The 2015 USATF Marathon Championships hosted by the ASICS L.A. Marathon promises exciting match-ups headlined by two-time Olympian Ryan Hall and 2012 Olympian Janet Cherobon-Bawcom who lead the largest American elite field in the race’s 30-year history.  

 

The March 15 L.A. Marathon is doubling as the 2015 USATF Marathon Championships, while next year’s L.A. Marathon will host the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials on a separate course on Feb. 13. Beginning at Dodger Stadium and ending in Santa Monica, the L.A. Marathon is the third stop on the 2015 USATF Running Circuit, which ends with the .US National 12k in Alexandria, Virginia. 

 

Hall is making his 2015 marathon debut after a runner-up finish at the Tempe Rock ’n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon on Jan. 18, where he crossed the line in 1:04:16, one second behind Benson Cheruiyot. A disappointing 20th-place finish at the Boston Marathon last spring made Hall shift his focus from the fall marathon season to training for 2015 and the USATF Marathon Championships. The L.A. Marathon will be the first indication of Hall’s marathon fitness in 2015. 

 

Hall will have stiff competition with 2013 USATF Running Circuit Champion Shadrack Biwott, 2014 Twin Cities Marathon runner-up Jared Ward, Matt Llano, Scott Smith, Sergio Reyes, Mike Morgan, Max King, and Patrick Rizzo all vying for national titles on Sunday. 

 

Biwott posted a personal best in the marathon last October with a 2:12:55 performance in Frankfurt, and Ward most recently finished runner-up at the USATF Half Marathon Championships this past January with a career best 1:01:42. 

 

Northern Arizona Elite teammates Llano and Smith are each looking to improve upon their performances from their marathon debut’s last year. Llano posted a 2:17:43 performance at the Chicago Marathon in Oct., and most recently a fifth-place finish at the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Jan. Smith finished third at the USATF Marathon Championships in the fall with a debut time of 2:14:40. 

 

Reyes is making his 2015 marathon debut after finishing seventh at the Twin Cities Marathon in 2:16:48, and Rizzo owns four sub-2:16 performances to his name. Morgan posted a 2:14:40 for 13th at the 2014 Boston Marathon and a 2:14:40 for 15th at the 2014 Chicago Marathon. King was recently named male International Association of Ultrarunner (IAU) athlete of the year after capturing the IAU 100k World Championships in Doha, Qatar in November. 

 

In the women’s field, Cherobon-Bawcom is looking to make a statement in her first marathon performance since the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials where she finished fifth in 2:29:45, which is also her personal best. In Jan. Cherobon-Bawcom finished third in 1:10:46 at the USATF Half Marathon Championships. She will have to be on the lookout for major contenders Sara Hall, Brianne Nelson, Heather Lieberg, Becky Wade and Sarah Crouch. 

 

Hall will be making her much-anticipated debut at the 26.2 distance on Sunday after opening 2015 with a fourth-place finish at the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Houston, finishing four seconds behind Cherobon-Bawcom. 

 

Nelson finished the USATF Half Marathon Championships with a runner-up finish to Kim Conley in a time of 1:10:16 and captured a third-place effort at the USATF Marathon Championships in the fall, which should give the Boulder native confidence heading into Sunday. 

 

Elementary school teacher and mother of three, Lieberg is also a major contender heading into the championships. On Feb. 22, Lieberg took third at the Gasparilla Half Marathon in 1:13:10, and finished second in 2:34:09 at the USATF Marathon Championships in Oct. 2014. 

 

In her debut at the distance at just 24 years-old, Wade sent shock-waves through the marathon circuit  after running 2:30:41 for the win at the 2013 California International Marathon. She recently returned from a post-grad fellowship that allowed her to study running cultures around the world. She is currently writing a book about her travels, which is set to be released in the summer of 2016. 

 

Last fall, Crouch finished seventh at the Chicago Marathon with a 12-minute personal best performance that saw the Lake Tahoe, Calif. native finish in 2:32:44. 

 

The elite women’s start of the USATF Marathon Championships is scheduled to begin March 15 at 7:02 a.m. PT and the elite men’s start is scheduled for 7:25 a.m. PT.