The Los Angeles Marathon (formerly known as the City of Los Angeles Marathon) is an annual running event typically held each spring in Los Angeles, California, since 1986. The marathon was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games hosted in Los Angeles, and has become one of the largest marathons in the country, with more than 25,000 participants, thousands of volunteers, and hundreds of thousands of spectators. Since 2020, the event has been sponsored by Asics and is officially titled the Los Angeles Marathon presented by ASICS. History Municipal Games era In 1970, a race of length was held in Los Angeles. In 1971, the race was lengthened to the distance of a standard marathon, and known as the "Griffith Park Marathon". It was held at the same time as the Municipal Games. The 1972 race was known as the "Municipal Games Marathon", while races from 1973 to 1977 were known as the "Los Angeles Marathon", and the 1978 edition was known as the "Los Angeles Police Marathon". The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) has no record of any races in this series after 1978. Los Angeles Lite era The inaugural race in 1981, known as the "Jordache Los Angeles Pro-Am Marathon", was run with two sections, a professional section with 100,000 USD in prize money, and an amateur section. Both the 1982 and 1983 races were known as the "Los Angeles Lite Marathon". In 1983, runners were misdirected, but the course was changed to ensure that finishers ran at least a marathon. ARRS has no record of any races in this series after 1983. Current era The inaugural marathon of the current series was first held in 1986. In 1997, Nadezhda Ilyina crossed the finish line first, but was disqualified for cutting the course through a service station. The victory went to Ilyina's friend and first-time marathoner Lornah Kiplagat. The race date for 2009 was moved to Memorial Day, , because the city council wished "to limit the impact on Sunday morning church services". After runner criticism due to the increased probability of warmer weather, the race date was moved back to March for the 2010 race. The 2016 edition was held on to coincide with the U.S. Olympic Trials for the marathon held in Los Angeles the day before. The 34th edition of the marathon took place on March 24, 2019. The 2021 edition