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Long Beach Marathon ready to dash away, leaving the Covid era behind

October 7, 2023

The forecast for the 39th Long Beach Marathon on Sunday, Oct. 15: Normal.

This year’s race, organizers say, will be the first to bring a sense of normalcy for runners, fans and the city’s hospitality and restaurant industries since the pandemic forced the race’s cancellation in 2020.

The 26.2-mile race will take place on Sunday, Oct. 15 at 6 a.m. A bike tour is also scheduled to start at the same time of the marathon, while the half-marathon is booked to begin at 7:30 a.m.

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Long Beach Marathon returns this weekend, with thousands expected to participate

The initial race, the Aquarium of the Pacific 5K, is slated for Saturday, Oct. 14 at 6:50 a.m. Organizes want all the runners to wake up early and pickup their bibs and other gear from 5:15 through 6:30 a.m.

Although Covid-19 infections are slightly on the rise again, fears of massive and lethal transmissions among the participants are largely gone thanks to high levels of immunity obtained through a combination of effective vaccinations and immunity grown on people who have caught the coronavirus.

These factors, coupled with lifted city, county and state health regulations, would allow up to 25,000 visitors to show up on race day, and congregate in and around the Expo Center hours later to celebrate a myriad of athletic milestones.

The estimates, provided by Dan Cruz, the event’s director or media relations, include the 17,000 runners already registered to compete in the marathon, half marathon and the bike tour.

Predictions of a successful and memorable event are so upbeat that, for the first time since the marathon was canceled, a corporate sponsor has been secured.

Philips Sonicare, a brand of electrical toothbrushes, was introduced in August as the Marathon and Half Marathon’s main sponsor, according to Cruz.

Also, it is the first time an Expo Center will be built on the waterfront to receive up to 7,500 visitors on Friday, Oct. 13, the first of a three-day weekend of marathon activities. About 15,000 more attendants are expected on Saturday.

Cruz offered a condensed timeline of events that led to this year’s retrofitted marathon since the pandemic’s onset.

“It’s been rough on event organizers. Year 2021 was tough because all rules on organizers and participants,” said Cruz.

In 2022, participation roared back, he said, despite county, state and federal regulations still in place.

“But in 2023 we are back in full force. We have lots of participants, a new sponsor,” he said, as well as the outdoors expo on the waterfront and a record number of registered runners.

An extra sweetener has been added to the marathon: Last year’s champions Raymon Ornelas and Margaux Curcuru will defend their titles, as Cruz confirmed their registration.

Marathon winners in the male and female categories will receive a $1,000 award, while second places will earn $500 each.

Event manager Randy Garcia said registrations for the marathon and 5K run are sold out. The Bike Tour was the only activity open for registrations at the event’s website one week before the marathon’s kickoff. Bike Tour signups are $70 apiece.

Garcia said more than 1,500 registered runners live outside California, and runners from at least 20 countries will join the race.

The marathon “will attract some of the fastest athletes in Southern California,” he said.

Data from the event’s portal indicated 41 teams representing charities, sport and social clubs, and even the US Coast Guard, had signed up, each with at least 10 runners and one with as many as 61.

An “LBC” combo medal would be awarded to those who finish the 5K and any of the Sunday’s runs, or ride on the bike tour plus run in the half marathon.

At least 1,500 volunteers will work during the weekend, and some would be deployed to assist visitors at various spots along the race’s mapped path. Hundreds of police officers, firefighters and paramedics would be deployed at start point, and throughout the meandering urban race course.

Hotels and retailers brace for a boost in revenues

Due to the lack of an economic impact report — none has been conducted since 2018 — Cruz said hotel bookings and direct purchases from visitors in restaurants, retail stores and others will match, and likely surpass, those recorded pre-pandemic.

Hotel reservations and restaurant services will cost more for customers exploring Long Beach, considering the stubborn inflation led in part by expensive gasoline, high supply prices and increased wages.

Cruz said hotels near and along the shoreline are fully booked for Saturday and Sunday, and all kind of local businesses, from eateries to gift shops and other retail stores will experience an economic boon not seen in years.

