ASICS Los Angeles Marathon

The Race

History

The Los Angeles Marathon traces its current era to 1986, launched in the wake of the 1984 Olympic Games held in the city, when businessman Bill Burke built the first edition into the largest debut marathon field in history at 11,000 entrants, at an operating loss of $357,000. Ownership changed twice in the following decades: Burke and business partner Marie Patrick sold the race to Devine Racing in 2004 for $15 million, and Devine sold the operating rights in 2008 to then-Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who donated the marathon and its parent company to The McCourt Foundation, a Boston-based philanthropy overseen by his cousin Brian McCourt, in 2019.

The course itself has moved more than most major marathons. The original 1986 route ran from Exposition Park to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; by the turn of the millennium it both started and finished in Downtown LA. Since McCourt’s purchase, the race has always started at Dodger Stadium, and the route was known for years as “Stadium to Sea,” finishing in Santa Monica, before the finish moved to Avenue of the Stars in Century City in 2020, a change the organisers attributed to sharply increased costs quoted by the City of Santa Monica for continuing to host the finish there.

Markos Geneti holds the men’s course record at 2:06:35, set in 2011; Lidiya Grigoryeva holds the women’s record at 2:25:10, set in 2006. The 2026 edition produced the closest finish in the race’s history, with Nathan Martin outleaning Kenya’s Michael Kimani Kamau by 0.01 seconds in 2:11:17. The race revived its head-start “Marathon Chase” format in 2022, in which the women’s elite field starts ahead of the men based on an assessed pace differential, both genders racing to the same finish line for a bonus prize. Students Run LA, a mentoring and training programme launched from a single East LA high school class in 1987, has grown into an independent nonprofit training more than 3,200 students annually towards marathon completion, and each year the race honours its Legacy Runners, who have completed every edition since 1986.

The course

The Stadium to the Stars course starts at Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park and finishes on Santa Monica Boulevard at Avenue of the Stars in Century City. Between the two, it crosses Chinatown, Downtown LA past City Hall and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Hollywood Boulevard past the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Sunset Boulevard into West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills past Rodeo Drive, before a final stretch through Westwood and Brentwood back into Century City.

The course carries a net elevation loss from Dodger Stadium to the finish, but this is not a single steady descent: early rolling hills through Echo Park and Silver Lake, a significant drop on San Vicente Boulevard near the halfway point, and a climb back up into Century City at the finish all shape the closing miles. March in Los Angeles can run mild or unseasonably hot, and heat management on the exposed western stretches of the course is a real consideration rather than a footnote.

Mile 0-4: Dodger Stadium into Chinatown and Downtown. The race starts inside the Dodger Stadium parking lot in Elysian Park and immediately descends into the city, passing through Chinatown before reaching Old Los Angeles and Little Tokyo. Runners pass City Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in these opening miles, the busiest, most architecturally dense stretch of the entire course. Legacy Runners, who have completed every edition since 1986, cross their milestone miles here.

Mile 4-8: Echo Park and Silver Lake.The route turns northwest past Echo Park Lake and into Silver Lake, including the section known locally as the “Tom LaBonge Mile” around mile 7. This stretch is not flat: punchy short climbs interrupt what many runners expect, from the course’s overall net-downhill billing, to be an easy early section.

Mile 8-12: Hollywood.The course reaches Hollywood Boulevard, running past the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Pantages Theatre, before turning onto Sunset Boulevard towards West Hollywood. This is one of the most heavily spectated sections of the race, and the crowd energy here is a real lift after the harder climbs of the previous four miles.

Mile 12-17: West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.The route continues along the Sunset Strip and Santa Monica Boulevard through West Hollywood before entering Beverly Hills, passing Beverly Hills City Hall and the shopfronts of Rodeo Drive. Runners reach the halfway point in this stretch, and the course’s most significant single downhill, on San Vicente Boulevard, comes in around here, worth banking cautiously rather than spending recklessly given the climbing that follows later.

