LOS ANGELES MARATHON ANNOUNCES PRIZE PURSE, BONUSES FOR ELITE RUNNERS

$100,000 “Challenge Bonus” Tops List of Awards

LOS ANGELES, Calif.— The Los Angeles Marathon, which pioneered the “challenge bonus” among big-city marathons, has announced its prize purse and bonus structure for the May 25, 2009 race. In addition to awards for the top five male and top five female runners, there are time-based bonuses and the “challenge bonus” – which goes to the first runner, male or female, across the...

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The Word of Rod Dixon

The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. ~Erma Bombeck

Nick Curl, LA Marathon Race Director

The busiest guy in our office is our Race Director Nick Curl. He’s a veteran of many marathons and other events, and his office is like the nerve center here at HQ. So what does he do all day? A lot! I sat down with him for the explanation.

Peter

Rod Dixon on proper stride technique

Ever wonder what a proper running stride should look like? Well, wonder no more. Here’s our man Rod demystifying this all-important aspect of running. He gives you some simple exercises you can use to develop better technique, and you can see him demonstrate his butter-smooth stride at the UCLA track.

Peter

LA Marathon 2.0

For those of you who are interested, you’ll be happy to know that we now have a host of social media options related to the LA Marathon. We look forward to seeing you at all of these places, and feel free to post photos, comments and videos. We’re adding content, but these community gather points depend on input from all of you.

Facebook

Youtube

Flickr

How we spent our weekend

It was a busy running weekend for our staff. These are some highlights:

• Stacy Embretson, our Director of Operations, ran the Surf City Marathon as a pace leader. Her target time was 4:20 and she came in at 4:18:16. Not bad!

• Ginger Williams, our Director of Community Relations, ran the Surf City Half Marathon.

• Nick Curl and Rod Dixon were both down at our Roadrunners training session Saturday morning.

• I took my kids and nephew—ages 9,10 and 11—down to run the Super Bowl 5K in Redondo Beach. I’m proud to say they all finished without any whining. Although the highlight was seeing Team Fluffy Bunny finish the 10K as a 6-man caterpillar in under 35 minutes—Wow!

Peter

Rod Dixon’s top ten running books

1. Once a runner....John Parker
2. Running Within....Jerry Lynch
3. On the Wings of Mercury....Lorraine Moller
4. The Four Minute Mile....Roger Bannister
5. The Kings of Distance....Peter Lovesey
6. No Bugles No Drums....Peter Snell
7. Kiwis Can Fly....Ivan Agnew
8. Ultra Marathon Man....Dean Karnazes
9. Healthy Intelligent Training....Dr Keith Livingston
10. 50 Greatest Marathons....William Cockerell