Ethiopia’s Fatuma Sado on pace to break women’s L.A. Marathon record

Fatuma Sado, a 20-year-old Ethiopian runner, is on pace to break the women’s course record for the L.A. Marathon during Sunday’s 27th annual running of the 26.2-mile race.

This is Sado’s fourth marathon and second this year, but she has been dominant.

She took the lead in the seventh mile, separated herself in the 12th and has only put distance between her and the second-place runner from there.

Sado is on pace to break the course record of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 10 seconds, set by Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia in 2006.

If Sado is the first runner -- man or woman -- to cross the finish line in Santa Monica, she’ll win a $100,000 gender challenge bonus as well as $25,000 for winning the women’s marathon. She’ll also win a Honda CRV with an MSRP value of about $30,000.

Sado’s personal-best marathon finish time was 2:28:01 in Istanbul in 2011.

On the men’s side, underdog Teodoro Vega of Mexico led for 11 of the first 13 miles, but was overtaken in the 14th mile, when the men’s leaders started to separate.

Kenyan runners Weldon Kirui and Simon Njoroge stood out on the men and broke away, making the marathon seemingly a two-man race.

Njoroge took a lead in the 17th mile and is running at a pace of 4:58-per-mile.