It appears that all the fretting about excessive heat during the Los Angeles Marathon has turned into something every runner must guard against as race day approaches: wasted energy. Mild temperatures are forecast for Monday, alleviating the anxiety about runner safety that has percolated since organizers moved the date of the marathon from its customary balmy Sunday in March to a potentially scorching Memorial Day. "It's awesome," said Peter Abraham, the race's creative director. "That is great news." There will be water stations erected every mile and Gatorade offered every two miles along the route. But with a high of 72 degrees expected in downtown Los Angeles, where the 26.2-mile race begins and ends, emergency plans for handling waves of heat-exhausted runners can be shelved. "I know a lot of people are worried about the heat," said Pat Connelly, the former longtime L.A. Roadrunners coach and current Valencia High running coach. "If it stays that cool, that's fantastic. That's great." The scheduled start time for the non-elite members of the field is 7:25 a.m., with a forecast starting-time temperature of 60 degrees. That means the day will be as pleasant as one could have expected for a road race run in March, let alone the weekend that unofficially kicks off summer. "You have to be prepared for warm weather any month of the year," Abraham said. "The first Sunday of March was 83 (degrees). Even in January this year, there were a lot of hot days. We're always prepared for warm weather." Abraham said the calendar change has not kept the elite runners from joining the field - he cited entrants from Morocco, Ethiopia and Kenya - but he was unable to say if the total number of runners was impacted by the switch. The men's elite field is highlighted by Tariku Jufar of Ethiopia, who set his personal best of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 10 seconds, at last year's Hamburg Marathon. Kenya's Fred Mogaka, the 2007 L.A. Marathon champion, is also among the favorites. In the women's division, Romania's Nuta Olaro enters with the best personal time (2:24:33). Approximately 14,000 runners have signed up for the race, Abraham said, with registration closing Sunday night. Last year, 16,941 finished the race, but that was down from the 20,000-plus who finished the race in each of the prior two years. "All things considered, with the economy and the change in date and everything else, if we're between 15,000 and 18,000, that would be terrific," Abraham said The calendar could cause a smaller field in another way. San Diego is hosting its annual marathon on May 31, and runners may have decided to travel there and run a picturesque course with a history of mild temperatures. "San Diego is a very nice marathon, and has always been better than L.A. There's no question about it," Connelly said. "They're losing a lot to San Diego. They really are. People are afraid of the heat (in Los Angeles), and others planned to go out of town for the holiday, or they want to celebrate Memorial Day by not going out and running a marathon. I've heard all kinds of reasons why." The possibility of moving the marathon back to March is being considered by the Los Angeles City Council, but Abraham said a bigger issue is the day of the week the race is staged. Most runners train for a marathon by staging their long runs on the same day the race will be run, and Sunday is a natural day to do so because many of the runners do not work that day. "The runner would clearly prefer to run on a Sunday in March," Abraham said. "That's been established, and we're supportive of anything that creates a better runner's experience."
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