This blog is no longer being updated. The 26.2-mile Los Angeles Marathon from Dodger Stadium to Century City included a dramatic men’s finish separated by about a step between American Nathan Martin and Kenya’s Michael Kamau....
Two weeks in a row lead vehicle issues cost people wins! Though I think this one was more the runners fault than last week.
Yeah I mean the lead vehicle can't drive through the finish line. Its more the runners fault than the race in this case. In the other race it was several miles out from the finish line. In this race you can literally see the finish from where he went off course.
I think it is mostly the fault of allowing that weirdo with a flag to get onto the course and run directly in front of the leader. She never should have been on the course. It looks like he gets confused when she continued to the left of the barriers. I think he believes she is heading off the course having completed her attention-grabbing disruption and, if going to the left of the barriers is "off course" then going to the right of them must be "on course."
Yeah this wasn't just a lead vehicle problem like last weekend. Bizarre spectating/police behavior to let this happen at mile 26. Taking nothing away from Martin, but he loses by a few seconds without this nonsense.
There was a cop standing *right there.* Why didn't he pull the idiot with the flag off the course? Also, why wasn't there a course marshal pointing the right way, especially knowing that Kamau might follow the vehicles rather than the course?
That is horrendous. Absolutely cost him the win. Woeful woeful carry-on from organisers. Very poor form. 2 big mistakes from 2 big American races 2 weekends in a row.
Wow. That's disappointing. When I first saw the clip of Martin kicking ftw I was inspired and amazed, now I'm just disappointed in the LA marathon and the 2 idiot spectators running on the course.
I do think the distraction of that lady with the flag was enough to impact Kimani's decision making. But even without her stupidity: if someone follows a car and motorcycles for 2 hours to the brink of exhaustion you have to expect their decision making is impacted. The lead cyclist, the volunteers near that spot, and the pace car need to be told/coached by the race director to do a better job. The cars should speed away from the racers 400m before they pull of course to avoid a traffic jam and to avoid this exact scenario. And the volunteers should find a way to communicate better and get the leader's attention before this spot in the race.
It'll be interesting to see what the fallout from this is compared to the US 1/2 Marathon champs in Atlanta one weekends ago. I bet there will be no official changes or payouts, which I can't necessarily disagree with but you have to feel for Kimani.
Near the finish line of any race that big race you need to have:
- vigilant course marshal volunteers to keep idiots off the course (there were 2 in that little clip)
- someone assigned to that location to ensure the leaders go the correct way. Then after the leaders go by that volunteer can go do something else for the rest of the race.
It said it happened at mile 26, the final turn is a right turn into the finish line straight away. The lead vehicle probably stopped on the main road and did not make the turn to the finish. This is a very common thing, lead vehicles don't literally cross the finish line. When it happens this close to the finish I don't feel bad, the runners should know what the course map looks like and know where they're at on the course.
There was a cop standing *right there.* Why didn't he pull the idiot with the flag off the course? Also, why wasn't there a course marshal pointing the right way, especially knowing that Kamau might follow the vehicles rather than the course?
I think there were. Those two guys with black T-shirts on and ID tags hanging around their neck I think are wearing event staff/volunteer T-shirts, and there's also the woman holding the LA Marathon-branded sign that says "Bandits are not allowed across the finish line". All three of them tried to flag him down but were simultaneously trying to not run into the lead escort bicyclist, stay out of the motorcycle's way, and also deal with Kenyan Flag Lady.
Looks like he is the fastest African American born man in the marathon of all time. I've always thought they could compete in longer distances like the Mile, never crossed my mine they could compete in the marathon. Hoping to see more competing across all of the distance events, I think there's a lot of untapped potential in that community.
He's running this at the age of 36. Looks like his college PR's (NAIA) were 13:52/29:37 Only HS PR I found is a 15:36 in a xc 5k
