Thoughts on the LA Marathon 2011

The LA Marathon registration begins today. Why am I not in a rush to sign up when they warn of an inevitable sellout? One thing is, I don't think they will. But really, I've ran enough of these marathons to know if they're worth what I've paid for... ~$190 for NYC last year, yes. LA this year for $125, no. Lord knows I'll still run LA again for $145 plus active.com gouging fees. I'll run it every year because I do it to raise support for charities and I'm a marathon maniac. But honestly if you want to be a major player in this business, you can't just continue to hype your course and charge high fees. You have to take care of your runners. If you don't know how, learn from Chicago, NYC, and Boston with whom you claim to be on par.

I'll just use the New York City Marathon as an example. NY handled over 40,000 runners in 2009 versus LA's 25,000. The packet pickup and the expo was a logistical disaster at LA. It was as if they were expecting only 200 people to show up. Send someone over to check out how they handle things in NY. Also months in advance we were sent a booklet in the mail explaining everything that there is to know about the race. You can tell from the beginning that the money charged was being used properly to ensure that the runner has the best experience from start to finish, not just the race.

But bottom-line, I hope to God that the LA Marathon becomes as popular as Chicago, NYC, and Boston. It took a good step this year. I've ran it the past 7 years and I plan on running it every year. I just think it's too soon for them to be charging $145. If they must then they need to justify the cost to its runners. With that I leave you with this "timeless" music video... I LOVE LA!