Mile 17-22: Westwood and Brentwood.The course passes the Westfield Century City shopping centre before heading into the upscale, quieter Brentwood neighbourhood along San Vicente Boulevard, then makes a U-turn back towards Century City. This is where the day’s heat, if the forecast has run warm, is felt hardest: the neighbourhood is more residential and less densely crowd-lined than Hollywood or Beverly Hills, and shade becomes a real tactical consideration in a warm year. The 2026 edition’s heat-mitigation response, offering an early finish at mile 18 for runners struggling with an unseasonal 90°F peak, is the clearest evidence that this stretch is where a hot day does its damage.

Mile 22-26.2: back to Century City and the finish. The course returns to Century City for the finish on Santa Monica Boulevard at Avenue of the Stars, closing with a climb back up into the neighbourhood after the Brentwood out-and-back. Runners who have paced the earlier downhill sections conservatively tend to fare better here than those who spent the San Vicente descent freely.

Follow the blue tangent line throughout; on a course with this many turns through dense city neighbourhoods, the measurable distance saving over 42.195 km is real. The finish line itself sits on Santa Monica Boulevard at Avenue of the Stars, inside the wider Century City finish festival, and the timing mat is at this line rather than at an earlier landmark on the Century City approach.

Pacers

Los Angeles Road Runners provide official pace leaders on race day, drawn from a pool with over 80 pace leaders collectively supporting both the Rose Bowl Half Marathon and the marathon; 19 marathon pacers were confirmed for the 2027 edition planning cycle, covering finish times from roughly 3 hours to 6 hours 30 minutes or longer. Wave 1 starts at 7:00am (wheelchair/hand-cycle 6:30am); exact corral letter assignments and later-wave start times have not been published for the 2027 cycle.

What to wear

March in Los Angeles does not guarantee cool race-day conditions. The 2026 edition is the clearest recent example: temperatures rose from a 54°F (12°C) morning low to a peak of 90°F (32°C), prompting organisers to introduce an emergency mile-18 early-finish option, alongside 19 aid stations, misting stations, extra ice and sunscreen at medical stations.

A throwaway layer for the early Dodger Stadium start remains sensible, since the pre-dawn wave assembly is cooler than the finish-time conditions later in the morning, but runners should plan their kit around the likelihood of the day warming considerably rather than assuming a mild spring morning will hold. Sunscreen, applied before the start rather than relied on from an aid-station supply, matters more here than on most marathons in this collection, given how exposed the Brentwood out-and-back section is later in the course.

Entry

General entry for the ASICS Los Angeles Marathon opens via the official McCourt Foundation registration platform, with no lottery or ballot mechanism confirmed; entry operates on a standard first-come, tiered-pricing basis.

Team TMF, the race’s own charity fundraising programme, offers guaranteed entry in exchange for a fundraising commitment, run directly by The McCourt Foundation given its own charitable mandate rather than through a separate third-party charity partner network. This is the main alternative route in for runners who miss general entry or prefer a guaranteed place tied to a cause. No ordinary fast-runner or good-for-age entry route was confirmed for this race; entry is general-plus-charity rather than a seeded fast-runner category.

Students Run LA, the race’s long-running youth mentoring programme, grants free entry and transport to participating students across a structured lead-up of shorter races; this is a distinct pathway from general public entry, but it is worth knowing as part of why the race’s charity culture runs deeper than a typical marathon’s charity-bib programme.

Given the course’s history of finish-line relocation (Santa Monica until 2020, Century City since), runners planning well ahead of the 2027 edition should treat the current Century City finish as the operative planning assumption but should not assume it is permanent on the same timescale as a marathon with a decades-stable finish; check the current year’s official course page before finalising hotel bookings built entirely around the finish location.

Fast Runner / GFA Standards

Not applicable. No fast-runner or Good for Age route was confirmed for this race; entry is general-plus-charity.

Race Weekend

Expo

The Expo and bib pickup runs across two days at Dodger Stadium, Lot G: Friday 10am to 7pm and Saturday 10am to 5pm, ahead of the Sunday race. Parking at Dodger Stadium for the Expo is free. All marathon and Charity Half Marathon participants must attend the Expo in person to collect their bib; there is no race-morning collection option.

