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LA Marathon to change race date three weeks earlier for 2009
By admin | September 22, 2008
Word has it that the Los Angeles City Council has approved the sale of the Los Angeles Marathon to the McCourt Group and to change the race date three weeks earlier to Presidents Day which is on a Monday. According to a local school teacher who attended a Student Run L.A. event this past Sunday, its official.
Also, it was reported by Bob, Confessions of a overweight, middle aged runner about a similar report so indeed we are not imagining this. Bob, the runner, (no relation to this blog), states that the completion of the sale takes place Monday September 22, 2008.
If true, this would impact many race organizations that train runners for the LA Marathon including the famous LA Road Runners, LA Leggers, Student Run L.A. and others. Cutting out three weeks of a 6 month training program is the equivalent of cutting out about 15 work out runs. The Politicians should not approve changing the date for the 2009 L.A. Marathon.
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Topics: guest-blogger |
September 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
The date should NOT be changed, I will be personally running the marathon and not only does it interfere with the training but with work as well. Sunday is a good day for families and friends to get out there and show their support. With the date being changed it will be difficult to do so.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I agree Sunday is the ways its always been. Its nice to do a race when there is very little traffic. Some people work on Presidents Day so if the Marathon interferes with business, you can bet the next thing in the forseable future will be time limits to finish the race. Its nice to have a Marathon that rewards everyone based on finishing the race which by itself is quite an accomplishment!
September 30th, 2008 at 6:46 am
A lot of people work on Presidents Day. The Sunday date should have been kept because it has been quite successful because most people don’t work on Sundays. Not a smart move.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
i did L.A. in 1997 and it was a great and memorable experience, however with the date change to a monday in febuary , this might be the start of the end for the race…
keep the date as the first sunday in march, start earlier, go back to say the 1997 course and get a better manangment group to organize the race…
with this infomation about the changes, i doubt i will ever go back !
October 6th, 2008 at 4:33 am
@Foxje-don,
What was it about the route in 1997 that made it better to run than the present course that starts near Universal?
October 20th, 2008 at 5:37 am
I think,if we the runners cancel hotel reservations,fly trips,and decide not to participate on the next LA marathon the new owners and city council will think twice before do any changes, with out us the people who train for months,the ones that pay to run,the ones that make the effort,there is no race.NO RUNNERS,NO MARATHON.just think,mostly only schools,banks,and gov, are off. the other millions of people will be affected.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:56 am
I think that the marathon should be kept as as a sunday or a saturday , but not Monday. Monday should be a recovery day for all the runners. I dont think nobody will look foward on running a race on a monday.Please LA go back to the first sunday of March. Iam driving from Fresno to run my favorite race. Remember its not to late to change the date.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:59 am
@ Art,
Yes, the owners should listen to those who run the marathon.
@ Ana Martinez,
Yes, Monday is a work day for many. Not everyone gets that day off. It will be interesting to see how this coming L.A. Marathon turns out.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 am
I have been training since last March to run for the FIRST time this unique Angelique marathon. Believing that it was gonna be during March, I scheduled and resecheduled many future events already in my agenda, and now…..we have some corporate alliens tryin to change what works already.Thta was smart! Way to go people! I guess we can always count on the business alliens to screw up things, huh? If it works already, PLEASE DON’T fix it! Leave it alone, let it RUN!
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 am
@ Jorge Guillen,
I agree with you that if its not broken, don’t fix it. Running on a Monday — that will be interesting.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Well guess what - the date has been changed AGAIN.
For the second time, the new operators have changed the date, 3 months LATER and its now going to take place on Memorial day.
As someone frustrated with the changes, and training for my first marathon, this only comes as good news because I suffered a stress fracture 2 days ago and have to be out of training for a while.
Just waiting for them to move it again…
November 11th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I will be running my 9th LA Marathon and I’m not happy about Mr. MacCourt involvement in the race but what can you do……It’s America. Anything is for sale….
Just get out and RUN……
I will regardless of the date…………………………..
November 11th, 2008 at 5:17 am
@ Cherri,
I guess the new date may be good for some. Stress fracture? Wow. Hope you get better soon.
However, for most runners following a six month training program, they are already running 14 miles this weekend so that they can peak on March 1, 2009.
Nobody can keep a peak for 3 months.
The owners were warned that Monday February 16, 2009, Presidents day, was going to have more traffic than on the traditional Sunday. They got the traffic study only after they had already changed the date. Now that they have this information, they want to change the date again.
This time three months later. Again, without consulting the major running groups prior to making this decision.
Are we supposed to ask everyone to forego family time, family trips during memorial day weekend?
November 11th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I personally would like to keep it on a Sunday.
Its been the first Sunday of March for the past 23 years. That shows you a baseball owner doesn’t know anything about marathons. We should all boycott the L.A. Marathon.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Well its not exactly the fault of the new company for moving the date to a Monday. The reason behind the change is because church leaders were complaining that the marathon was on a Sunday and Sundays are their days. So the church people forced the city council to mandate a Monday date change.
Blame the churches
November 16th, 2008 at 6:45 am
@ Eric,
Well, I am not sure about about blaming the churches for picking Memorial Day weekend. It seems to me that the L.A. Marathon could have been moved to the first Saturday in March 2009 or any other Saturday around that time.
The Honolulu Marathon starts at 5 AM on Sunday, December 14, 2008. It seems logical that the L.A. Marathon could also move to an earlier start time to make it cooler temperatures for at least half the race for the Memorial Day Weekend.
Many seasoned runners participate in both the L.A. Marathon and the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon and now they are bumping heads because they are only a week apart.