Daniel Lopez-Uribe's Staging Area

This is one of the most beautiful races in my repertoire. The weather was perfect. The Marriott hotel is under construction, but the rooms on the side of the race start were available. Once again, good water stations, good swag, good shuttles. All in all it feels great to be back :)))

Perfect day with cool wind, refreshing rain, and free ponchos!!!! There were plenty of water stations (I didn’t use any) clear signage, amazing views of the downtown buildings with amazing snow capped mountains in the background. Will be repeating next year, rain or shine.

One week ago I ran the Long Beach 13.1. This was a super nice distance to keep my legs in motion. The course is beautiful, some smooth hills, nothing gruesome. Enjoyed running along all the easy going runners. Will see you again next year.

My wife and I are supporting the USA National Women’s Soccer Team at the World Cup 2019 taking place in Paris. So far we have been to 3 games. On the side, we decided to burn off all the cheese and baguettes by signing up and running the annual 10k. Please see linked YouTube video that I took using a chesty, gimbal,& GoPro.
Till the next one.

Nestled in the hills of Pasadena, adjacent to JPL, this race has it all. Size is manageable, location is challenging, the sights are beautiful. On top of it all, the people are nice, the swag is superb, and the celebratory finish even had free dodgerdogs!!!! So cool, right?!?!? Water every mile means I am not packing water :))
I signed up for the Trail Challenge component so… see you on the next run.
Please find attached a link to the full race POV style, as always.

The parking was easy ($15) official. But many of local lots $10. The crowd was electric and it was nice to see everyone getting some exercise. Lots of kids having fun. The medal was awesome, nice piece of bling. I only wish they had played some of the Wonder Woman music at the start and mid race, since the path came around and midway passed the start area.

I normally do my long runs on the Santa Monica path. I figured I’d run the classic and make it my semi long run for the week.
All went well, except the running lanes were so narrow for the amount of runners in the race. I heard other people behind me after the race talking about how narrow the lanes were. Anyways, not sure if I’ll run it again next year. Overall a good race. For now, enjoy the full race by watching the SANTA MONICA CLASSIC FULL RACE VIDEO by pressing the link in the media area for this race. Or just search YouTube for the capital letters above. See you in the next race.

What a fantastic trail race. My wife and I took the day off work to run in the first wave 5:3opm and it was wonderful. The summer heat was challenging but it is summer. The free tacos at the end were fantastic and the gatorade/water after the race was a nice cooling touch. There were enough water stations available for those not carrying water during the race. Other runners are nice and pleasant. The second and third waves (6:30pm, 7:30pm) got the chance of running in slightly cooler weather. overall fantastic race, will be signing up next year for sure. The medal is super cool and looks awesome on my medal wall at home. Please check the video of the full race with the link attached to this review if you want to see the course. See you next time.

This is my second time running this race. I love the scenery, there are enough water stations sling the way. Good support along the way with music, dancers, singers. The expo was good. I like being able to buy shirts from prior races and use them for work around the house. Given that this was my 3rd race with running the OC, I earned the Shark Medal!!!! Super cool. Way to go guys, see you next year. Please see the video link along with this review for GoPro video of the FULL race, runner POV!!!!

I normally run around the rose bowl loop or at the lower arroyo. This is another great place to run. The trail is not easy as there are steep declines and steep climbs for short distances. Overall, the race was awesome! Medal is cool, amount of people was just right. I did film the race with a chest mounted GoPro session 5. Check it out, see what you missed. See you on the trail!!!

The first half of the course is hill after hill after hill. Then downhill. Woohoo. This was a challenging race bacause of all the hills. It will push you to the limit every time you can look ahead and see yet another hill. It will make you stronger overall. The one downside was bag pickup. After the race we stood in line for about 40min to pick up our bag we had checked in!! The line for bag pick up stretched for about 2 blocks!!!! Come on!!! If they only had a better system for picking up bags then I could of also stood in the horribly long line for the beer garden. I felt like One line or the other. The medal is cool, the shirt will be just a shirt for the honey do list around the house, nothing special. Al in all… see you next year.