Because the Expo runs across a full Friday-to-Saturday window rather than a single Saturday, as some smaller marathons do, runners have more flexibility about when to collect, and a Friday visit avoids the Saturday crowds of a race this size. Given the venue is the same Dodger Stadium site as the race start itself, a Friday or Saturday Expo visit also doubles as useful reconnaissance for the shuttle pickup logistics on race morning.

Race Morning

The race starts at 7:00am, with wheelchair and hand-cycle participants starting at 6:30am. Because the start is at Dodger Stadium and the finish is in Century City, roughly 20 km away by road, getting to the start is the single most important logistics decision of race morning, more so than hotel choice.

Free shuttles run from Century City, picking up at Avenue of the Stars south of Olympic Boulevard, continuously from 3:00am to 5:30am for the roughly 20 to 30 minute journey to Dodger Stadium; the shuttles are free but reserving a pickup time during registration is recommended given the volume of runners using this service. A separate free shuttle runs from Union Station in Downtown LA to the start, useful for runners staying in Downtown or arriving by train. Runners who booked their hotel through the official race hotel reservation centre in Downtown LA can also use a dedicated DTLA hotel shuttle back from the finish, with a wristband required for boarding.

Road closures begin on a rolling basis from as early as 3:00am on race day and can run through 6:00pm; streets reopen at the discretion of the LAPD and LAFD rather than on a fixed published schedule, with early-course roads typically reopening by mid-morning while the Century City finish area stays restricted into the evening. Given the scale of these closures, runners and supporters driving anywhere near the course on race day should build in significant extra time or avoid driving in the area altogether.

Heat is the defining race-morning risk on this course more than cold. The 2026 edition’s emergency response, an early-finish option at mile 18 for runners struggling with a 90°F peak, alongside 19 aid stations, misting stations and expanded medical support, shows that the organisers have contingency plans for unusually hot editions rather than treating heat as a remote risk. Bag drop, changing facilities and on-course massage locations have not been independently confirmed.

Logistics Map

The map below shows the point-to-point route from Dodger Stadium through Chinatown, Downtown, Echo Park, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills to the finish in Century City. Tap any marker for details.

Nutrition on Course

The 2026 edition ran 19 aid stations along the course, expanded specifically in response to that year’s heat, alongside misting stations, additional ice and sunscreen availability at medical points. A complete km-by-km breakdown of what is available at each station, the sports nutrition brand used on course, and any personal-bottle or refill provision have not been confirmed from an official source. Given the real heat risk on this course, hydration strategy matters more here than pure nutrition strategy for most runners: treating every aid station as a real stop rather than skipping stations early in a fast-feeling opening is a more defensible approach on this course than on a cooler-weather European marathon of similar distance.

Spectating

Spectating this race is a Metro and rideshare exercise more than a walking one, given the course’s roughly 20 km span across the city from Dodger Stadium to Century City. The Metro B and D Lines serve Downtown and Hollywood sections of the course; the Metro E Line runs towards the Westside, useful for a Century City or Beverly Hills-area sighting closer to the finish. Road closures on a rolling basis from as early as 3:00am mean supporters should not assume they can drive between sighting points along the same timeline as the runners.

Itinerary A (Hollywood Boulevard, miles 8-12):Take the Metro B or D Line to a Hollywood Boulevard station ahead of the runner’s expected arrival. This is one of the most heavily spectated sections of the course, so arrive well ahead of the runner’s expected pace to secure a viewing spot.

Itinerary B (Beverly Hills / Rodeo Drive, miles 12-17):Take the Metro E Line towards Beverly Hills, or rideshare given road closures, ahead of the runner’s expected arrival, then allow a generous transfer window to reach Century City for the finish.

Itinerary C (Finish at Century City, recommended for most supporters):Metro E Line to a Century City-area station, or rideshare drop-off outside the closure zone, ahead of the runner’s expected finish time. The simplest, lowest-risk plan given the course’s length and the scale of citywide road closures.

