EQUAL FOOTING? WOMAN WINS RACE AFTER HEAD START.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

More than 24,000 people showed their stuff Sunday in one of the hottest Los Angeles Marathon's on record.

``It's a people's marathon,'' said Frank Genco, 68, of Westminster, who has one leg and rode on a black roller skate, while he raised money for a charity that helps disabled children.

Besides being open to a broad range of participants, the 19th Los Angeles Marathon broke new ground Sunday by using a format that gave elite women runners a roughly 20-minute head start to give them an advantage over their male counterparts.

The result was a first-place finish and extra $50,000 prize for Tatyana Pozdnyakova, 49, of Ukraine, who came in with an unofficial time of 2:30:16. It's her second consecutive L.A. Marathon women's victory. Kenyan David Kirui, 26, was the winner in the men's field with a time of 2:13:40.

The top American woman was Maria Portilla in ninth place. For the men, it was Josh Small in 17th place. Joel Jeannot of France won the wheelchair competition after finishing third last year and in 2001.

William Burke, president of the Los Angeles Marathon, said the experiment of handicapping the elite men in what race organizers called ``The Challenge'' was a great success.

``If I had a dream finish, it would have been the man and the woman dueling it out in the last 10 yards and somebody sprinting to the finish line,'' Burke said.

``My second dream finish would have been the woman winning, because I think it is a situation that provokes other major city marathons in the world to emulate this format for running a race,'' he said.

This year's 26.2-mile course was a treacherous one for those unprepared for the heat. The temperature at start time was 67 degrees, which was second only to 1993 as the hottest start time in the history of the Los Angeles Marathon, according to organizers.

Temperatures soared into the 80s as the day wore on. City of Angels Medical Center ran a treatment center near the finish line to help runners suffering from heat exhaustion, nausea, vomiting and dehydration.

``We're so busy; I've never seen anything like this,'' said John Fenton, the medical center's chief executive officer.

At 4:15 p.m., Fenton said his team had transferred 20 patients to hospitals, whereas in past marathons about two runners would normally be transferred the whole day.

Burke said he was even hot riding around in a car, ``so I know what it was like out on that pavement.''

The heat did not deter Charles F. Delvalle, 38, of Twentynine Palms from taking the field dressed as Uncle Fester from ``The Addams Family,'' complete with a heavy black overcoat and The Thing perched on his head. Although he wore a participant's number, Delvalle walked the route through downtown, posing for pictures along the way.

Perhaps more determined to get to the finish line was Petite Henry, 44, of Studio City, who dedicated her run to her son, Ian Polinko, 24, who was killed seven months ago in a shooting in Nashville.

``It's my memorial, my memory for him, to support the very essence of who he was as a loving person,'' Henry said.

Muhammad Ali, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Mayor James Hahn were among those near the starting line to help start the race.

Randy Newman's ``I Love L.A.'' blared through loudspeakers and was repeated again and again as thousands of runners began the course, leaving dozens of sweat shirts on the ground behind them that workers picked up to donate to charity.

Among the runners this year were 2,500 students in the Students Run LA Program. Volunteers trained the students to run in the marathon.

Luz Juarez, a sixth-grade student from Whittier, who came with her mother, Roberta, said she was running because she likes ``to see people finish their goal and whatever they start they finish.''

Those unprepared to go the full 26.2 miles could finish their own challenge in a 5-kilometer race that began near the Staples Center to the accompaniment of the Locke High School marching band.

Mugen, a Japanese drumming group that practices twice a week in San Fernando, provided a beat for drummers to run to near the starting line along Figueroa Street.

As the runners neared the finish line, spectators had differing opinions about the new format, which gives women a head start.

Karen Zacharias, 42, of Angelus Oaks said the men and the women should start at the same time.

Susan Tom, 38, of Glendale said it would be exciting if a woman finished first, but that she would not cheer more for a woman than a man.

``No, I'm cheering for everyone equally,'' she said. ``I think it's great - everybody who's doing this.''

By the end of the day, more than 100 runners were taken to nearby hospitals for heat illness and exhaustion, and were reported in fair to good condition, said Los Angeles fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey. No serious injuries were reported.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) The view of the L.A. Marathon field from atop the Wilshire Center, above; Tatyana Pozdnyakova, top left, of Ukraine crosses the finish line, followed by David Kirui of Kenya, above left.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(4 -- color) Race participants tied together by flags of Mexico, the United States and California prepare to cross the finish line in Sunday's L.A. Marathon.

(5 -- color) Dancer Elena Alcala performs for runners at Wilshire Boulevard and Wilton Place, during the L.A. Marathon.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer