Dona McBride's Staging Area

This race could be awesome, but the race director needs to ensure he has enough volunteers by race day. It becomes like a one man show where he is greeting runners, getting results, shuttling folks back to their cars, and handing out medals. Great shirt, excellent timing company, enough porta-potties (highly important) even on the course.

Someone decided to stagger the finish line up from the start line, for no apparent reason. This is a straight 10 mile race; out and back, so 5 miles out and 5 miles back, easy-peasy. They do have a 10k and a 5k on the same course, but staggering the start and finish doesn’t help anything. They did manage to get all the distances wrong though. the 10 mile was 10.28 miles and the 10k was 5.9 miles. The mile markers were placed any old which where. My personal peeve is 10 year age groups. Is it that expensive to recognize 5 year age groups? On the other hand they have a second set of results for 10 year age groups for local runners. Those with an address in Huntington Beach get their own results. Why? The geographical distinction is that significant? Folks traveled all of 1/4 mile from Seal Beach.
Enough carping; the weather was awesome, the views were awesome, the volunteers were the greatest, it is a great race otherwise.

Someone must be a marathoner to decide to put a supported 18 mile race a little over a month before the Los Angeles marathon, and one month before Surf City too. All of the Students Run LA and the We Rock Orange County kids thought so! The course matched the Half marathon, except the 5 mile loop in the middle was run twice by the 18 milers. Most of the race in along the river bed and somehow was all a gentle downhill (hard to do in an out and back course!) Other than that there were clover leaf shapes through the side streets that were entertaining because you could see other runners coming and going in all directions like an M. C. Escher drawing. My only two quibbles: not enough porta-potties on course..enough said. And the tech race shirt was one of the ugliest ever (and I’ve got some ugly shirts!)

I keep coming back to this race..but I hate it! 🙂 There is no race day pickup, so you have to drive to downtown LA the day before, Thursday or Friday, fight LA traffic, take off work, pay to park..grrrrr
The race starts godawful early, 6 am, so you need to get up before 4 am drive to LA find a parking structure, pay to park, and find the porta-pottie lines. Oh and they need MORE porta-potties. Gear check is near the finish line…but the start line is a mile away, so much for staying warm before the race! Bring something to wear that you plan to toss. The local homeless will than you, well they really won’t thank you, they are not that polite, but there are a lot of them there. Also, be sure to park south of the course if you hope to get back to the freeway sometime that same day after the race.
But I keep coming back. The race director is awesome, he is so enthusiastic, you just want him to succeed. The race is made fun, costumes, klieg lights! rockin’ music! the shirt is attractive, the medal is outstanding, and he has free marathonfotos for all.
Things I would change: the course, omigod up and back another side street and a hairpin turn around another cone? Kill me now! Oh, and pass the finish line, run another mile, then turn back? Can we go back to the course that went to Silver Lake, please!!? Age group awards only to the top 1. Huh, why not the top 3 like other races? skip the hoky Finisher certificate that is emailed out., and go 3 deep on the age groups. Everything else I’d keep. 🙂

The course for these races was pancake flat, all on concrete paths. The weather was cool and rainy, and the temperature was perfect for running. A small boutique event where you really got to see and apprecaite your fellow runners.

The is a great race and somehow always has good weather! Gentle rolling hills, closed roads and multiuse paths, with wonderful views of the foothills.

Who doesn’t love LA? The sights! The people! The unpredictable weather! This race is deceptively hard, early hills sap your speed and there aren’t many spectators to cheer you on. But it is the best way to see Los Angeles!