Marathon

Marathoners typically have two goals: finish the race, and finish the race under a set time without hitting the wall. One researcher thinks he's found a new formula that calculates how much carbohydrates a runner needs to eat and at what pace he or she needs to run in order to complete the race without feeling any ill effects or dropping out. Running the 2005 New York marathon was the catalyst for the study by Benjamin Rapoport, a student in...

When historians of such things seek the moment the U.S. Olympic Committee found a way to forge the agreement Thursday that put the U.S. back in the game as a potential Olympic Games host, they need look no further than Oct. 7, 2009. It was five days after Chicago had suffered a humiliating first-round loss in the International Olympic Committee vote for host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. There quickly followed calls for heads in the USOC leadership to roll. It was the day USOC Chairman Larry Probst got so angry about being called out by some of his constituents, including athletes and the heads of the national sports federations, that he vowed to show them.

On the small screen Where: Turner Classic Movies When: 20-hour marathon on Friday

The Boston Marathon has seen hotter days. There was "The Inferno" in 1909, with temperatures rising to 97 degrees, and the "Run for the Hoses" in 1976, with spectators hosing down winner Jack Fultz in 100-degree heat. But that is probably little consolation for the participants in Monday's 116th running of the race, which saw temperatures climb as high as 89 degrees on the course from Hopkinton to Boston's Back Bay. As many as 4,300 of the nearly 27,000 registered runners opted to skip what is considered by many as a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Beneath surprisingly sunny skies, Fatuma Sado won the 27th annual L.A. Marathon in the women's category on Sunday, posting a time of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 39 seconds. [Updated at 10:25 a.m.: Officials had earlier said Sado's finishing time was 2:25:38. Her official time of 2:25:39 was the fourth-fastest performance in the women's race in Los Angeles. ] Simon Njoroge, a 31-year-old from Kenya, won the men's side, posting a time of 2:12:12 in the 26.2-mile race that began at Dodger Stadium and finished in Santa Monica.  Both runners won $25,000 for their first-place finishes as well as a Honda CRV valued at about $30,000, and because Sado crossed the finish line first overall, she won a $100,000 gender challenge bonus.

Facing weak poll numbers and the very real possibility of a bottom-tier finish in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Rick Perry on Monday likened the 2012 Republican presidential contest to a marathon that was still in its first mile. Speaking to supporters in the faux-rustic lobby of a modern hotel near the banks of the Missouri River, Perry said the early stages of a long race are often misleading, and he predicted that other candidates would "hit the wall" later on. A distance runner before being slowed by back problems, the Texas governor said, "I finished my marathon, and I expect to finish this marathon as well.

Finally, the L.A. Marathon will make it to the Pacific. The new "Stadium to the Sea" route has received the imprimatur of the cities along the course, ensuring that runners next March 21 will have the point-to-point route they and organizers have favored. On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council approved the plan to end the race at the ocean.

FRANK ULRICH , 35, nursing student, Burbank What's your motivation ? I was with a friend in Little Tokyo last summer, and she was talking about how we should do the L.A. Marathon. She mentioned how there was a new course this year, and that definitely made it sound good. Then I paid the non-refundable fee, and she said, ‘Oh, I don't think I can do it.' She got so busy, she never got around to training. I was left with this non-refundable fee, and I thought, I've still got to do it...

Finishing a marathon is a huge athletic feat, but not everyone who finishes one is in tip-top shape. A new study finds that people who have not trained appropriately and may not be in the best shape could temporarily damage their hearts. The study, presented Monday at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010 in Montreal, focused on 20 healthy amateur runners who were given exercise, blood and MRI tests six to eight weeks before a marathon, two days after finishing, and some three months later.

The 2012 Boston Marathon is off and running, though there may not be quite as many participants as expected doing the actual running due to the potentially dangerous heat expected during Monday's race. The temperature was 69 degrees when the wheelchair racers left Hopkinton for the start of the race at 9:17 a.m. ET, and had risen to 71 when the women started at 9:32 and was up to 73 when the rest of the field took off at 10. By the time the runners get to Boston's Back Bay, they could be facing temperatures in the mid-80s.

