Jessica Johnson's Staging Area

This was my first time participating. I submitted my time and was seeded in Corral U, which i thought a little too far back. It was VERY hot this year and for a start time of 8:30, it was WAY too late. After about a mile into the race, I immediately regretted my decision to to run. I mean, I didn’t set out to PR, but wanted to do my best. The course was too crowded, so much to the point that it was almost impossible to run. I was constantly weaving back and forth as well as having to come to a full stop to avoid what appeared to be a LOT of walkers. I know it was super hot, and some walking was to be expected, but these were people who intended to walk the majority of the race. Later I found out the ATC members have the option to get an earlier start time. Sounds like a money grab to me. This is NOT a good idea as it creates a gridlock for the runners in later corrals actually trying to run. At one point, two small children darted out in front of me and I almost fell as I was running at full speed. The stretch to the finish was the absolute worst, just impossible to run at all with the amount of people on the course. Overall, I thought that this race was very expensive and not worth it due to the diminished race experience. I will not be running this one again and am strongly reconsidering running any ATC races at this point.

This was my first time running the LA Marathon.
Pre-race: I found it odd that i never received any kind of pre-race email communication until maybe 4 or 5 days before the race. All of a sudden, there was a massive runner information packet that was sent and was just a lot to digest in a small amount of time.
Expo: The expo was great. Swag bags left a lot to be desired. We only received a tech shirt. For a $200 race fee, I was expecting something more, like some socks or something at least! There wasn’t much to shop for at the expo other than Asics shoes, standard t-shirts, tech shirt, and socks. I didn’t see anything like a finisher jacket.
Race Day: I took the 5am shuttle and didn’t have a problem getting from Santa Monica to Dodger Stadium. I would say I was in line for maybe 15 minutes at most. Oh man! The start line area! The is for the 5k and the marathon–It seemed to be a bit chaotic and disorganized in the way of layout. I exited the bus looking for the food/water station, but it took maybe 15 minutes of needless walking to find it. There were signs, but the arrows pointed in a general direction with no “follow-up” arrows further down to direct you on where to go. The blackout fences made if even more difficult to navigate. It was just a lot when you are trying to stay off your feet as much as possible.
The course: The course was great, a little hilly from miles 1-6, with rather large hill at mile 4. Course support was awesome with water/gatorade stations every mile. There was also plenty of port o potties. I was expecting more in the way of crowd support, not many people were out except in a couple of touristy areas.
Post race: The finish line area was in a great location in Santa Monica (Ocean Ave) with plenty of restaurants nearby. The post race snacks left a lot to be desired with only cheezits, animal crackers, wheat crackers, and water. I did not visit the beer garden. Again, exiting the finish area was difficult as the neighboring business were lined with that blackout fencing ALL the way around. I had hard time navigating to where I needed to go (dinner reservations off Ocean) even though the restaurant was literally across the street from the finish line. It added an extra mile of walking around the block to get to an opening to the sidewalk. We ended up catching one of those carts as my feet couldn’t take the additional steps.
All in all, it was a great race. There were some things that could be changed in the future to make it better. I would say this was a one and done for me.