2013 media guide - LA Marathon

ABOUT THE RACE
ABOUT THE RACE
Course Highlights
Start:
Dodger Stadium adjacent to Parking Lot G behind center field
One of the icons of Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium opened on April 10, 1962 with an
audience of 52,564 fans. The first privately financed baseball park since Yankee
Stadium opened in 1923, it was designed by Capt. Emil Praeger and occupies 300
acres. The stadium seats 56,000 spectators for Dodger baseball games, and has also
been home to several other historical events, including the 1984 Olympic baseball
tournament, the 1987 Papal Mass with Pope John Paul II, and the “Encore! The
Three Tenors” concert in 1994 with José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano
Pavarotti.
Mile 1:
Ending at Sunset Boulevard, just north of Marion Avenue
(Elevation change: -­‐81 feet, from 505 to 425 feet; 1 turn)
From the start, the runners head toward the Sunset Gate, exiting the Stadium onto
Elysian Park Drive and then turning left on Sunset Boulevard, heading into
downtown Los Angeles.
Mile 2:
Ending on North Broadway, just north of Sunset Boulevard
(Elevation change: -­‐119 feet, from 425 to 306 feet; 1 turn)
On Sunset, the runners find themselves on a portion of historic Route 66, a major
highway from the Midwest to Southern California during the first half of the 20 th
century. Sunset Boulevard becomes Cesar E. Chavez Avenue past Figueroa Street,
just before the runners turn left onto Broadway and head into Chinatown.
Mile 3:
Ending on Main Street, between Temple and 1st Streets
(Elevation change: -­‐18 feet, from 306 to 288 feet; 4 turns)
The city’s Chinatown district was developed in the 1870s; to mark the entryway, the
city erected the 25-­‐foot-­‐high Chinatown Gateway Monument (also known as the
Twin Dragon Towers Gateway) in 2001. It cost $800,000 to build and was designed
to symbolize luck, prosperity and longevity.
The runners enter Chinatown under the Gateway, heading toward Alpine Street and
the massive Dynasty Center shopping plaza before turning right in Alpine and
another right on Spring Street. They will then exit Chinatown with a left onto Cesar
E. Chavez Ave.
As runners turn from Cesar E. Chavez Ave., they will see the El Pueblo de Los
Angeles State Historic Park, the oldest settlement in Los Angeles, on Main Street.
Los Angeles was founded in the fall of 1781 by its 44 original settlers, but the Old
Plaza in El Pueblo Park dates from 1815.
The oldest residence in the city that is still standing is the Avila Adobe (14 Olvera
Street), which was built in 1818 on adjacent Olvera Street. The Plaza Church (535
North Main) was built by Franciscan fathers and Native Americans and opened in
1822. The Pico House (430 North Main) was the city’s first masonry structure and
was built as a hotel by Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California (now
the State of California). The current marketplace format of Olvera Street is a
relatively new development, dating back from 1929.
The Los Angeles Mall Civic Center complex sits on Main Street at Temple Street,
marked by the six story 60-­‐ton Triforium created by artist Joseph Young in 1975,
which features 1,494 multicolored glass prisms. It was refurbished in 2006.
Mile 4:
Ending at 1st Street, just north of Spring Street
(Elevation change: +2 feet, from 288 to 290 feet; 5 turns)
Mile 4 courses through the heart of downtown Los Angeles, turning from 1 st Street
onto Central Avenue and then beginning a long climb from Central Avenue & 2 nd
Street to the top of Bunker Hill, then exiting out of downtown into Echo Park.
This rise is 185 feet from Central Avenue (elevation 265 feet), up and out of
downtown to Bellevue Avenue (elevation 450 feet) in Echo Park, between
approximately the 3½ and the 5½-­‐mile points. This is the largest and longest
climb on the course.
Los Angeles City Hall (200 North Spring Street) is a famous Art Deco skyscraper that
stands 28 floors and 454 feet high. Built in 1928, the building became an icon
through its appearances on television in the 1950s as the headquarters of the Daily
Planet newspaper on “The Adventures of Superman” and in the 1960s on the series
“Dragnet.” It was the tallest building in California from its completion until 1964,
and the tallest in Los Angeles until 1968 (due to legal height restrictions in place
until 1957).
The new Police Administration Building (known informally as “Parker Center”) at
Main & 1st Streets serves as the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police
Department, and opened in October 2009.
The course loops through Little Tokyo beginning at Los Angeles Street, one of three
recognized “Japantowns” in the U.S. (the other two are in San Francisco and San
Jose). It was founded in the early 1900s and declared a National Historic Landmark
District in 1995. The route passes the Buddhist Temple (342 East 1 st Street, the first
Shingon temple in North America) and the Japanese American National Museum
(369 East 1 st Street), which opened in 1992.
14 ASICS LA MARATHON
MEDIA GUIDE
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