Elites Aim For $100,000 Bonus At 2009 Los Angeles Marathon

Huge gender equalizer bonus has strong fields assembling for Memorial Day race.

The 2009 running of the Los Angeles Marathon will feature the largest single prize in American marathoning.  Individual gender winners will take away over $48,000 in prizes each, but the first man or woman across the finish line will earn an additional $100,000 bonus.  Of course, the genders will be handicapped, as the women will be given an undisclosed head-start.  Tony Reavis, one of the people who will determine the exact time between starts, has said the handicap will likely be around seventeen minutes.

Twice the race has seen the woman finish over a mile ahead, however other years have seen virtual sprints to the finish.  In 2006, female and overall winner, Lidiya Grigoryeva finished a mere 16 seconds ahead of a hard charging Benson Cherono of Kenya.

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