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City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) Runner Comments
Back to City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) Information & Reviews
Course 3.8 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 4.4
Number of comments: 473 [displaying comments 141 to 151]
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R. B. from Orange County, CA
(3/21/2010)
"Great new course!" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This is my 6th time running the LA Marathon. The new owners did a fabulous job. Positives: 1. Loved the new stadium-to-sea course. Highlighted the best of LA. 2. Course support and entertainment were top notch. Really appreciated the drummers on the hill at mile 4! 3. Excellent support from the community and spectators. 4. Very nice medal at the finish. I did encounter some negatives but I think they can easily be corrected: 1. Expo layout - way too crowded. Felt like I was running a gauntlet just to get my bib. 2. T-shirts for women ran very small and some racers did not get one at all. 3. Traffic to the stadium on race morning was chaos. Our 3-mile ride using the downtown hotel shuttles took over 45 minutes. We saw people jumping out of cars and walking along the freeway to make it to the start on time. Very dangerous. A quick fix: Allow only shuttles to access the stadium and make all others park at the finish and shuttle in. | |
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P. K. from Orange County
(3/21/2010)
"Hilly new course" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 I'm not a big LA-the city-fan even though I live in Orange County. I'd done this race 3 times on the old course and wanted to check out this new one. We drove down from OC because I didn't want to shuttle. Even though they sent out an email last minute telling us to arrive TWO HOURS early we left two hours before the race started and were parked within 45 minutes. Much easier for us than others who had done as they were told and parked at the finish and bussed for TWO hours to the start line. This caused the race directors to start the race later and as an experienced marathon runner I feel this was a HUGE mistake. I don't know their reasons why, but what the heck, with chip timing why not start on time and alleviate some of the congestion, they did it last year for the first RNR in Seattle, didn't bother us, especially on a day it was supposed to get HOT. The rest of the race was fine, just really hilly, much much hiller than it used to be. Nice finishing at the beach, the breeze off the ocean kept us for getting too hot. Took HOURS to get home. | |
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S. A. from Chicago
(3/21/2010)
"Great Course, Great Spectators and Very Well Run" (about: 2010)
3 previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have run Chicago and New York City and I must say that Los Angeles is by far my favorite marathon of the the three. The course was extremely challenging, especially the hills. I live and train in Chicago, so I was very unprepared to handle this hills and after training all winter, the heat also got to me. The course was beautiful and ran through many popular tourist destinations. The LA Marathon was extremely well organized. I parked in Santa Monica in a lot that was available for runners who purchased advanced tickets. The walk from the parking lot to the buses was very short. The buses were very nice, not your standard school bus. They let us walk on the field at Dodger Stadium before the race. Bathrooms were clean and the lines were short. Every aid station along the course was well stocked. After the finish, it was a quick walk to get your medal, food, pictures and your bag if you dropped one off. Most important and the least expected was the amazing spectators. They were just awesome!! Many brought their own oranges, pretzels, water, gatorade, candy, etc to hand out to the runners. They were extremely supportive and of my three races, the best I have encountered!! GREAT JOB LA MARATHON!! | |
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david coleman from detroit, MI
(10/9/2009)
"1st marathon" (about: 2009)
1 previous marathon
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The 2009 edition was my first full marathon. (I ran a half in Detroit a month before.) And I must say the supporters did a great job. I could not have finished without them. | |
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G. Y. from Los Angeles, Ca
(7/24/2009)
"Booooorn in West LA!" (about: 2009)
First Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first marathon ever, and I must say that the experience was wonderful! The one thing I could not stop talking about post-race was the great support from all of the spectators. I can't remember one spot where you didn't have support! With the live bands, the kids giving out gummy bears, and all of the people who cut up oranges for the runners, it was awesome! I give the course 4 stars only for the fact - and I think all locals will agree - that the pavement was not all up to par. The pavement on many streets was uneven, old and cracked. But it can't be perfect and nonetheless, it was still a great and fun course. I think we ran down the hills more than we ran up them. There were two pretty steep hills, but they weren't long at all. The rest of the hills were moderate. The entire course allowed you to pick up the pace when you really should, making for a great finish time. There were a group of people who passed out beer and pretzels, and that really threw me off, but it was funny listening to other runners joke about it! Organization was good, especially post-race. It's like everything was where it should be, preventing congestion. I can't thank the people at the massage booths enough! I cried after I finished, because it was a huge accomplishment and I even beat my own time from training. I will run this one every year! | |
