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Russian Tatiana Aryasova won the LA Marathon, and the $100,000 "Banco Popular Challenge" with an unofficial time of 2:09:32*, beating out the top "elite" male runner, Laban Moiben of Kenya, who clocked in with an unofficial time of 2:13:50. The petite Aryasova is in peak shape; she recently gave birth and resumed her training rapidly.
Both runners received the keys to their new Honda Accords thanks to the race's sponsor, Honda of America, whose headquarters are located here in Torrance. They also each received a cash award of $20,000. The winning pair took the lead early on, and were ahead of the more than 26,000 runners who began the race in North Hollywood and traveled the 26 miles on foot to Downtown LA.
The wheelchair race had an exciting finish earlier this morning, which KTLA describes as featuring a "grueling sprint" taking place for the last six miles of their race. The winner was Saul Mendoza, who crossed the line in first place for the seventh time today, just moments ahead of Krige Schaburt, whose wheelchair had a flat front tire.
Although in the past two years of the race there have been fatalities, thus far only minor injuries, mostly in the bike race ride, have been reported.
*Corrected: Does not include the differential head start time of 19:38--LWR
Photo of today's marathon race by [Kwasi B.] via the LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr
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Uh, correction necessary. It would have been a historic victory if Aryasova ACTUALLY won the race - rewriting the record books and the history of marathon races worldwide. It was Moiben who won the overall race - and obviously, the men's race. Aryasova won the women's race - her time 2:29.
Both slow marathon finishing times.
Also, it is a bike ride, not a race.
oran--I watched Aryasova be crowned the winner and handed her giant check on television today, and news sources are all reporting her time as 2:09, and Moiben's as 2:13. I did, however, find that the Daily Breeze has her time at 2:29 (perhaps your source) which seems to be a typo. What is your source?
PinLA, if we're going to split hairs, it's the Acura LA Bike Tour. I'll agree they are riding bikes, which makes calling it a ride appropriate, but would reason that since they are competing for bests in times, it is also a race. Shall we call it a "Tour" like the official folks do?
Aryasova's time was around 2:29. The time you saw on the tv screen was the time that had elapsed from the beginning of the overall race as well as the elite men. The elite women started 19:43 prior to the elite men in order to compete for a $100,000 men vs. women challenge.
While the top women continue to inch closer to the top men's times, they have not yet surpassed the men.
Lindsay, I never knew the bikers were in a time challenge. Unless things have changed, they always claimed that it was not a race. The first time they did this some years back, I remember the organizers specifically saying there is to be no “racing.”
As to the times –
"The time differential for the 2008 Banco Popular Challenge is 19:38"
The elite women were allowed to start 19min 38sec before the race, so as to put them on an "even playing field" with the men for that 100K dollar challenge put up by the bank as a prize. They have done this for the past few years. Official marathon time was started when the elite men started, but the elite women already had a 19.38 head start. So add that to her 2.09. Without looking up marathon records, 2.09 for a woman runner would have probably been some world record, as Oran mentioned above.
I stand duly and humbly corrected. I didn't know that the head start factored in the way it does, I thought perhaps it was a way of pacing out the groups for logistical purposes. I will confess this is the first time in my life I've paid anymore attention to a marathon besides "Crap! This street is closed thanks to that damn marathon!" so I am a fish out of water. I also had no clue that men's and women's times were such a hot topic!
Now I know! Of course, Aryasova still gets the big check and is being called "the winner" so I'm gonna run with that. Get it? Run.
Arrrrrgh.
No times for the cyclists? Okay, I fully concede: It was a ride! A ride! I will correct my copy.
Wow, this marathon really proved the old adage for me and the word "assume."
I saw the russian woman run by my place at 7th/Spring. I really can't believe that after 26 miles she was still practically *sprinting*.. it made my jaw drop.
Also the bike tour is definitely not a race, there are lots of kids, beach cruisers, bikes with stereos etc and it's just a casual ride. I'm no pro rider or anything, but this year the course seemed more difficult than in the past.