Retooling in Order for L.A. Marathon

Responding to complaints that announcing the head start for elite female runners three days before Sunday’s L.A. Marathon was insufficient notice for those pursing the bonus awarded to the first person across the finish line, Marathon President Bill Burke said Monday that the differential for the 2006 race would be announced “in the next week or two” and would be calculated using a different formula.

Burke said that next year’s differential would be figured as it was in 2004, when it was based on the time difference between the men’s and women’s winners in previous L.A. marathons. This year, it was calculated by a statistician who applied various theories to fields similar to Sunday’s and determined that 15 minutes 50 seconds was the difference after taking the predicted time of the second-seeded athlete and subtracting the men’s time from the women’s time.

Lyubov Denisova of Russia won the women’s title Sunday in a race-record 2 hours 26 minutes 11 seconds but was passed in the 25th mile and lost the $75,000 “challenge” bonus to Mark Saina of Kenya by 44 seconds.

Denisova said she wouldn’t return if the differential were calculated the same way and so shortly before the race. In 2004, the time differential was 20:30 and the challenge was won by Tatyana Pozdnyakova of Ukraine by a margin of 3:54.

Burke said Saina’s 44-second victory in the bonus challenge meant the differential “was obviously accurate.” He added, “the only point [Denisova] had is, she didn’t know until she got here. I agree with her on that. We’re going to have our guys figure it out and announce the number soon, and an increase in the prize purse.

“It’s amazing how many people were into the challenge. The excitement comes from thinking, ‘Is he going to catch her? Watching a marathon on TV is kind of like watching paint dry. But when you have this added aspect, there’s excitement.”

Burke wouldn’t specify the amount of next year’s challenge bonus but said it would be significant. The total purse this year was $301,800, well below the money available at marathons in Boston, New York and Chicago. Those marathons also draw more elite runners.

“We’re going to start sneaking up on the big guys,” Burke said. “It’s not that we want to compete with them, but we think the challenge is a real horse to ride on.”