Wesley Korir won the Boston Marathon on Monday, while Sharon Cherop was victorious in the women's race. Both runners are from Kenya, and both of them posted the slowest winning times since 1985. Both the slow times and the Kenyan sweep came as no surprise. Temperatures rose into the 80s during the race, leading to the slower paces for Korir, the 19th Kenyan men's winner in 22 years, and Cherop, the third Kenyan women's winner in the last five years. Last year, Geoffrey Mutai, also from Kenya, ran the fastest marathon in history (2 hours, three minutes, 2 seconds)

Actor Sean Astin - a.k.a. Samwise Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings" - trekked across much of Middle-earth wearing hairy prosthetic feet. It's easy to be motivated with a legion of orcs on your tail. But on the streets of Los Angeles on regular old Earth, Astin must find the drive to run from within. On March 18, Astin ran the L.A. Marathon for the third time - but as he explained in a recent interview, he doesn't always find it easy to push himself to lace up those shoes.

It's March 18, the day of the Honda L.A. Marathon, and I'm about to do something foolish. Again. I was remiss in my training. Instead of seeking professional advice, I devised a do-it-yourself plan to ensure I would finish the race in less than four hours and wound up pushing myself harder than my middle-aged body could tolerate. That led to a derailing injury. I'm just barely better on race day, but I still plan to push it to the wall. Why? Because every runner dreams of finishing a marathon.

Going too green? Re " More than a color clash ," March 16 I was greatly saddened by the snafu regarding the green bike lane in front of City Hall interfering with the film industry's use of a prime location. I have been a bicycle commuter for five years, and let's be honest, Angelenos treat our streets like highways. For a better city, we need to change this. We no longer have residential areas, just shortcuts for speeding cars. Just crossing a street is dangerous, let alone bicycling.

The forecasts called for a strong chance of rain , but so far it hasn't appeared.  Instead, the sun is out for the 27th annual L.A. Marathon that began Sunday morning.  The elite women's runners started the 26.2-mile run at Dodger Stadium just after 7 a.m. and Misikir Mekonnin of Ethiopia took an early lead. But the women's race has so far been dominated by 20-year-old Fatuma Sado of Ethopia. She took the lead in the seventh mile and has started to pull away, separating herself in the 12th mile by opening up a 25-second lead over the runner in second place, Ethopia's Belainesh Gebre.  Sado is on pace to break the course record of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 10 seconds, set by Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia in 2006.  The men began just short of 7:30 a.m. and Elias Kemboi, a top contender from Kenya, held a lead after the first two miles.

Why do I love the L.A. Marathon? 1. Although I can shoot hoops in my backyard, I am unlikely ever to get invited onto a court with Kareem or Magic. But in the L.A. Marathon, I get to line up and take my best shot at Simon Bor--who turned in probably one of the top 10 marathon performances since Pheidippides last Sunday. 2. Although I can shoot hoops in my backyard, I am unlikely to persuade anyone to sit on the sidelines and cheer for me to do the job. But in the L.A. Marathon, for three and five and seven hours, hundreds of thousands line the streets and cheer their lungs out. For me. 3. Although I can go to the Forum to see a Laker game, I will cheer there for one team and against the other.

Re Ginger Floerchinger-Franks' Sept. 28 letter on the L.A. Marathon: Your Sept. 21 article included the benefits to the race and the community by changing the course, but did not cover any of the benefits to our runners. Last year, we received considerable input from runners regarding traffic and parking problems. In an effort to improve the situation, we made changes that will benefit all the runners and create a smoother operation as they travel to and from the start and finish of the course.

Beneath surprisingly sunny skies, Fatuma Sado won the 27th annual L.A. Marathon in the women's category on Sunday, posting a time of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 39 seconds. [Updated at 10:25 a.m.: Officials had earlier said Sado's finishing time was 2:25:38. Her official time of 2:25:39 was the fourth-fastest performance in the women's race in Los Angeles. ] Simon Njoroge, a 31-year-old from Kenya, won the men's side, posting a time of 2:12:12 in the 26.2-mile race that began at Dodger Stadium and finished in Santa Monica.  Both runners won $25,000 for their first-place finishes as well as a Honda CRV valued at about $30,000, and because Sado crossed the finish line first overall, she won a $100,000 gender challenge bonus.

At the beginning of her fourth marathon Sunday, 20-year-old Fatuma Sado liked the weather, which was nicer than expected, and her pace, which wouldn't be matched. The Ethiopia native dominated the 27th annual L.A. Marathon, posting a winning time of 2 hours 25 minutes 39 seconds, the fourth-fastest finish in race history and more than two minutes ahead of her personal record. "I am successful running marathons because I train with elite Ethiopian marathoners," she said through an interpreter after earning her second marathon win, following her debut win in Hamburg, Germany, last May. Sado crossed the finish line ahead of Simon Njoroge, the 31-year-old Kenyan who won the men's race in 2:12:12, his seventh marathon win and sixth in his last nine.