DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Running in a marathon just once is a huge accomplishment, but these legacy runners have participated in every Los Angeles Marathon since it started.

Lou Briones is known as the "Mayor" of the Legacy Runners and despite fears of the coronavirus, he’s excited to run in the Los Angeles Marathon once again.

“I’m running the L.A. Marathon for the 35th year in a row,” said Briones. “I among 131 other legacy runners have run every race since Day 1. We’re a very dedicated group. Nobody wants to drop out. We’ve become a family. We have events where we run together. We have a celebration after the race.” 

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This year, the Los Angeles Marathon is enjoying a record number of registered runners. More than 27,000 athletes will participate in the event. Lou doesn’t expect to win, but nothing will stop him from crossing the finish line. 

“Most of us really want to keep going, and we’re going to keep going if we have to walk. If we have to use crutches,” said Briones.

Running a marathon takes motivation and medical student Roydel Yabut joined the Pasadena Pacers, a local run club, to get fit. Since starting, he’s lost 60 pounds.

“I had a conversation with myself and said, 'You know what, you [have to] practice what you preach,'” said Roydel Yabut. “In the future, you’re going to be dealing with patients with hypertension, with diabetes, especially in the United States, it’s pretty much prevalent and you know, patients will most likely listen to you if you practice what you preach at the end of the day.”

This year, organizers are preaching everyone to take precautions. They’ve installed hand sanitizers all along the route and deferred athletes from the "Do Not Travel" advisory. Thankfully, the race will go on.

“We don’t have to put our lives on hold and I feel confident enough to where we can run a marathon and we can, you know, pretty much get on with our lives,” said Yabut.

For Briones, after 35 years of running in the Los Angeles Marathon, there was no way he was going to miss it.

“We don’t believe that we should cancel the race,” said Briones. “We don’t believe that we should not do the race. We’re just going to be extra careful. Other than that, I would say just carry on with your normal life and just be careful.”