Post-Race Food

Din Tai Fung in Century City sits close to the finish and is a plausible post-race option for a carbohydrate-heavy, quick-turnaround meal, though given its popularity a same-day walk-in near a major marathon finish may involve a long wait. Eataly LA, in Downtown’s The Bloc, suits runners based in or returning to Downtown rather than Century City directly. Grand Central Market, also Downtown, is a food-hall option with multiple vendors under one roof, useful for a group that cannot agree on a single cuisine. Given the finish is in Century City rather than Downtown, runners staying centrally should factor in a Metro or rideshare transfer before a Downtown meal.

Where to Stay

The finish at Century City, not the Dodger Stadium start, should drive where a runner books, and Los Angeles makes this principle matter more than most cities on the site given the roughly 20 km distance between start and finish. Every runner reaches the start by free shuttle regardless of where they sleep, but getting back from Century City afterwards, tired and needing a shower, is a very different proposition depending on hotel location.

Century City and Beverly Hills

Offer the best finish-side convenience, putting a runner within a short walk or rideshare of the finish line itself. This area sits at the comfortable, expensive end of the city’s hotel stock, and choosing it trades some of LA’s grittier character for straightforward post-race logistics.

West Hollywood

Sits a short distance from the finish and offers a livelier restaurant and nightlife base than Century City’s more corporate character, at the cost of a slightly longer return journey after the race.

Hollywood

Further from the finish than West Hollywood, is the classic visitor base for sightseeing before or after the race, with Metro access to both the start and finish areas, but it carries the tourist density and noise that come with the name.

Downtown LA and LA Live

Suit runners prioritising start-side logistics: this is where the free shuttle to Dodger Stadium can be picked up, and Downtown carries the densest hotel stock in the city. The trade-off is a longer return journey from Century City after the race, mitigated somewhat by the dedicated DTLA hotel shuttle available to runners who booked through the official hotel reservation centre.

Santa Monica

The race’s finish location until 2020, remains a viable base for runners building a beach-focused trip around the marathon, but it now involves the longest logistics of any option on this list for both the start shuttle and the return from Century City.

Recommended hotels

Booking timeline

There is no fixed ballot-results date driving a hotel-booking rush for this race, since entry runs on a general, first-come basis rather than a ballot; the operative advice is to book as soon as entry is confirmed, particularly given how much a hotel’s location relative to Century City and Dodger Stadium affects the actual experience of race weekend in a city this size. Flights into LAX should be booked with the understanding that Los Angeles is one of the best-connected cities in the world for both domestic and international routes, so flight availability itself is rarely the binding constraint; hotel location relative to the marathon’s start-shuttle and finish logistics is the more important booking decision.

See & Do

The finish sits in Century City, putting the Westside’s museums and coastline within reach, with Downtown’s food halls a Metro ride away.

Grand Central Market

Approx. 20 km (12 miles) from finish, Downtown. A historic food hall with dozens of independent vendors under one roof, an easy, low-walking option for a group with mixed tastes the day after the race. Gets busy on weekends; a late-morning rather than peak-lunch visit is more comfortable on tired legs.

The Getty Center

Approx. 8 km (5 miles) from finish, Westside. A hilltop museum campus reached by a dedicated tram from the parking level, which removes the need to climb on foot despite the site’s elevated position. Reserve a visit slot and parking in advance given the site’s access constraints.

Santa Monica Beach and Pier

Approx. 15 km (9 miles) from finish, coast. A flat, low-effort recovery option if staying west, with the pier and beachfront promenade offering easy walking without incline. March weather on the coast can run cool and overcast even when inland LA is warm, so check the forecast before planning a beach afternoon around it.

Griffith Observatory

Approx. 15 km (9 miles) from finish, Hollywood Hills. Panoramic city views from a hilltop site in Griffith Park, but the approach involves real hills and limited parking, making this a better fit for the day after tired legs have recovered rather than the immediate post-race afternoon.

After the Race

The ASICS Los Angeles Marathon runs in March. These itineraries range from a same-day beach day at Santa Monica and Venice to a three-night extension to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree.