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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. USA’s Christina Vergara came in 4th at 2:34:27, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. USA’s Christina Vergara came in 4th at 2:34:27, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Ethiopia’s Sule Gedo first women to cross the finish line at 2:33:52. during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Ethiopia’s Sule Gedo first women to cross the finish line at 2:33:52. during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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Thousands of runners take part in the Los Angeles Marathon 2018 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Sunday, March 18, 2018. The Stadium to the Sea course starts at Dodger Stadium and passes through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before finishing in the City of Santa Monica at the intersection of Ocean and California Avenues, just steps from the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova/Daily Breeze)
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
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Los Angeles Marathon Elite runners, from left, Weldon Kirui, Simon Njoroge, Elisha Barno race past the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles Sunday, March 18, 2018. Kirui won the Los Angeles Marathon with an unofficial time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 47 seconds. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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A marathon runner dressed as a T. Rex Dinosaur competes in the Los Angeles Marathon downtown Los Angeles Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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SANTA MONICA — Whatever the 33rd Annual Los Angeles Marathon lacked in prestige or star power it more than made up for it in drama, three women delivering a Hollywood ending Sunday morning.
It wasn’t until the race turned onto Ocean Avenue with the Santa Monica Pier finishline in sight, that Ethiopia’s Sule Gedo finally pulled away from countywoman Tsehay Desalegn and Kenya’s Hellen Jepkurgat for the victory.
Kenya’s Wilson Kirui waited almost as long to make the deciding move in the men’s race, surging away from Ethiopia’s Gebresadik Adihana in the 25th mile.
Gedo claimed her first marathon victory, finishing in 2 hours, 33 minutes, 52 seconds, six seconds ahead of Desalegn with Jepkurgat, the 2017 winner, third in 2:43:03.
Kirui reclaimed the LA title he first won in 2016 with a 2:11:47 clocking. Adihana finished in 2:11:57 with Kenya’s Elisha Barno, last year’s winner, third in 2:12:14.
Gedo, Kirui and Co. finished ahead of 24,000 runners who started the 26.2 mile course at Dodgers Stadium with the temperature hovering at 47 degrees and the promise of nearly ideal conditions for a race that wound to through downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before reaching its finish line overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
In terms of participants the Los Angeles race is the nation’s fourth largest marathon, the 10th biggest in the world. But Los Angeles has never attained the major league marathon status of Boston or New York or other spring giants like London, Paris and Rotterdam.
For starters Los Angeles hasn’t been able to compete financially for the top international or U.S. runners. Two-time LA winner Kirui, for example, did not rank among the world’s top 100 marathoners last year and at least 65 Kenyans ran faster than he did in 2017. Galen Rupp, the Portland-based Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon, Shalane Flanagan, the New York City winner, and rising star Jordan Hasay, Rupp’s training partner with the Nike Oregon Project. all opted to run in the Boston Marathon next month.
Boston’s men’s and women’s winners will each receive a $150,000 pay checks. Los Angeles’ total prize money was $100,000.
Kirui and Gedo earned $23,000 Sunday, $2,000 less than the fourth place finishers will receive in Boston.
The real headliner of the Los Angeles race is its map of the stars course, what race promoter Tracey Russell called “a backstage pass” to an energetic and diverse city and a trail of iconic landmarks.
But the course is also another liability when it comes to attracting world class runners, its demanding first half loaded with hills, also scaring off athletes chasing lucrative time and world ranking bonuses from their shoe companies.
The course profile also led to a cautious approach early Sunday. The women’s race opened with a plodding 6:20 mile out of Dodgers Stadium, the men starting with an equally timid 5:17.
“The course is very hard,” Sule said of the race’s first half. “It (seemed like) it was pushing me backward.”
It wasn’t until the women’s lead pack, which had started 10 minutes before the men, was passed by the top men in the 11th mile, just before course took a downhill turn off Hollywood Boulevard onto Orange Street, that the race began to show even the slightest signs of life.
A series of surges by Barno and Adihana reduced seven-man lead group to four with Kirui and Daniel Limo, the 2015 Los Angeles winner, also in the group that passed the halfway mark in 1:07:25. It wasn’t until the 15th mile that the lead group finally threw in a sub-5:00 mile.
There were still nine women in contention as Jepkurgat and American Heather Lieberg led the women’s field past the 15 mile mark in 1:29:31.
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Jepkurgat runs like she’s boxing, her fists guarding her face in an almost protective stance with each stride. A year ago she dropped the field with a move in the 23rd mile. Sunday she was never able to land a knock-out blow and the longer the race stayed tight the more it favored Gedo, the runner with a far superior track resume.
“I used that speed to win today,” she said.
Gedo won the 2008 World Junior 5,000-meter title on the track. She was a fixture on the Diamond League circuit posting personal bests of 14:44.21 in the 5,000 and 30:55.50 for the 10,000 before turning her focus to the marathon last year. She ran 2:29:04 in her debut in the Venice Marathon last October and then struggled to an 11th place finish in Dubai in January.
But she rebounded quickly and was coming off a strong block of training at 7,700 feet in Addis Ababa.
“I had confidence in my training,” Gedo said, “so there was nothing to stop me.”
And when she finally took off with a half-mile to go Desalegn was unable to respond.
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