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Lilly Jimenez from United States, Pomona California
(7/16/2009)
"Very well organized!" (about: 2006)
1 previous marathon
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The course was great, and the weather was perfect. May is not so good! But March has very good marathon weather - not too hot and not too cold. | |
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p. n. from SoCal
(6/22/2009)
"My City, My Marathon" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 This is my prayer run for my city, so I love it. My 22nd marathon and 8th LA, and okay, I'll admit that I'm biased, but I loved the course since it went by all my old stompin' grounds. With LA, you do journey through diverse neighborhoods, which is the beauty of LA. People of all colors were cheering on people of all colors! The date changes don't work for runners... that's very inconsiderate. And the 2010 date was to be announced at the '09 expo, but we're still waiting! There are multiple marathons in the area, and runners need to plan (not a good idea doin' it a week before San Diego)! While I appreciate all of the hard work that goes into it, and offer grace to the new management, hopefully they'll get their act together for next year. Hallelujah - the weather was cool for Memorial Day! There seemed to be fewer fans this year than I remember from previous LA Marathons, perhaps due to the earlier start on a holiday, such that fans were still asleep (I would be). But those who came out were great! Cool tech shirt - plus you get a pin! The ribbon for the medal this year was the prettiest of any marathon! | |
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Z. S. from Edwards, CO
(6/15/2009)
"A good first marathon." (about: 2009)
First Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This is the first marathon I have ever run, and I was happy for the date change because I happened to be in town. I grew up in LA and was a little disappointed with most of the course; it just was not a very interesting slice of the city. Spectators were great - reasonably abundant and super encouraging. Liquids were more frequent than needed. I decided the day before the race to register and run, and I'm glad that I did! | |
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G. C. from Los Angeles, CA
(6/6/2009)
"route is good for locals, not for tourists" (about: 2009)
3 previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 We lucked out with the weather as it could have been much worse. The expo was fine, but the lines to buy the official LA Marathon gear were just ridiculously long (and this was Saturday morning). There was another booth with no line, but they only took cash. Also, I do not understand why they did not have tank-tops available for male runners. On race day, I had a spot in the sub-4-hour corral, but I could never find it; instead, I was directed back to the general area, and there was no liquid available. So they get a one-point deduction for the organization. Not finding my start corral was a bummer, but I got over it after a couple of miles. The route is interesting for local runners who live in LA, because you discover some areas that you don't really know... and it's also fun to run around familiar places in the middle of the road. However, for people who don't know the city, the route must have been incredibly boring; there were no real LA landmarks whatsoever, except downtown and the Coliseum. Another issue is the overall downhill first half and uphill second half, which makes it really hard to run a negative split. Spectators were nice and supportive, although some portions were a little empty (compared to Chicago, which is packed from mile 0 to 26.2). Liquids were plentiful over the entire course, but there were no gels (I always carry mine anyway) - so that's another point deduction for the organization. Overall, a very pleasant race - especially since I PR'ed by 13 minutes. But the organizers and City of LA were incredibly lucky that the weather cooperated. It's best for local runners, but not so much for travelers. Maybe next year that'll change if the rumored adjustments are made (making the course go around some L.A. landmarks and finish at the ocean). | |
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K. C. from Dallas, TX
(6/3/2009)
"Well Organized but Not Scenic" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 After reading prior years' comments, I came to this marathon with very low expectations. However, I was so pleased that the race director(s) apparently took the prior results to heart and made the necessary corrections. The race and expo were well organized; there were so many water stops that I began hitting every other one; the crowds were great. I would have enjoyed a more scenic run through LA (I'm from Dallas), but I assume there were problems getting some neighborhoods to agree to the road closure. The other issues that I experienced were merely the "joys" of running a popular marathon - lots and lots and lots of runners for the first six miles, lots and lots and lots of people at the post-race booths, etc. |
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