Changing Course : Moving Start, Finish to Downtown Could Put Marathon on Faster Track

For the first time in its decade-long run, the Los Angeles Marathon made an about-face Wednesday when organizers announced that they will reverse the course and move the start and finish lines to Downtown.

The new, faster route is expected to attract a flock of elite runners and draw more publicity and spectators to the marathon, which Downtown business leaders and city officials hope will translate into more dollars to boost business and help revitalize the area.

“We want more visibility for Downtown,” said Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, an organization of Downtown businesses. “The marathon will allow us to showcase this part of the city for not only the world to see but also for our own residents.”

Bill Burke, president of L.A. Marathon Inc., said his organization moved the race to Downtown from Exposition Park near the Coliseum to have “a more dramatic focal point.”

“The inclusion of Downtown I think adds another dimension,” Burke said at a news conference of city officials and Downtown business leaders to announce the new course.

The start of the March 3 race will kick off at the 7th Street Market at 7th and Figueroa streets. It will end at 5th and Figueroa streets in front of the Los Angeles Public Library after running in the opposite direction of its path of the first 10 years.

Rumblings to change the course erupted soon after last year’s marathon, when residents in some of the neighborhoods along the 26.2-mile route complained that the race disrupted traffic in their areas.

Some professional runners, including world champion Mark Plaatjes, also asked for changes to make the race faster. With the potential of luring more top runners, marathon officials started their search.

Burke said marathon officials had considered Century City and Westwood as possibilities for starting and finishing points for the race.

As an L.A. city councilman and marathon enthusiast, Zev Yaroslavsky had petitioned Burke to start the marathon in Westwood, which was then part of his council district. However, when Yaroslavsky left the council to become a county supervisor, interest in Westwood waned. His successor, Michael Feuer, had little interest in having the marathon run through Westwood and marathon officials looked elsewhere, Burke said.

Central City Assn. and the Downtown Marketing Council courted the marathon, with help from Councilwoman Rita Walters, who represents the area.

The image of thousands of out-of-town runners staying in hotels and dining in restaurants and thousands of spectators parking in garages made an appealing picture to Downtown business leaders.

“Picture in the future elite runners coming in great numbers, staying in a Downtown hotel, staying in our business community for five nights,” said Randall Villareal, manager of the Biltmore Hotel and president of the Downtown Marketing Council.

“Picture the restaurant and retail life . . . and the publicity value with the thousands of spectators seeing Downtown the way we see it every day as a safe and attractive community,” Villareal said.

The Central City Assn. and the Downtown Marketing Council have proposed holding pancake breakfasts and other events to boost enthusiasm about the marathon, which has become one of the city’s most prestigious sporting events.

Burke said an economic impact study is due out soon to show the marathon’s effect on the city.

Since it began in 1985 in the afterglow of the ’84 Olympics, the marathon has grown bigger and richer, drawing a field of enough amateur and international runners to make it one of the three largest marathons in the nation. Next year’s race will serve as the Olympic trials for Guatemala, Belarus and Ukraine.

Marathon officials said they hope the new course, which cuts out half of the turns and reverses the course to finish the race with six downhill miles, could achieve a race record of less than 2 hours and 10 minutes.

“By changing the course you really streamlined it,” said Pat Connelly, a marathon commissioner and also head of the L.A. Roadrunners Club, a marathon training program.

“When you make that right turn from Hollywood to Sunset you can see Downtown L.A.,” Connelly said, “and you know beneath those tall buildings is the finish line. The runners will be like sails with the wind at their backs.”