Chasing a Special Niche : L.A. Marathon: World’s second-largest race loves ‘people’s’ billing but wants world-class status too.

It all begins with Boston. With 99 years of racing and million-dollar support from John Hancock insurance, it has the tradition and stature all other marathons envy.

And then there’s New York, 25 years old and with an attitude. And London, with a blend of the new and old. And Fukuoka, with Japanese money. And Rotterdam, with the world’s fastest course.

Los Angeles? It’s the new kid on the block, and depending on who is talking, is a prodigy or a pretender; an heir apparent to New York, which has sponsor and television troubles, or a pretty Pittsburgh.

It is the envy of some for its market and breadth of sponsorship. With 19,000 runners, Los Angeles has the world’s second-largest field, behind New York, and still bills itself as a “people’s marathon.”

That may be what holds it back. Come one, come all. All you need is the entry fee.

It’s a promoter’s delight, but for the world’s best marathoners, people who race for a living, the jury is still out on Los Angeles.

“It’s a carnival,” said Michael O’Reilly, a British runner who has competed all over the world but never in Los Angeles. “Nobody takes it seriously. When you are a professional runner and you wake up on the day after a world-class marathon, you want to get a newspaper and take a look at the times. When you wake up on the day after Los Angeles, you don’t bother.”

Those times are part of what keeps the Los Angeles Marathon from being world class. Whether the product of a course that has the Sunset hills; or the weather, which can be capricious; or the runners themselves, who are in a business in which paydays come only about twice a year, the times have been slow.

The event record, 2 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds, set by Mexico’s Martin Mondragon, is considered pedestrian by those who see an event in terms of the clock.

“I think the Big Four is Boston, New York, London and Fukuoka,” said Jos Hermens, who lives in the Netherlands and books elite fields for marathons around the world and who is watching Los Angeles with an eye toward the future.

“Of course, I’m also partial to Rotterdam, and others are too because probably the three fastest times ever have been run there.”

The world record, 2:06:50, was run by Belayneh Densimo of Ethiopia at Rotterdam in 1988.

This year’s Rotterdam Marathon, being run April 23, will have seven runners who have run 2:10 and under. London will also have an elite field with depth.

In Rotterdam, they will race for about $400,000, appearance money included, which is less than half what Boston will pay out a week earlier and about $100,000 less than Los Angeles will pay in appearance money, performance bonuses and prize money if Sunday’s race is fast enough.

The L.A. Marathon has tried paying prize money, reducing prize money and paying extra appearance money, and various combinations in an attempt to improve the field enough to crack the world’s elite. Runners have come--the world champion, Mark Plaatjes, has run frequently and won in 1991; and Olga Appell, among the world’s best when she is fit, won in 1993--but the field has never had the depth to generate a truly fast race.

Bill Burke, race president, acknowledges that he still has trouble with appearance money, largely because of one race.

“We paid Rosa Mota $100,000 to run, and she just jogged around the course and took the money in 1989,” he said. “We wanted an Olympic champion (Mota had won the women’s gold medal in Seoul in 1988) to spice up the field. She finished second, but the time (2:35:27, 45 seconds behind race winner Zoya Ivanova of the former USSR) was no big deal.

“I wrote the check, and then the next day I saw where that $100,000 would have helped when we were paying bills.”

The atmosphere that brings recreational runners to Los Angeles--every state and 127 countries have been represented in nine years--may keep some elite athletes away.

Burke makes no apologies.

“When you think Los Angeles, what do you think?” he asked. “It’s Tinseltown. It’s Hollywood.”

Yes, that was Whoopi Goldberg along the curb last year. Yes, Corbin Bernsen has run it three times. Yes, that was Jane Fonda, dressed down in baseball cap, helping handicapped runners.

And yes, the organizers made sure that Hollywood, hills and all, was included in the race course.

“People have said that we ought to change the course to make it faster,” said Burke. “But people want to say they ran in Hollywood.”

But if elite runners want to see Whoopi Goldberg or Jane Fonda, they’ll go to the movies. If they want to see Corbin Bernsen, they will turn on TV.

They want to run a race to make money, preferably a faster race so they can make more money.

With that in mind, the L.A. Marathon has upped the ante this year, and Burke says that it’s largely because he wants to stand a little taller when the international roll is called.

This year’s men’s elite field is somewhat insular, with Americans Mark Plaatjes, Barrios and Bob Kempainen as leaders and Mexico’s Martin Pitayo not far behind, but it’s a faster field with greater depth, with a goal of breaking 2:10 on Sunday.

“I’ve told Bill Burke that he has to pay the money to get the kind of field that will run fast,” Plaatjes said. “We need a pack that will make everyone run faster. When I won, I was 41 seconds ahead. That’s been the history here, one runner leaving the field.”

In the closest race, in 1990, Colombia’s Pedro Ortiz won by 11 seconds, and in no other race has the winner been less than 21 seconds ahead.

The women’s races have been even less contested. Olga Appell won by 8:53 last year.