Medal Shortage at L.A. Marathon

While organizers did many things well on the 17th annual L.A. Marathon, March 3, one tragic misstep was their unconscionable miscount of winner’s medals. All finishers are promised a medal, but this year’s organizers ran out of medals with hundreds (possibly thousands?) of runners still coming in. After contending with a newly designed course featuring a dangerously narrow start in which several runners went down, then conquering the heartbreak hills ascending the last miles, finishers in the middle and back of the pack were treated to the words, “You’ll get your medal in a few weeks. Maybe.” Talk about grasping defeat from the jaws of victory! How sad that a moment of triumph was turned into a moment of disappointment for so many who had worked so hard.

Less than 1% of the population will ever attempt a marathon. Witnessing the treatment of ordinary mortals who braved the half-hour bomb threat delay, record heat and the aforementioned “course improvements” only to shamble home empty-handed, it’s easy to see why we have so many couch potatoes.

Rick Senger

Culver City