KRAC Blog

We were told that the course was controversial. In previous years it had been a loop, this year it was point-to-point, and the story was that this was to accommodate the various ethnic neighborhoods in East L.A., who wanted the race to run through their part of town. (Jim's friend Scott also told us that his GPS had the course long, at 26.4. I'd be interested in finding out more about that.) The course was supposedly mostly flat, with a long descent at the start, but it didn't feel particularly flat, and the hills at the end were brutal-- a long bridge over railroad tracks and the Los Angeles River. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. There were other problems, too. The water stops were at every mile, but sometimes they were before the mile banners, sometimes after, and they were not well marked. I hit 'em all, but it was a nuisance having to find them. Probably a third of the race ran through interesting, attractive neighborhoods. The rest were, there's no other word for it, ugly. And a lot of those were warehouses or industrial. Crowd support was spotty, as you might expect. There was no shade. LA is the entertainment capital of the world-- you'd think there'd be better celebrities than the guy who played the producer in "Borat" and a competitor from "American Idol".

On the other hand, it was great.