Frank McCourt's big plans to be tested in Monday marathon

LA TIMES REPORTS

Frank McCourt has big plans. He wants to take his latest purchase, one of L.A.'s great institutions, and revive it, give it new shine, have it stand cheek-to-cheek with the big monuments in Boston and New York.

Only this isn't about balls and strikes, Manny and the World Series. It's about the Los Angeles Marathon, the glorious-but-bunged-up jewel which, after months of wrangling, will commence its 24th running on Monday morning. (Yes, Monday. More on that shortly.)

In case you didn't know, late last year the energetic and sometimes controversial Dodgers owner bought the L.A. Marathon from a Chicago company that had mismanaged matters so badly the race's future was reportedly in peril. Debts were owed. Bills weren't being paid on time. Neither, sometimes, were the winning runners.

Undaunted, McCourt described the race as an untapped civic asset, brimming with potential. But just as when he took over the then-ailing Dodgers in 2004 -- recall, before this latest on-field success, the flurry of general managers, field managers and bad contracts -- owning L.A.'s marathon hasn't exactly been a jog in the park.

For starters, there's the thorny issue of when the race should be run. The marathon had long been held on the first Sunday in March, when the weather is usually cool and helpful. But as part of the ownership transfer, L.A. City Hall bent to religious leaders who viewed 20,000 runners blocking off Sunday streets -- and hindering access to churches -- much as they view a Biblical plague of locusts.

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