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."