Natalie Uyeno's Staging Area

While the pre-race communications, course refreshments & entertainment, and race swag (t-shirt & medal) were excellent as usual, the race day packet pick up was a disorganized mess! The long lines caused the race to start at least 30 minutes late and several people were complaining about the lack of organization. Due to the size of the race, perhaps a 2nd date for early packet pick up could be added to eliminate the long lines on race day. One positive change that I noticed for this year was the added option of doing a virtual race. The shirt & medal are so nice that I will always participate in this run every year, even if I’m not physically able to attend! Thanks again for adding the virtual option!

A small local race sponsored by the Buena Park Lions Club that is held in conjunction with the Silverado Days festival. I paid only $22.50 using the Gemini discount code and I signed up 1 day before the race! The only pre-race communications were via the Silverado Days website, which only had info about packet pick up, start time, prizes, and included race swag. (No info on parking, late registration, picking up friends’ packets, results/photos, etc.) The course was nice and flat (but not scenic), and the mile markers were way off! While it didn’t affect me personally, several of the runners in the front were accidentally misrouted by the volunteers, which added an extra 0.4 of a mile to their distance (which threw off their finish times). Several of the affected runners were angry about this. Rules to entering the costume contest weren’t clearly communicated either. A couple of my friends had no idea if they won or not. On a positive note, the included unisex cotton t-shirt & medal were very nice and the volunteers were friendly & helpful. While there is room for improvement, I feel that I got good value for my registration fee.

From start to finish, this race was well-advertised, well-organized, and the race swag was outstanding! The pre-race email communications were easy to understand and follow. The scenic course was relatively flat and there were plenty of volunteers to support the water stations and turn around point. The tech shirt & medal are some of the best that I’ve ever received and I love that this race is part of the Triple 5K Tour of LA series for the extra challenge medal! Will definitely do this race again and will recommend to friends! Sign up early before it sells out like it did this year!

This was my first nighttime race. It was still light out when the race started, but it got dark by the time I finished. The course through the streets of downtown L.A. was very challenging with all of the hills. The cotton t-shirt runs VERY small and it’s cheap, thin cotton, but the medal was shiny & nice. The expo (held at Grand Park) was great. Lots of vendors, food trucks, and a beer garden! Every runner got 2 free post-race beers from Angel City Brewery! The only drawback was that some of the people who did the 9.3 challenge (5K & 10K) were complaining that there was only one medal given out for doing both of those races. Otherwise, it was a great race!

I had just injured myself 3 weeks before the race, so I had to walk this one, but that was good because there were several hills along the steep streets of downtown LA. The start/finish line was at Grand Park, which is the perfect place for an expo. You wouldn’t think that there would be much scenery in a race through the city streets of L.A., but we passed some beautiful architecture along the way. Mayor Eric Garcetti was giving high fives to all of the runners at the start line, so that was a pleasant surprise! The pre-race packet pick up a week before was easy. I liked that we received a trucker’s hat instead of a t-shirt for this race. It was unique & different! The turkey-shaped medal was cute. A perfect way to start off your Thanksgiving with a fun run or walk. (There were several families walking the event all dressed in costume.)

While the pre-race communications were a little lacking, the race itself was well-organized from parking to volunteers to post-race refreshments. The colorful cotton t-shirt & finisher’s medal were very nice for the price that I paid for this race (around $25). The course itself was an out & back over a bridge (which was a bit of an incline), then through the streets of Montebello. There were mariachis & DJs all along the course, which made it festive. The expo was in a park near the start/finish line. Would have liked to see a few more vendors, but otherwise not bad for a small local race.

Was disappointed that there still wasn’t a finisher’s medal for all participants, but the cotton t-shirt was nicer this year with the Kings’ 50th anniversary logo. The bananas ran out quickly after the race (and I finished pretty quickly, improving last year’s time by about 2 1/2 minutes). Was nice to see the players and their families running/walking the race again. Got lots of photos with the players & alumni! Will definitely do this race again in the future due to the great scenery and fairly easy course!

This was my 2nd 5K ever and I wasn’t running seriously at the time, so I found the course to be somewhat challenging with a few minor hills through the streets of Redondo Beach; however, the part where you run along the Esplanade overlooking the beach was beautiful! The only included swag was a unisex cotton t-shirt, but an added bonus is that I got to meet several of the Kings players after the race and I got photos with them.