USC

LA Marathon: From Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica

There were than 40 on-demand Snapchat Geofilters along the 26-mile route.

The 32nd annual Los Angeles Marathon kicked off Sunday morning with approximately 24,000 runners from all 50 states and a race-record 63 nations entered.

Elisha Barno was the men's winner, while fellow Kenyan Hellen Jepkurgat was the women's winner.

Barno, 31, broke ahead of fellow Kenyan Daniel Limo at the end of San Vicente Boulevard, overcoming nausea near the end of the race to win in an unofficial time of two hours, 11 minutes, 51 seconds. It was his first appearance in the Los Angeles Marathon.

Limo, the 2015 winner who finished third last year, was second in 2:12:16, 24 seconds. Willy Koitile of Kenya finished third in 2:12:46.

This is the 14th time in the race's history Kenyans have swept the top three spots in the men's race. The men's race has been won by a Kenyan every year since 1999, except for 2011 and 2014, when it was won by Ethiopians. A U.S. runner last won in 1994.

Weldon Kirui, the 2016 champion, was fourth in 2:13:23. Kirui was seeking to become the first man to win the race in back-to-back years since Wesley Korir of Kenya won in 2009 and 2010.

Jepkurgat was the women's winner at 2:34:23, and was 1 minute 50 seconds ahead of fellow Kenyan Jane Kibii. Angela Orjuela of Colombia was third in 2:36:20.

The winners each received $23,000, the runners-up $11,250 and third-place finishers $9,000. The top five male and female finishers received prize money from the $100,000 purse. Prize money was equal for men and women.

African women have won six of the last eight races, with runners from the former Soviet Union winning the other two times. A U.S. runner last won the women's race in 1994.

The race included 16 attempts at Guinness World Records, including fastest marathons dressed as Elvis Presley, a boxer, fast-food item, fisherman, flag, postman, swimmer and three-dimensional bird.

There were more than 40 on-demand Snapchat Geofilters along the 26-mile, 385-yard course, enabling runners and spectators to apply marathon-themed graphic overlays to their snaps before sending them to their friends in what is being billed as the "longest on-demand Geofilter initiative.''

This is the first time the race has been run since the Expo Line was extended to Santa Monica. Metro increased service to every nine minutes with three-car trains to accommodate what was expected to be significantly higher ridership than usual.

Another first for this year's race is "Rivalry Row'' on Mile 20 at Sepulveda Boulevard and Ohio Avenue in the Sawtelle district where students from UCLA and USC will attempt to coax runners to their side of the street.

Los Angeles Police Department Officers Marty Pacheco and Jesse Rubalcava will run the race with Hollywood Police Activities League youth and cadets, who have been running together for three times a week over the past eight months.

"It's become a truly life-changing experience,'' Pacheco said. "I'm so proud of how our kids have helped motivate each other to keep going.''

A group of 10 firefighters and four police officers from Berlin have entered the race to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between their city and Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Chargers will field the race's only corporate relay team, with general manager Tom Telesco running the first leg and linebacker Denzel Perryman the last.

The remainder of the 16-person team consists of Arthur Hightower, the Chargers senior director of player engagement, four members of the Chargers Girls, Chargers.com reporter Hayley Elwood and eight fans.

Dozens of volunteers will be dressed in purple between mile marker 21 and 22 in Brentwood at the Purple People Party Cheer Station in an attempt to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer.

They will be joined by fans of the actor Richard Hatch will be dressed in sci-fi costumes commemorating the star of the original version of "Battlestar Galactica,'' who died from the disease last month.

The race's 95 charity partners are expected to raise $4 million for their causes from the race.

The race was run for the eighth consecutive year on the "Stadium to the Sea'' course from Dodger Stadium to Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

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