Matthew Richtman ran away from the competition and made history in his Los Angeles Marathon debut Sunday.
Richtman, a former All-American at Montana State, won the men’s race by nearly three minutes, in a personal best time of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 56 seconds (4:53 per mile) and the $10,000 Marathon Chase bonus.
“I put my foot on the gas and went with it,” Richtman said.
The 2028 L.A. Olympic hopeful is first American to win the race since 1994, when Paul Pilkington finished first in 2:12:13.
“That’s a huge reason to come here,” Richtman said. “We do have a lot of time but the course, I know they haven’t planned it out yet but you’re right, it’s probably something similar or at least on similar parts, so just to have that experience three years out, that’s really important to me and something to train for, for sure.”
Halfway into the race, the 25-year-old laid down a decisive surge and never looked back.
“That wasn’t super planned out,” said Richtman, who would like to defend his title in 2026. “It was more it kind of just happened. It was right after a (water) bottle or something like that where we did split up a little bit and I said I feel good and I can push the pace a little bit here. We were past the hour mark and I said we’ll make a move a little bit and see if people go with and really no one did quite at first.”
Kenya’s Athanas Kioko, 30, finished second in 2:10:55. Kenya’s Moses Kiptoo Kurgat, 33, finished third in 2:13:12.
