American wins Los Angeles Marathon for first time in 31 years

[4th and Long]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Matt Richtman of Illinois became the first American to win the Los Angeles Marathon since 1994 Sunday, topping the second-largest field in race history in a blistering time of 2:07:56.

Richtman, who attended Montana State University, triumphed despite running in just his second marathon.

"It's definitely a surprise,'' he said moments after crossing the finish line. "You know I came in feeling really good; it's really hard to judge where you stack up against competition, but it was a really good group out there today, and I was really happy to run with those guys and then ultimately win it."

Richtman said he drew inspiration from the atmosphere in Los Angeles.

"It's such a great day for it, you know, the 40th anniversary, there's so many legacy runners out here, and the crowd out here was amazing. There were people throughout the whole course and it really helps. It's amazing how much a crowd can change the course of what you're doing.''

In an interview with ABC7's sister station WLS-TV, Richtman said: "I didn't really have a super big plan coming into this. It's always so tough, the marathon, just because so much can happen. I just told myself to stay in that pack until about the halfway mark and then if I felt good I could make a move. Ended up going a little bit to the lead and no one really came with me."

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

Richtman, who attended Montana State University, triumphed despite running in just his second marathon.

I bet that caught some people by surprise. I think those elite runners all know of each other and scout out the competition from the registrations.

I ran the Pike's Peak Ascent once (very, very hard race), and the winner was a complete unknown. He was some snowboarder dude who'd gotten injured and couldn't snowboard, so he started running. If I remember right, he led the race from wire to wire. One of the well-known elite runners said afterwards something like, "I saw him bolt out early and just figured he was some joker who would fade back into the pack after the first mile. But he never faded."

It would be really cool to have an immense talent where you can just start a sport and be elite at it from Day One.

[BWillie]

American middle distance runners have really came a long way lately.

Maybe that will happen soon for the Marathoners.

[4th and Long]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I bet that caught some people by surprise. I think those elite runners all know of each other and scout out the competition from the registrations.

I ran the Pike's Peak Ascent once (very, very hard race), and the winner was a complete unknown. He was some snowboarder dude who'd gotten injured and couldn't snowboard, so he started running. If I remember right, he led the race from wire to wire. One of the well-known elite runners said afterwards something like, "I saw him bolt out early and just figured he was some joker who would fade back into the pack after the first mile. But he never faded."

It would be really cool to have an immense talent where you can just start a sport and be elite at it from Day One.

That was a great story. I had no idea you were a runner in your younger days.

Richtman credits his win to hard work, perseverance, determination and ICE deporting all the runners from Kenya.

[KCUnited]

O HELL YASS

[BWillie]

Kipchoge still the goat.

All these elite marathoners dope.

All of em.

[KCUnited]

Police got Americans running again!

[RollChiefsRoll]

2:07 for 26.2 miles is so goddamn fast; it’s almost incomprehensible how somebody could keep up that pace for that long.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by RollChiefsRoll

2:07 for 26.2 miles is so goddamn fast; it’s almost incomprehensible how somebody could keep up that pace for that long.

EPO dog

A woman even ran one in 2 hr 9 min last year.

Incredible

[EPodolak]

So 13mph for 2+ hours. That's crazy.

[Deberg_1990]

Make Marathons Great Again!

MMGA

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

So 13mph for 2+ hours. That's crazy.

It really is amazing. The treadmills at my gym only go up to 12 mph even.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

That was a great story. I had no idea you were a runner in your younger days.

Richtman credits his win to hard work, perseverance, determination and ICE deporting all the runners from Kenya.

His younger days weren’t all that long ago… I remember reading about Rain Man running that race on here.