Bronchitis Puts Stop to Kiplagat’s Streak

Lornah Kiplagat of Kenya, the two-time defending women’s champion, was unable to make history as the first three-time L.A. Marathon winner, dropping out in the 10th mile Sunday after showing signs of distress that included vomiting blood.

She was suffering from bronchitis, which also affected her when she finished 10th in the Chicago Marathon in 1997.

“At the start of the race, I was really feeling absolutely OK. . . but after four miles it was very hard for me to breathe,” she said. “I couldn’t understand what was going on because it was not a cold and I was not feeling pain. I thought I would get over it.

“But when I was in the sixth mile, I started coughing. In the seventh mile, it was getting hard for me to breathe again and I coughed continuously.”

Finally, she pulled out.

Was she angry?

“Why should I be?” said Kiplagat, who is 24 and running only her fourth marathon. “This is just the beginning. It’s not even the halfway point in my career. This is a human body, and we don’t expect always 100%. . . .

“I will accept it. That’s OK. No problem.”

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American distance running, becoming increasingly distant from the rest of the world, got a boost Sunday with the formation of Running USA, a trade organization for the road-racing industry.

Designed to foster heightened awareness of Americans in the sport and promote increased participation to develop elite distance runners, Running USA is a joint venture with USA Track and Field and various U.S. races, which will pay a $1,000 sanctioning fee, plus $100 per 1,000 participants.

Several races are mulling joining the organization, including the Los Angeles Marathon.

Steve Edwards will be Running USA’s executive director and offices will be established in Treasure Island, Fla., and Santa Barbara, and a full-time staff of five will be hired.

“With more than 100 American races with more than 4,000 participants and several multibillion-dollar companies selling their products to runners, road racing represents an important industry,” Edwards said in a statement. “By bringing the leading races under a single umbrella, we will for the first time enable the sport to flourish and compete on a national level with other professional sports.”

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Race rabbit Leonid Shvetsov, a doctor in his native Russia but a runner--and, he’s afraid, potential cab driver in Albuquerque--figures he did his job Sunday, taking the field through a 65-minute, 20-second half marathon.

That done, he stopped on Wilshire Boulevard to look for a way back to the race’s headquarters in the Los Angeles Public Library.

“They told me to look for a race official with a radio, but all I saw were volunteers,” he said.

So he jogged another 3 1/2 miles until he found an official who could get him off his feet.

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Saul Mendoza of Mexico is the L.A. Marathon’s first three-time winner after holding off world record-holder Heinz Frei of Switzerland in a tight finish to capture the men’s wheelchair division for the third year in a row.

Mendoza and Frei both finished in 1:28:42, with third-place finisher Aaron Gordian of Mexico only one second behind.

Deanna Sedoma of Escondido won the women’s wheelchair race, holding off a field that included two-time L.A. winner Jean Driscoll of Champaign, Ill., the U.S. record-holder. Sedoma’s time was 2:03:43, with Driscoll second in 2:09:39.

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Next year’s Los Angeles Marathon is set for March 5.