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2008 LA Marathon: The Winners
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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