This was a fantastic way to start the year. Especially after the holiday snacking and eating. I enjoyed this race so UCB that I signed up for next year as soon as I got home. Hooray for 2019

Despite the rain, my recently injured right knee in 13mile hike in the bowels of Patagonia, and an early 615am start, the race was fantastic. The start was right on time, the rain was heavy at first and subsided here and there, the medals were cool and this completed the 3 run race challenge. The challenge completion medal is so cool, a starfish with magnetic closure.
Although my time was not as good as I would of like, due to my right knee, I loved this race. I will gladly sign up to do it again next year.
Also, the busses at the end that took me back to the Newport Beach hotel were mostly school buses, the yellow ones. I have not been in such a bus in forever. Till next year.

Ok. First of all the run was suppose to start 7am. I live no more than 10minutes from the rose bowl and run here a couple of times per week. I left my home at 530am. I took the advised way to get there and this is where the horrible organization started… the 210 freeway wAs backed up about 1-2 miles before the exit!!! It was everyone for themselves!!! Cars were rudely trying to merge onto the exit from the highway!!! I felt as if the police should of been present starting at this point to help cars exiting the highway. Then once I got on the street there was another huge wait to drive to the rosebowl parking with more frantic and rude drivers cutting people off. Finally I parked and realized it was 6:52am. My normal 10min trip took 1.5 hrs and I felt like I had been through a driving war, completely stressed and already hating my run experience. Then The bad part started. They delayed the race by about 30minutes!!!!!! I had to stand out in the rain and cold waiting for the stupid organizers to get their shit together, probably from all the cars trying to get here and park, and I had to suffer by standing in the cold rain. Then,,, the race finally started. Large groups of walkers mixed in with runners!!!!!! It was impossible to get running until about .1-.2 miles into the race!!!! Completely ruining my measured time. Why could they not of separated the runners into waves!!!! With the walkers in the back!!!!! Now I’m trying to run through a bunch of walkers slowing everything down. pissed off about the parking, the late start, and now the walkers!!!!! 27min later I completed the run and could not leave soon enough. I didn’t stick around for the swag or beer as the mood called more for just forgetting the entire experience. The only thing that could happen to almost make things even at this time is that the race organizers read this review and send me a refund for this horrible race experience. Never again will I run in any event organized by these people. Good riddance.

My wife ran this race last year, while I was still not a runner myself. Things have changed as I have become a runner. This is my second 10K and I am hooked. In short this race is awesome! First of all, it blew my mind to know there is a maintained asphalt path that runs along the LA River. The road is fairly level with the intermittent bridge that will push the cardio and the mental toughness. I loved how this race was filled with locals and did not have the mob feeling of bigger races. There was one water station and that is really all you need for a 10k. As I was running along the river I actually saw an Egret, very beautiful bird, featured on the metal from the race. The race has beautiful views of the Los Angeles Smoggy Skyline, and then the dry Northern Mountains on the way back. for $2 you can ride the luxury shuttle bus that will take you from the start of the race, where you finish as well, and you will end up at the Golden Road Brewery where you will enjoy a cold beer (free) and explore the meat and potatoes menu. I will definitely be running this race again and the LA River many more times.

Overall a good experience.
Let’s start off with the positives:
-Doable for first time given minimal hills.
-Location is beautiful
Things I would change:
-making clear wave markers at the start. Separation or markers between running waves at the start was unclear. Too much of a mob feel at the start. Could of been better organized at the start.
-Hydration stations were very brief and mostly off to one side, therefore creating a cluster of runners at every hydration station off to one side. They should have hydration stations on both sides and with longer tables, this way avoiding a gigantic running cluster for water that forces you to stop running for water. A couple of times I wanted water but skipped the water station because it was too crouded.