Last Year's L.A. Marathon Winner Hopes for Second Win

Last year's surprise winner of the Los Angeles Marathon is hoping for a repeat performance this year. In fact, he's feeling so confident that he's brought his new wife with him to the city for their honeymoon. First, though, he'll run the 26.2-mile race again.

Wesley Korir, the 26-year-old Kenyan who couldn't even get an elite number at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon the year before, managed to shave five minutes off his career best time last year, winning the race in the process. He went home with a life-changing amount of money.

"This is my honeymoon," Korir, who was married a week ago, told MSNBC. "This race means more to me now. I love L.A. There's nowhere else I would love to go for my honeymoon than L.A. So I'm excited."

Last year, Korir clocked an event record of 2:08:24 and won $160,000 in prize and bonus money, including the race's $100,000 "Challenge" bonus for beating the top woman, and a Honda Accord EX-L V6 sedan worth $28,705. It was a total payday of $188,705, the second-largest in all of American marathon running last year behind the winner of the ING New York City Marathon.

"When I get in a race now, people say, 'That's Wesley, he won in L.A. last year,'" Korir recently told the event's organizers, reports NBC. "That is definitely my identity now: the L.A. man. And I love L.A., I love this city."

Now in its 25th year, the race has a new date and a new course. Today, runners will run "Stadium to Sea," starting at Dodger Stadium, passing through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, before concluding near the beach in Santa Monica.

"Hopefully I'll be able to see some Hollywood people, TV stars," Korir joked to MSNBC. "Hopefully they'll come out of their house and say 'hi.'"

Last year the race was moved from its usually early March date to Memorial Day weekend and finishers dropped by 18 percent. This year, the race is once again in March and has sold out with 25,000 entrants.

The race will be broadcast live on Universal Sports TV and UniversalSports.com.

Photo by julialat34 via Flickr.