The 2018 executive summary report indicated about 11,300 visitors flocked to the downtown and waterfront or stayed along the race course, reserved 2,799 hotel nights and spent more than $3 million.

That said, the total economic impact spurred by the marathon in the Los Angeles County rose to $4 million if one considers indirect benefits, or more activity among businesses, and induced expenses, or more spending linked to wealthier visitors.

Marilynn Singer, communications manager with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement the 2023 marathon underscores the city’s appeal, attracting visitors who will contribute to restaurants, shops and services, and will strengthen its economic resilience.

“We here at the chamber, together with countless local business owners, are eagerly anticipating the substantial positive impact this will have on Long Beach’s businesses, employees, and overall economy,” said Singer.

Garcia advised anyone coming to Long Beach starting Friday to travel with plenty of time. If they plan to take the I-170 Long Beach freeway south, exit on Shoreline Drive, take 6th Street and turn right on Pine Avenue to find parking. Those arriving from the I-405 San Diego freeway should exit on Magnolia Avenue, head south and turn left on 6th Street to reach downtown.

Visitors with cars are advised to park at the Pike Outlets Parking Garage, located at 65 Cedar Ave., or at the City Place Parking Lot, found at 50 E. 6th St. Daily parking rates oscillate between $12 to $15.

Travelers from central Los Angeles can also board the Metro A light train, an exit on downtown Long Beach station. There is a bike parking station nearby.

“We are very excited to have this race. We missed it in 2020, and to have it back to pre-pandemic levels is very exciting,” said Cruz.

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39TH LONG BEACH MARATHON AT A GLANCE:

EVENT: Health and Wellness, Race & Packet Pick-Up Expo

Date: Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

Time: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Location: Marina Green, 386 E. Shoreline Dr., Long Beach, CA. 90803.

A two-day health and wellness free expo along the waterfront will kick off activities. The expo will showcase dozens of products for sample and sale as Marathon, half marathon and bike tour participants pickup race bibs, T-shirt and swag bag. 5K runners are encouraged to get their bibs Friday to avert long lines early morning on race day.

EVENT: Aquarium of the Pacific 5K

Date: Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023

Start Time: 6:50 a.m.

Location: 100 Aquarium Way.

Participants are encouraged to arrive early to pickup their race bibs and avoid long lines. Bib pickup is from 5:15 through 6:30 a.m.

EVENT: Race Expo & Packet Pickup Expo

Date: Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023

Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Location: Marina Green, 386 E. Shoreline Dr.

Marathon, half marathon and bike tour participants are required to get their race bibs here.

EVENT: Bike Tour, 18 miles

Date: Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023.

Start time: 6 a.m.

Location: Shoreline Drive and Linden Avenue.

Bike riders are encouraged to bring bike lights because it will be dark at the start of the tour. E-bikes, and/or motorized bikes are banned. All riders should wear helmets, it is mandatory.

EVENT: The Marathon, 26.2 miles

Date: Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023.

Start Time: 6 a.m.

Location: Shoreline Drive and Shoreline Village Drive.

EVENT: Half Marathon, 13.1 miles

Date: Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023

Start Time: 7:30 a.m.

Location: Shoreline Drive and Shoreline Village Drive.

EVENT: Finish Line Festival

Date: Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023

Time: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Location: Marina Green, at Shoreline Drive and Linden Avenue.

The “Michelob Ultra Beer Garden” will be held to celebrate finishing any of the races, with food trucks, photo ops and team village.

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Orange County Register

A certain trip to Huntington Library ended in a $40 million gift – and a new vision for its future

October 7, 2023

It was about a year ago when a special visitor showed up at The Huntington.

Amid the sprawling San Marino library, its museum and botanical gardens was finance giant Charlie Munger, getting a tour around the San Marino property led by the longtime institution’s president Karen R. Lawrence.

Nothing like a nice tour of such a bountiful and historic site, and if you’ve got some pull a personalized one doesn’t hurt.

