L.A. Marathon 2023: Thousands hit the streets for the 38th annual trek from downtown to Century City
Undeterred by cloudy skies and cool temperatures, more than 20,000 participants took to the streets Sunday as part of the 38th annual Los Angeles Marathon.
The marathon kicked off at Dodger Stadium, with wheelchair participants starting at 6:30 a.m., followed by elite female runners at 6:45 a.m., elite men at 6:55 a.m. and the full field at 7 a.m.
“This is so exciting,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who was on hand to show her support. “This is an international event. Everybody coming together to celebrate Los Angeles.”
The 26.2-mile course spans some of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Century City. The majority of the route includes large sections of Sunset, Hollywood and Santa Monica boulevards.
Most participants in the marathon — which draws people from around the world — were expected to take three to five hours to complete the course. But the elite runners typically finish the race in a little more than two hours.
Kenya’s Stacy Ndiwa was the first to cross the finish line Sunday in the women’s division, earning $10,000 and clocking in at 2 hours and 31 minutes, followed by Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer, who won the men’s division, finishing at 2 hours, 13 minutes and 13 seconds. Under marathon rules, elite female runners started the race 18 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of the men.
The marathon continued for thousands more as their supporters cheered them on.
Early Sunday, dozens gathered in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall along First Street in downtown Los Angeles to cheer on the throngs of runners as the sun peeked behind the clouds.
It was a festive scene with a group of about 20 people beating taiko drums on the sidewalks to cheer on the runners. Some rang cowbells, while others waved signs of support: “Let’s go mom!” “Angelle, now you can have fun, enjoy life!” “We believe in you!”
Lauren Moussavy, who came with her 3-year-old golden poodle Rocco, was anxiously checking her phone to find the location of her three friends running in the marathon. Finding them was not easy, as hundreds of participants ran past every minute.
But Moussavy, who held a pole with a large American flag, could not be missed. She jumped with joy and hugged her friends as they passed by. The three stopped to take a selfie with her in front of the concert hall.
“Ain’t nobody fresher than my clique — Cyn, Cin, Val,” Moussavy’s pink sign read. Two of her friends, Cynthia and Valerie, were among her bridesmaids, she said.
Moussavy said she and her friends often hike together and that they all are very active, with Valerie doing a 400-mile bike ride last July. Moussavy said she plans to run the L.A. Marathon herself next year.
“I get so much excitement, energy and motivation from it,” she said. Running “pushes you to the limit which I love. It’s never easy and I love it.”
Roxana Fuentes, a 35-year-old certified medical assistant from Boyle Heights, held up a sign of encouragement for her 13-year-old son: “Go Miguel.” Fuentes wore a purple T-shirt with a picture of her and Miguel together at the 30-km Friendship Run in Hansen Dam.
This is Miguel’s first full marathon, Fuentes said. For the last few months, he has been going to Whittier Narrows Park every Sunday to run 10 miles or so as part of his Student Run LA group. He runs 22 miles a week, Fuentes said.
“He says running makes him feel so great, so free,” she said. “I had a lot of anxiety but I have always been a big supporter momma. I never tell my kids not to do it. Let’s just do it!”
Mariam Smith said she flew from her home near Annapolis, Md., to see her 25-year-old son, Ronan O’Shae, run his first L.A. Marathon.
Although this is O’Shae’s fourth marathon, he is expecting to run at the pace of two hours and 20 minutes, Smith said. Smith said she had traveled to support O’Shae when he ran marathons in Sacramento and Chicago.
Smith, who doesn’t run, said she thought O’Shae was crazy when he first talked about running in a marathon, although his dad was an elite sprinter in Ireland. O’Shae runs 18 miles a day to train, Smith said.
But she said she quickly fell in love with seeing her son run marathons.
“I gotta do my mom cheering now,” Smith said, pumping her fists as O’Shae came up the hill. “I shout his name as loudly as I can.”
In Hollywood, Maria Bell, 60, held up a 3-foot cardboard cutout of her daughter, Sabrina Bell, who was running in the marathon with a friend. She also brought her daughter’s two barking dogs — a 5-month-old Bernedoodle named Boogie and 5-year-old foodle named Benson — to cheer her along.
“I’m nervous and excited, but mostly I just want her to know her family is cheering for her along the way,” Maria Bell said.
She was a little nervous. Her daughter texted her from the course, saying that pain in her left foot was starting to intensify.
The goal for Sabrina, 24, was to top her previous best time of 4 hours, 43 seconds set at her inaugural marathon of 2021. “I think the goal has changed to just finishing,” her mother said.
She said her daughter, a graduate student, has been running for the last four years and has always been in shape. Sabrina’s running prowess makes her a family outlier, her mother quipped.
