NOTES : Race Changes Sponsor for Its Second Decade

A cloud that hovered over the 10th running of the Los Angeles Marathon, that of its future sponsorship, will be lifted today with the announcement of a long-term agreement with the American Honda Motor Co.

Honda will replace Mercedes-Benz, which sponsored the marathon for 10 years, but did not renew its contract.

A source said Honda’s commitment is for five years with an option for five more, and that it will mean more money for the marathon than its previous deal.

A Honda official said no contracted time has been decided but the company anticipates a long-term commitment.

Part of the allure of the L.A. Marathon has been the award of a luxury car to the men’s and women’s winners, though in most cases the runners opted for the cash value of the automobile. Susie Rossick, Honda’s assistant manager for national automobile advertising, said awarding cars to the winners probably would continue.

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The winner of the women’s wheelchair division, Jean Driscoll of Champaign, Ill., has an unusual training method.

She rolls around the farm roads near her home and tries to outrace dogs.

“It’s a pretty good training motivation,” Driscoll said. “The dogs come at me from all over the place. But I get up around 17 m.p.h. . . . one time I even outran a German shepherd.”

Forgive Driscoll for not calling this the biggest victory of her life.

She won the last five Boston Marathons . . . and set world records in each.

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Bill Burke, marathon president, said rain was the least of his worries as he made his annual post-midnight tour of the course early Sunday morning.

“I got to the west end of the course and I couldn’t see further than two blocks because of the fog,” Burke said. “What went through my mind was, ‘Oh no, there goes our TV broadcast.’ ”

Burke was worried the helicopters required for the telecast would be affected by the cloud cover.

“That’s why, when the race started, you’ll notice that everybody was looking at the runners but me,” Burke said. “I was looking at the sky saying, ‘Where’s those helicopters?’ I could not see any helicopters.”

By the second mile, though, the clouds cleared and the helicopters appeared.

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The olive wreaths worn by the winners Sunday were shipped here from Marathon, Greece. According to legend, that is where the first 26-mile road race began.

Occurring in 490 B.C., it was supposedly run by a soldier announcing a Greek victory over the Persians.

According to legend, that runner, Phidippides, died after finishing the race.

“But this will not happen here,” promised Christos Panagopoulos, Counsel General of Greece, who arranged for the shipment.

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An addition to this year’s L.A. Marathon was a bike tour in which more than 12,000 cyclists signed up to ride the course two hours before the race. It took more than 14 minutes to get the cyclists through the starting line at 28th and Figueroa streets.

Among the riders was Rod Dixon, an Olympic marathoner out on a lark, riding with former Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner.

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Robert Hudson of Santa Monica won the men’s 5,000-meter race in 14:28, and Laurie Chapman was the women’s winner in 17:21.

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Race medical personnel reported treating many runners for cold, with temperatures staying in the 50s most of the day, but said that there were no serious injuries.