L.A. Gets a Run for Its Money

A record 24,532 runners braved hot temperatures to run the 19th annual Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday, winding their way from downtown to the Miracle Mile and back in a feat of endurance that has also become the city’s signature street party.

The first runner to break the tape -- and win a $50,000 bonus prize -- was last year’s women’s winner Tatyana Pozdnyakova, 49, one of a handful of top female runners who were given a 20 1/2-minute head start. The runner with the fastest time was David Kirui, a 26-year-old Kenyan who finished in 2:13:41. Pozdnyakova finished in 2:30:17.

Organizers called the set-up “the Challenge,” and hoped it would make things a little more interesting.

Not that that was ever a problem.

By lunchtime, the scorching sun had pushed temperatures into the mid-80s, and sent scores of runners to medical tents. Yet soldiering on in Pozdnyakova’s wake was a colorful and determined parade of health nuts, weekend warriors, extroverts and physical overachievers who once again transformed Los Angeles’ surface streets into a sort of Mardi Gras with a finish line.

Some came to have a good time. Some came to raise money for their favorite charities. And some came just to test themselves.

“This is a personal goal for me,” Marilyn Ogaldez, a South Los Angeles legal assistant, said before the race. “Although I am 40 years old and I have a 2-year-old, I can do this.”

Yet bystanders could only wonder about the motivations behind the runner in the Mexican wrestling mask, the man in the giant foam cowboy hat, and the guy in pancake makeup who had stuffed his mouth full of lightbulbs and placed a rubber severed hand on his head.

Some had a message. Emilio Driscoll, a Catholic school eighth-grader from Tujunga, made a late decision to carry a wooden cross on his shoulder for all 26.2 miles.

“I’m going to miss church today,” the 15-year-old said cheerfully. “So I’ll just bring Jesus with me.”

Though it has been altered over the years to be flatter and faster, the L.A. Marathon course is still considered tough and hilly, and organizers were not expecting world records to be broken this year.

Aside from the challenge, many runners are enticed by the promise of a grand, traffic-free tour of the culturally diverse city. This year’s course cut through the African American neighborhoods of Leimert Park and the Crenshaw district, the rich restaurant enclaves of Koreatown, the hip environs of the Fairfax district and the border of tony Beverly Hills.

Many runners had family members to cheer them on. But hundreds of strangers also lined the route to shout encouragement. In some neighborhoods, high school cheerleaders turned out in uniform to make noise for the anonymous, sweating herds that lumbered down their streets.

“Everybody treats you so great,” said Anthony Sylvester, 59, a veteran marathon runner from San Francisco. “They’re always reaching out and trying to touch you. So you try to put on the best show you can for them.”

At the starting line at 6th and Figueroa streets, the show began about 6:30 a.m. as participants streamed toward the starting line. Some were dropped off by relatives, some parked, others took public transportation or slept in downtown hotels to be closest to the starting line.

The main body of runners took off at 8:30 to the strains of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” The song extols the virtues of navigating the city by car, but the participants cheered themselves nonetheless. Many pointed to a grandstand and chanted the name of boxing great Muhammad Ali, who blew kisses while standing next to Mayor James K. Hahn and track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

At mile 4, the runners moved west along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, through a thin throng of onlookers who more often than not shouted in Spanish.

“Andale! Andale! Mantiendose corriendo!” a man in a cowboy shirt yelled. Translation: Keep running.

Joyce White, 41, had set up camping chairs with her relatives to watch her sons, Timothy, 17, and Terrance, 15, breeze by near the corner of MLK Jr. Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The boys had entered at the prompting of their youth group leader at Compton Community Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“They looked good,” said White, who hoped her boys were learning about more than just sports. “Like the race, life’s got some ups and downs.”

At mile 7, the course moved through Leimert Park, where runners were buoyed by the polyrhythms of an African drum troupe. Some of the most pained runners smiled, and some of more playful ones stopped to dance.

At mile 12 -- in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods near Pico and Robertson boulevards -- participants were treated to the raucous clarinet melodies of klezmer music.

Brenda Rubins, 53, had been camped along the route with friends since 7 a.m. to encourage her husband, Richard, 58, who was participating in a pre-marathon bike tour that drew about 15,000 participants. She said her signs -- which read “Go Dad” and “Go Richard” -- weren’t a hit just with her husband.

“Every so often we get a response from a guy named Richard,” she said.

Of course, no event representing the true diversity of L.A. could be 100% family-friendly. Hence the lap dancer at West 6th Street and Fairfax Avenue, near mile 18.

Her name, she said, was Venus De Midol. Her sign read, “Free Lap Dances -- Runners Only.” Her goal: “Tempting runners with things they should be doing instead of running.”

The mood was less festive on the Olympic Boulevard stretch, the final leg, especially as the morning turned into noon. Some of the encouraging onlookers looked as fatigued as some runners, but kept their spirits high.

“They’re all going to make it, just not all at the same time,” said New Yorker David Lys, 28, who said he travels with a runner friend to major marathons.

Lys was standing on Olympic near Harvard Boulevard, his face and neck burning red, sweating. He said he had driven across the course at various points to spot his friend.

“They’re looking a little depleted. A lot more than the five-mile mark, I’ll tell you that,” Lys said, clapping and cheering on strangers. “I feel like I’m running with them.”

The finish line at 5th and Flower streets was a scene of both triumph and pain. Runners limped and zig-zagged the last few strides, their faces dripping with sweat.

Some dazed runners searched for family and friends. Once reunited, family members greeted the runners with pats on the back, bouquets of flowers and nutrition bars.

“It was really hot today,” said Jessica Craven, 33, of Camarillo, who finished in 3 hours and 24 minutes. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

More than two hours later, Aries Rosal, 37, of Covina, rolled across the finish line. Yes, he admitted, his time was a little slow. Then again, his clown suit and curly wig weren’t exactly built for speed.