“She doesn’t get her running from me,” she said. “I could never compete in a marathon, let alone finish one.”
Sabrina initially had planned to reach her mother’s position by 8:30 a.m., before injuries and wear slowed her down. Maria Bell waited anxiously but had faith that her daughter would reach her.
Sabrina initially planned to take an ice bath after finishing, but there may be a change this year, her mother said.
“I think she needs a mimosa after this,” she said.
Eduardo Santiago and his wife, Heralia Martinez, found an empty spot near the intersection of McCadden Place and Hollywood Boulevard to cheer on their 16-year-old son, Luis, who has run the marathon before, and their 13-year-old daughter, Joselyn, who was making her marathon debut on Sunday.
“I just want her to finish; I’m not really worried about her time,” said her father, a native of Oaxaca. “I know she’s been nervous and so are we, but we’re also really proud of her.”
Heralia Martinez said her children have been training for months.
“Since about August, they’ve been running a mile and adding a mile to their routine about every 10 days with their school groups,” she said. “They’ve been building to this moment.”
Santiago said the teens have been “loading up on carbs” the last two weeks, eating pizza, pasta and meats to ready themselves for the push.
He said he and his wife can’t wait for a post-race hug.
“We’re going to celebrate, let them get some rest and then go out for some good food,” he said.
In Beverly Hills, Kim Desautel said she was the first spectator to arrive to cheer on the runners at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills. She has come out several times before to show her support.
“It’s really inspiring,” said the corporate travel executive, who lives nearby.
Desautel is a runner herself, but has never run a marathon. She hopes to change that next year and trains every week.
So far, she’s up to 20 miles.
As she waited for the elite runners to cross the roughly 17-mile mark, wheelchair cyclists raced past.
“Woo!!! Looking good!” Desautel yelled in encouragement.
Kathryn Young tries to make it to the marathon every year. She said she came out to support the runners because she understands what they’re going through.
Young, a 58-year old Beverly Hills resident, has run the marathon six times. The last time was more than 10 years ago, and she hasn’t since because of back and knee problems.
She is grateful for the times she did. She said it showed her parts of Los Angeles she never ventured into before and made her feel part of the larger community.
It also taught her grit. She said that after multiple back surgeries following a car accident, she powered through and ran the marathon again.
“My husband thought I was insane, but I said, ‘Trust me the body has muscle memory.’ So he dropped me off and I ran it.”
“I am almost 59 — you go through a lot,” she said. Running marathons “taught me one step at a time, just one step at a time.”
As runners streamed through the intersection of Crescent Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard just before 9 a.m., Young stood on the corner clapping and hooting them on.
“Woo! Come on!” she yelled, before turning to a reporter. “I am getting chills.”
A short time later, Young stopped cheering to lend a runner a hand.
Josue Duarte, 17, was cramping, roughly 17 miles into his first marathon.
When he stopped, seemingly in pain, at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Drive, Young asked if she could help and stretched out Duarte’s hamstring as he sat on the sidewalk.
As she stretched out his leg, another runner came up and handed Duarte a salt tablet and ibuprofen. A short time later Young lowered Duarte’s leg to the ground. Duarte slowly got up, said he felt better and resumed his journey to the finish line.
“You don’t see that everyday, strangers just helping each other,” Young said.
At the finish line in Century City, runners hugged their families and friends, while others lay down on a grassy field, enjoying snacks and beer.
Jason Yang was one of the fastest, finishing ninth with the time of 2:27:57.
“Top 10?!” he yelled when his friends came by to tell him the news.
He had been hoping to finish in the top 20 after winning the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach. But the 32-year-old Koreatown resident was able to push the pace late into the race.
This was his first L.A. Marathon, and the first time running with elite runners, Yang said. But all the training on city streets — he runs 14 miles every day — helped him, he said.
“The last six miles, I passed four people,” said Yang, who works in the finance industry. “I saved [my energy] for the second half.”
Xiao Liu, a 47-year-old electrical engineer, flew from Dallas to run in the race, which finished near his daughter’s UCLA campus. She was at the finish line to cheer him on.
Liu, who finished with a time of 3 hours and 19 minutes, said he started running six years ago, to mark his age of 42, matching with the length of a marathon at 42.195 km.
It was his way of dealing with the “mid-age crisis,” he said with a laugh.
This was his 10th marathon and it was among the hardest, given the hills along the course, he said. Miles 21 and 22 were the toughest.
“You know you are getting there, but it’s uphill,” he said. “It almost killed my legs.”
But he was all smiles — even after dropping his gift box — as he saw his daughter.
“Finishing a marathon is like going through a journey,” he said. “It feels awesome.”
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