HOT CORNER
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What: Los Angeles Sports and Fitness Magazine/Los Angeles Marathon program.
The official program for the 17th Los Angeles Marathon is a 16-page supplement to the three-issue-old magazine LAS&F;, Los Angeles Sports and Fitness Magazine. Publisher Danny Greenberg, the former senior vice president of Foxsports.com, started the magazine because he said there was, “Nothing that serves just Los Angeles. There was nothing talking to this community.”
LAS&F; distinguishes itself from other fitness magazines in several ways: Each issue is theme-oriented and it’s free. LAS&F; isn’t available at newsstands, but the bi-monthly magazine can be found at more than 400 Los Angeles retail locations, including health clubs, sporting goods stores, restaurants, bookstores and libraries.
The guide to Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon and the Quality of Life Expo--which runs Thursday-Saturday at the Los Angeles Convention Center--includes a list of 400 exhibitors, entertainers, a detailed map of the new course, past winners, and capsules on some runners to watch. There’s also a short on 78-year-old marathoner Milton T. Bassett and an item about Brian Gillespie and fiancee Maureen, who met at Mile 6 during the 1998 race. They will be married at that spot during this year’s race. There is also a look at the race’s “Legacy Runners”, 317 people who have run in all 16 marathons.
“What we’re doing is pretty well defined,” said Greenberg, a former television producer at CNN. “We’re not going to be doing a lot of skiing and surfing. We’re mostly a running magazine and we’ll cover some adventure racing. We want to hone in on the everyday runner, not just the elite athlete.”
The current issue includes a compelling feature on 39-year Calabasas resident Shannon Farar-Griefer, the first woman to double the Badwater 135-mile ultra-marathon. Last summer, she ran 292 miles in 71/2 days, completing a climb to the summit of Mount Whitney between the two 135-mile runs that go through Death Valley. Editor Jason Johnson--who also served a stint at Foxsports.com--is the only other full-time editorial employee on staff of the magazine, which relies heavily on contributing writers.
The last page of the magazine is dubbed the “Hollywood Ending,” featuring an interview with a celebrity. Star-power is definitely lacking, and so are the tough questions.
In the debut edition, E! Entertainment’s “Wild On” host Brooke Burke was asked questions including, “At what age did you begin to take exercising seriously and why?”
The current issue features morning deejay Danny Bonaduce of “Partridge Family” fame.