Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - Wesley Korir of Kenya won the Los Angeles Marathon in record time on Monday and overcame a nearly 17-minute handicap to earn a $100,000 bonus as the first overall finisher.
Korir completed the 26-mile, 385-yard course in two hours, eight minutes, 24 seconds, breaking the previous record of 2:08:40 set by Benson Cherono of Kenya in 2005.
Tatiana Petrova of Russia was the women's winner in 2:25:59. The elite women's field started 16:57 ahead of the men because of "The
Challenge," where the first finisher -- male or female -- receives a $100,000 bonus.
The bonus has been offered six times. Korir is the third man to win. Three women have also won. The same sex has never won two years in a row.
The time difference is calculated by a group of experts based on elite runners' times.
Korir broke from the pack, and passed Petrova about 24 miles into the race.
Korir, a graduate of the University of Louisville who now lives in Piedmont, said he was singing and praying during the race, his second marathon.
He finished fourth in last year's Chicago Marathon.
Petrova, 26, had the third-fastest time by a woman in the race's 24-year history. She said he primary concern was leading the women's pack, not beating the man.
Packs of about 12 runners led the men's division at the halfway mark, and a similar clump of women shared the lead at their halfway point. Petrova, the fourth-place finisher in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in last year's Summer Olympics, emerged from the women's pack to lead at the 16-mile mark.
This was the fourth marathon Petrova, 26, has run and the first she has won. Her previous best finish was a fourth-place finish in the Dubai Marathon Jan. 16.
Korir and Petrova both received $20,000 and a Honda Accord EX-L V6 sedan for their first-place finishes.
Korir received a $40,000 time bonus for a sub-2:09 time, while Petrova received an additional $20,000 for finishing in less than 2:26.
The was the 11th consecutive Los Angeles Marathon won by a Kenyan man and a woman from the former Soviet Union.
No U.S. runner has won the race since 1994 when Paul Pilkington won the men's race and Olga Appell was the women's winner.
Brian Livingston, a 31-year-old Los Angeles resident, was the top American male finisher, finishing 12th in a lifetime-best 2:21:35.
Kim Duclos was the top American female finisher, finishing ninth in 2:44:32.
The race returned to a start in downtown Los Angeles after starting adjacent to Universal City the past two years.
The race's new organizers decided to use the course used for the 2005 and 2006 races that produced the marathon's fastest men's and women's times after being told by runners "that they didn't like the course that it had been moved to," marathon president Russ Pillar said.
The loop course began at Figueroa and Fifth streets, heading south to Exposition Park, then west to Leimert Park, and north through the Crenshaw district, hitting the half-way point at Venice Boulevard and Burnside Avenue in the Mid-City area.
The second half of the course included the Pico-Robertson district, Little Ethiopia, Park La Brea, Hancock Park, Country Club Park, Koreatown and ended in front of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library at Flower and Fifth streets.
The race was run on Memorial Day for the first time after being run in March for its first 23 years.
In preparation for the possibility of warmer temperatures than past marathons, organizers provided as much water and medical support "as there's ever been in the history of the race," Rich Perelman, the marathon's director of media operations, said before the race.
There were 44 water stations on the course, each stocked with 1,200 gallons of water, the equivalent of 30,000 servings, Perelman said.
In another attempt to guard against warmer weather, most of the field started nearly an hour earlier than last year.
The race was run under overcast skies and temperatures in the 60s.
About 100 runners were treated by paramedics but no one was seriously injured, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Devin Gale told City News Service.
Thirteen people were taken to hospitals for ailments ranging from breathing difficulties to muscle injuries, Gale said.
Paul Koskei collapsed at the finish line after finishing seventh among men and was taken to a hospital. Race officials told the Los Angeles Times that his condition was not serious.
Koskei, 31, was running in his second marathon in 16 days. He finished second in the Carlos Lopez Marathon in Lisbon, Portugal May 10.
The marathon was the first run since rights to the race were bought by a group controlled by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
When the group backed by McCourt purchased the rights to the race, the City Council stipulated that the race be shifted to a Monday holiday to limit the impact on Sunday morning church services.
Ministers with churches on or near the course had said for years the necessary street closings kept would-be churchgoers away. The ministers
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