Man to watch: Julius Kibet mzungo.org favorite for LA Marathon

With the 24th Los Angeles Marathon only two days away, the excitement seems to grow daily. Sure, LA is not Boston or London. In fact, on marathon terms it is probably 6.2 miles away from that, the difference between good and great. However, we feel that its profile has risen to a level where we have not seen it for a long time. It might have been more important in earlier years but we are too young to judge on that (whoa, I get to say "too young" while talking about myself). The late May date might have to do with it. Many runners can do more miles in wamer weather. Sure, it could get hot on race day but that's the trade-off. Rumours have it that this year's move from March to May is not set in stone. As long as LA stays away from April, it could build on a rising profile.
Universalsports has a nice roll down of the pro's roster - check it out.

However, we decided to pick our own favorite and give you some background about the guy.
His name is Julius Kibet, he's Kenyan and 27 years old.

Julius is known as a very solid racer from 10-K to 25-K. He's often popping a 62ish half and won the Philly Distance run over that distance three times, with a PR of 61:17 in 2004.
He used to be part of the gang at Westchester Track Club and as such got his first taste of the marathon distance as a pacemaker in New York in 2006, going to 25K. But when he came back the following year to run the full distance he failed to finish despite running two good half-marathons in the lead-up to the race. He finally made the full distance in Frankfurt last October, but finished some three minutes behind the winner. While three minutes is a lot, a 2:10:14 is nothing to sneeze at, especially given that in hindsight Frankfurt turned out to be one of the great marathons in 2008.
So, why Julius? He might lack experience for the distance but he hasn't raced yet this year (or under our radar) and will therefore be fresh. The 30somethings in the race might be up for a surprise when things get fast on Monday.

(Julius Kibet running the 2006 NYC Marathon as pacemaker aside Henrik Ramaala - photo courtesy of the NYTimes)