Long Beach marathon reaches CSULB

By Ryan May
Daily Forty-Niner

Nearly 10,000 marathon participants from 35 countries and 48 states converged upon the city of Long Beach Sunday for the 16th annual Lowe's Long Beach Marathon.

The course, extending just over 26 miles, began in downtown Long Beach near the Queen Mary on Shoreline Drive, extended along the coast and ran up through El Dorado Park, with the finish line in front of The Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach.

"It's the only big city marathon that, at the same time, has a small town atmosphere," said John Goldman, executive race director. "It's got a lot of different groups of cultures, groups of people and ethnicities. It makes it interesting."

Goldman said the course took a year and a half to design for runners ranging in age from 18 to 78. Further, he said CSULB was chosen as the finish line for its ability to accommodate such a large group of people.

"Putting on an event like this makes a Super Bowl or a World Series [look] like a Tinkertoy," Goldman said.  "Instead of having only 24 athletes on a field at one time ... you have 17,000 and 99 percent of them are not professional."

In addition to the actual marathon, thousands of others participated in a Half Marathon, an Inline Skating Marathon and Half Marathon, a BikeTour and a Children's Fun Run.

Stuart Braverman, who spent six months preparing for the race, has been a marathon runner for four years and said he chose the Long Beach marathon for the logistics of the course.

"I heard it was going to be flat," Braverman said.  "I wanted to pick one that I would be able to finish so I thought that would maximize my chances."

Luzma Caballero, a native of Mexico and marathon runner for six years, just ran the Santa Clarita marathon last week. Placing fifth in the women's division for the Long Beach Marathon, Caballero said she enjoyed her experience in Long Beach for the spirit of fairness among the participants and staff.

"I see the discrimination in other events, for the Latino especially, but in this marathon ... everybody's equal," Caballero said.

Top male marathon finishers
1. James Bungei; Kenya 2:16:49
2. G Junior Da Silva; Brazil 2:17:32
3. Nicholas Kioko; Russia 2:17:39
4. Francismar De Barros; Brazil 2:18:04
5. Grzegorz Olszowik; Clarendon Hills, Ill. 2:19:19

Top female marathon finishers
1. Irina Safarova; Russia 2:37:40
2. Elena Paramonova; Russia 2:38:04
3. Meghan Arboghast; Corvallis, Ore. 2:45:46
4. Monica Hostetler; Bloomington, Ind. 2:47:24
5. Luzma Caballero; Los Angeles 3:00:58

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