Updated March 9, 2026, 3:44 p.m. ET
A Michigander won the Los Angeles Marathon in one of the most dramatic race finishes you will ever see.
Nathan Martin, a cross country coach at Jackson High School, won the 2026 Los Angeles Marathon in a photo finish over Michael Kimani Kamau of Kenya, after making a break on Kamau in the final mile-and-a-half stretch.
Martin’s official time of 2:11:16:50 seconds beat Kamau by one one-hundredth of a second in an incredible photo finish.
“I always challenge myself to push regardless if there’s somebody to chase or I’m all by myself, because I want to know I finished giving everything I had,” he told the Orange County Register after the race. “I was digging pretty deep. I was in the hurt locker for sure, but I’m used to it.”
Martin, 36, is the second American to win the Los Angeles Marathon since 1994. It was officially the closest finish in race history since the marathon began in 1986.
“Around mile five, I just kind of took off, and nobody went with me. So I said, ‘hey, I have to push, I have to fight,'” Martin said. “I wasn’t thinking at that point about winning. It was just making sure I gave the effort I have, and around a mile [to go] was when I saw I had a chance.”
Martin ran in high school at Three Rivers, and then Spring Arbor University, where he was a three-time NAIA national champion. He made the U.S. Olympic trials in 2016 and 2020.
Martin has six sisters, and lost both parents to cancer, according to his bio.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.