There’s the art museum and its 45,000 pieces spanning centuries of art. There’s the library itself, with more than 11 million items spanning from the 11th century. There’s botanical gardens — all 130 acres — even its smelly corpse flower.

It turns out, Munger — the storied onetime Berkshire Hathaway billionaire known for giving much of his fortune to causes he cares about — has a little pull.

Make that a lot a lot of pull. But more on that later.

While the 99-year-old, who lives not from from the library in Pasadena, was hanging out with Lawrence that day, something struck him. It wasn’t something he saw. It was a vision for the future of the library grounds.

Charlie Munger (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, FileAssociated Press)

Lawrence told him about a long-sought goal to provide more affordable housing for the more than two dozen scholars from around the country and the world who each year earn fellowships to study their field for several months based at The Huntington.

There was only one problem, Munger learned.

In an era when housing around San Marino and Pasadena is getting pricier and pricier, it’s harder and harder for these scholars — 30 each year all told — to take the fellowships.

They often can’t afford to because it’s too expensive to live nearby. (By the way, average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Pasadena is $3,306, according to rent.com, and if you’re scholar looking for a home the median price of one in San Marino is $2.5 million. Thankfully, that’s down almost 4% from last year, according to Redfin. But you’d need to be a scholar with some dollars.)

Many months after Munger’s visit, The Huntington this week got a robust share of Munger’s goodwill — 77 shares of it to be exact.

Munger gave 77 Class A Berkshire Hathaway shares to the San Marino museum, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At Thursday’s closing price of $523,545.06 a share, that made the gift worth more than $40.3 million, assuming they were cashed in immediately.

And just like that, a vision that was more of a dream is in the pipeline to become reality.

“This is like huge for us,” said Huntington spokeswoman Susan Turner-Lowe, reflecting on what is not the first time The Huntington has been the beneficiary of Munger family gifts. “None of this would be possible unless we received this gift. He saw the need.”

A decade ago, Munger, who lived in Pasadena, gave the Huntington museum nearly $33 million worth of Berkshire stock to help pay for a new education and visitors center.

Turner-Lowe said the tradition of giving to The Huntington is rooted with Munger’s late wife Nancy, a philanthropist born in Los Angeles and who served as a trustee of the Huntington Library, a legacy that continued with daughter Wendy Munger, who is among trustees emeriti there.

“She was the most passionate of trustees and supporters of the place,” Turner-Lowe said. “She believed in what it was doing and its capacity to do more, and he began to feel similarly.”

People walk throughThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino Friday, Oct 6, 2023. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

As an Associated Press story reporting the donation noted, once a billionaire, Munger’s fortune never rivaled his best friend Warren Buffett’s, who controls Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha, Neb.-based conglomerate that owns dozens of companies, including BNSF railroad, Geico insurance and several utilities. There’s also the well-known brands such as See’s Candy and Dairy Queen.

But Munger lost his billionaire status long ago as he steadily gave away his fortune, and roughly $1 billion of his stock went into a charitable trust in 2010 after his wife died, according to AP.

After his latest donation, Munger still held 4,033 Class A Berkshire shares. But back in 2000 he held 15,911 shares, which would be worth more than $8.3 billion today if he’d hung onto it all.

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Instead, much of that wealth has gone to an array of places, including UC Santa Barbara, the University of Michigan Law School, Standford University.

As for the donation, it doesn’t hurt that Munger is a local resident, so taking in The Huntington that day many months ago was really about something right in his own backyard, the same region where some of his own children live.

It also doesn’t hurt that such a financial force – who turns 100 years old in January — is looking at a world beyond him, and saw a glimpse of it in the scholars who each day use the library to research and write books, to study history and art. Already, the library is beginning the planning for what still will take at least a couple of years to come to fruition as The Huntington works out plans for the living quarters. Cost so far is expected to be somewhere in the ballpark of Munger’s gift.

Turner-Lowe called his, his wife’s and the family’s philanthropy prescient.

“We are so grateful to be on the receiving end of that,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Orange County Register