When Frank McCourt put up the L.A. Dodgers for sale, he initially, per reports in November, also put up the L.A. Marathon on the block also, looking to consider offers for the $20 million valued event. He later pulled the event off table. Which had me wondering what his motives were for the long run of the event if he was willing to put it up to begin with.
The L.A. Marathon started in 1986, just a few short years after the 1984 Olympics had come and gone, but the event did not really flourish, as most contestants were driving to it to compete in it. Then a few years ago McCourt purchased the event and slapped the starting gate up at Dodger Stadium and called it the “Stadium to the Sea” course.
It seems that he retained part ownership of the land/parking lots around the stadium but there’s also the business focus of new owners, who may wish to capitalize on this unused territory surrounding the stadium. But the new owners will be working with McCourt… they’ll control the use of the parking lots during games while cooperating with McCourt for any future developments.
But how much does he own? He gave up half his parking lot shares but retained control of 20 acres (5 parcels) and he already owns a city block of territory that goes from the 110 Freeway to the stadium.
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Todays Boston Marathon was a bit different than runs in the past. Today, the projected highs for the premium race event were for the mid-80′s, looming to put a heat induced damper on the 22,500 runners attending the event today.
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The organizers, worried about the heat, offered waivers for folks who didn’t want to tackle the heat, to be able to come back next year, but this is an invite only kind of run where you have to have a certain qualifying time on certain courses throughout the country and is one of the premiere events of the running season.
With that said, around 4,300 folk accepted the deferment.
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To a runner, when you head out the door in 45 degree mornings, you know that within the first mile or so you warm up enough to effectively feel like it is around 20 degrees or so warmer than it really is. On a cool day.
No telling such on a hot day. And the heat had its way as it hit 87 degrees and higher.
At least fifty folk succumb to the heat, or at least that’s the official tally of runners treated that were taken to hospitals by ambulance. There’s no telling how many others were self-admitted or impacted by the heat from participating in the event.
Official tallies saw 800 folk looking for medical assitance along the course, but how many of those were heat-related, is not known, though I suspect many of them probably were.
Some local ER’s even went into emergency deferrment mode because they became too full.
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