and were scheduled to arrive just before the mile run, the meet’s featured event. However, the athletes were delayed by rush-hour traffic.

When the first runner Gerald Cote of Canada arrived at the Coliseum, the gate was locked. After the gate was finally opened, he was forced to run around hurdles which were on the track for an upcoming race to reach the finish. Cote ran his victory lap puffing on a cigar.

The next year, the race was moved to Culver City with the support of the City Council and the influence of Syd Kronenthal, the Director of Culver City Human Services, and Paul Helms, one of the city’s major businessmen.

In 1964, the course was changed to simulate the course of the Tokyo Olympics, resulting in the race’s selection as the site for U.S. Olympic Trials.

Billy Mills, a 26-year-old Marine Corps officer, was one of the runners to earn a berth on the U.S. marathon team, finishing second.

Mills, however, is better known for engineering one of the most astonishing upsets in Olympic track and field history in Tokyo, winning the 10,000 meters in an Olympic-record time to defeat world-record holder Ron Clarke of Australia.

The Western Hemisphere marathon course has changed little over the past 25 years, but Bill Scobey’s record of 2:15:21 set in 1971 has remained unchallenged.

The race begins and finishes in front of the Veterans Memorial building on Overland Avenue, marked by a permanent foot-wide strip, embedded in the street. A perpetual monument has also been erected in front of the building, listing winners from each year’s race.

The course winds its way along Jefferson Blvd. into West L.A. for the first five miles, then follows Culver Blvd. toward the ocean for the next five miles.

Runners traverse a three-mile stretch along the beach on Vista Del Mar before reaching the halfway and turnaround point in Playa Del Rey.

“It was fast and flat,” said Hansen, winner of the 1973 Boston Marathon and 1976 Honolulu Marathon. “It was my hometown course and I could run a quality race without traveling.”

At its peak, the Western Hemisphere marathon drew 1,500 runners in the mid-1950s compared to the nearly 20,000 expected to compete in the L.A. Marathon in March.

The number of participants in the Western Hemisphere Marathon dwindled steadily and to below 300 in 1987 with the creation of the L.A. Marathon in 1986. Threatened with the marathon’s extinction, Culver City residents joined municipal officials to help increase turnout in 1989.

“It’s always been a real community event,” Kronenthal said. “People didn’t want to lose their marathon.”

With the help of private businesses, prize money was awarded for the first time in 1990 and the turnout nearly doubled. This year’s race, won by Jose Ortiz Pina, 29, of Gardena in 2:27:43 and Mary Button of Los Angeles, 33, in 2:51:02, attracted nearly 1,100 participants.

The race, dedicated to Bobby Cons, who won three consecutive Western Hemisphere Marathons from 1953-55 who died in June, was combined with the International Doctor’s Marathon, marking the first time the event has been run in the U.S.

A 5-K and a one-mile fun run were also added as well as a half marathon held in conjunction with Students Run L.A., a citywide training program for the L.A. Marathon.

Pina and Button earned $250 for their victory, a far cry from the $60,000 given to the winners of the Boston Marathon or the $20,000 and a Mercedes Benz plus performance bonuses awarded at the L.A. Marathon.

However, it was a major step

forward toward restoration of the Western Hemisphere Marathon, which does not have major corporate sponsors, television contracts or offer appearance fees.

Under the direction of the Culver City Department of Parks and Recreation, the race was organized by a volunteer staff of nine that dwindled to three by end of August. The group sought sponsors and contributions to raise the $44,000 required to stage the marathon.

“It went beyond being a volunteer, it was practically a full-time job,” said Barbara Chittenden, 37, the marketing chairperson for the race. “I made a commitment to the sponsors and to the runners. I made every effort it took to make it a reality.”

In the week’s leading to the race, the committee conducted weekly medical and running clinics, a health and fitness expo and a pre-race dinner. The group also enlisted the help of 400 race-day volunteers from charities, nonprofit organizations and service clubs.

Roderic LaZard, 31, of Studio City was among the volunteers, assisting at one of the 25 water stations along the course.

“It takes a lot of dedication to run a marathon,” LaZard said. “It’s nice to lend people support and give them the recognition they deserve. It’s my way of giving something back to the community.”

The Western Hemisphere Marathon has been doing the same for the past 45 years.