Just 0.18 seconds separated Michael Kimani Kamau from $15,000. Sunday’s 41st L.A. Marathon was decided by a late-charging sprint from Nathan Martin, the winner who received $25,000 for first place. The runner-up earned $10,000.
With five miles to the finish line and no one else picking up pace, Martin decided to push himself to the end. Kamau’s experience down the stretch was different. Less than a quarter mile from the finish, his race took an unexpected turn because of a fan.
With many fans cheering him on, one interfered and led him off course. A video posted on Reddit shows Kamau following a fan off course for roughly 10 seconds.
He briefly followed the lead vehicles off the designated course while trying to avoid a spectator who ran into his path. Fans immediately stopped him and pointed him in the right direction.
“I actually thought he won until I got home later that day and saw the news channels reporting that Nathan had an amazing kick at the end,” said Ivan Torres, who filmed the scene.
Organizers are aware of the video but no protests were filed and the results are unchanged.
“The vehicles made their planned exit at 300 [meters] from the finish line at the intersection of Century Park West and Santa Monica Boulevard within sight of the finish line structure,” Meg Treat said in a statement to The Times. “As with all major road racing events, our lead vehicles leave the course before approaching the finish line.”
The spectator, on the other hand, is a cause for concern, she added.
“We’re gratified that our race attracts large spectator crowds, and we will review how future issues of this kind can be avoided,” the statement read.
With roughly 27,000 runners participating, the crowd the race attracts is even larger and especially important in the last six miles when athletes are having a self-pity party, said Phoebe Kiekhofer Garfinkel, who ran her third consecutive L.A. Marathon Sunday.
“The course support will only help and never hurt,” she said.
Garfinkel, 30, said crowd support becomes especially important in the final six miles. During the last stretch, when racers start to lose confidence and exhaustion reaches its height, the crowd is your only sense of celebration.
“If you’re not gonna have the confidence … then they have plenty of confidence to borrow from all the people who have chosen to support the course for that day,” she said.
Justin Bragiel, 46, was surprised that crowd security didn’t intensify closer to the finish line to protect the elite runners.
“This is what they do,” he said. “They train for this their whole lives and just a little bit more security would be a good thing.”
In contrast, Bragiel understands the importance of the energy brought by the people cheering the last part of the race. Having participated in a 50K trail run in Big Bend, where the runners are isolated and only communicate through HAM radio, he understands it’s not the same rush you get with people.
“I went to dinner the night before and mentioned to the waitress that I was running the marathon and she came out there with another waitress and made a sign with my name on it,” he added. “I met this woman one time, that’s pretty cool.”
Still, an abundance of people cheering can cause a bottleneck of crowds. At the 22-mile mark, the track loops back toward mile 18 to the finish line.
“It’s like taking a rope and then bending it and putting the two sides together,” Jamieson Mundy said. “You’re going to get spectators on both sides and it [becomes] extremely congested.”
Mundy, 37, who was running his fourth L.A. Marathon, said he encountered a runner who was yelling at the crowd to get out of the way. He described the scene as running shoulder-to-shoulder with people holding signs, bells and kazoos.
“It’s hard because you see how much people want to help and they’re so excited for you,” he added.
During the back-turn, focus is vital, Mundy said. Garfinkel described the home stretch as a moment in the race when it’s mind-over-matter. It is the time of the marathon when you just want to be done, Bragiel added.
And the people cheering the runners become a critical part of it.
“It’s a catch-22 for runners, because that’s also what makes you feel like you’re a part of something,” Mundy said.
“It’s one of the best perspectives of a city that you’re ever going to get. You see every little slice of life going through the city and the fact that every little zone and pocket comes out and represents that part of the city.”
But with all the cheering happening, the focus remains the same. Mundy said the energy from the crowd can be powerful, but runners still have to stay locked in on the finish.
“My emotional response is one of just human emotion of feeling sorry for him, but also really, really deeply hoping that he can move forward with a lot of pride in an amazing race that he ran,” Garfinkel added.
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