As president of the Los Angeles Marathon, William Burke can envision just about every possible ending to Sunday’s race–the first big-city marathon in history to pit its elite men’s and women’s runners against each other using a handicap format.
There’s the best-case scenario: The top man and top woman running side-by-side to the finish line, with the woman lunging to take first a step ahead of the man, winning the race and the $50,000 bonus that comes with it.
“That would be a worldwide story,” Burke said. “That picture would be on the front of every sports section in the country.”
Then there’s the worst-case scenario: The top man blowing past the top woman in the final few miles and breezing to the finish, a battle of the sexes turned into a rout.
“Everyone would say it was just another one of Burke’s crazy ideas,” Burke said. “That guy didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Either way, the L.A. Marathon will be taking the biggest chance of its 19-year history, debuting a first-of-its-kind format called “The Challenge” that might as well be billed as “The Great Experiment” in the running community.
For years a minor-league event among world marathons, the L.A. race will start its elite women 20 minutes 30 seconds ahead of the men and send everyone racing to the finish for a total prize package worth about $100,000.
Some are calling it a made-for-television gimmick, others an opportunity for the L.A. Marathon to carve its own identity in the shadow of the high-profile New York, Chicago and Boston marathons.
The format has been tried before in lower-level road races, as well as the Life Time Fitness Triathlon last August in Minneapolis. But never in a big-city marathon of Los Angeles’ size.
“I think it’s kind of refreshing,” said Carey Pinkowski, director of the Chicago Marathon, “to see another race doing something a little bit different and experiment with something out of the box.”
There are few comparisons for what the L.A. Marathon is trying, though New York City Marathon director Allan Steinfeld said one from 28 years ago might apply.
In 1976, New York officials decided to switch from a Central Park course to the now-world famous one starting on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and passing through the five boroughs.
No one can dispute the course is what defines the New York Marathon today. But it was a decision met with great skepticism years ago.
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“People said we were crazy,” Steinfeld said. “Frank Shorter said he would run just to see if police could close down all the streets. … But it was something that caught people’s imagination.”
Those are the same words–“catching people’s imagination”–Steinfeld uses to describe the L.A. Marathon’s battle of the sexes. And Burke believes someday “The Challenge” will become the norm at marathons around the world.
“Some of the more staid big-city marathons, they understand what progress is,” said Burke, who added that a multiyear commitment has been made to the format. “They see us making progress with or without them. . . . We may be the biggest race to try this, but we won’t be the last.”