Asics City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) & Charity Challenge 13.1
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Top 3 Finishers by Year |
Name: | ||
Address: | 871 Figueroa Terrace,
Los Angeles, CA 90012 |
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Phone Number: | 213-542-3000 | |
Fax Number: | 213-542-3020 | |
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Cesar Bolanos from Los Angeles County in Sylmar
(1/5/2024)
"Amazing route bring it back!!! 2004" (about: 2015)
6-10 previous marathons
| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Amazing marathon experience being it was my first. Also, the route was not the same as it is now, I loved it. | |
J. V. from Wynnewood, PA
(3/22/2023)
"Good race, limited by curious decisions" (about: 2023)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Overall, I'm glad I ran it. Nice way to see a lot of Los Angeles. Great spectators for much of the race. Good food/drink support and volunteers. Expo is huge, befitting a big city marathon. Some negatives that hold it back from being a top-notch race: Understanding that there are probably logistics and permits that the general public isn't aware of, it seems like an odd decision to shuttle participants to the start-line and encourage parking in the city, when Dodger Stadium's parking lot would be tailor-made to welcome so many cars. Since it seemed like the half-marathon is de-emphasized in importance, count me as one that would prefer the race continue on to the coast and finish there, which would be so cool. Right now, miles 20-24 are the worst of the course - it's on beat-up pavement next to the freeway, and the course doubles back on itself. Would be cool to go to the coast! There is no shuttle back to the start, so I took the bus. The first 1/2 mile has a brutal descent off a hill out of Dodger Stadium, which trashed my quads early. It's a massive race, and if you get caught towards the back at the start-line, it takes a long-time to break free. I was on a sub-4 pace, but didn't have elbow room until mile 8-9. (This aint a PR race, too many hills and crowds.) The website could also be more comprehensive. Most of the FAQs are dismissive one-sentence answers, which is more frustrating than helpful. Overall, it was fine, but if you're looking for a California race, I imagine there are better ones out there. | |
S. J. from Arizona
(6/26/2020)
"Too much fun" (about: 2018)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have ran this course multiple times. It is just so fun... you run through every neighborhood of Los Angeles and end up on the beach! The spectators are fantastic with lots of families out cheering and handing out treats. You WILL wait forever to start. It's crowded and the waves take a long time to get through. Be prepared for that. Otherwise, I cannot wait to run this one again! Ran once in a crazy storm with warming busses and twice more in perfect weather! | |
W. W. from Los Angeles
(3/9/2020)
"Good Event. It Should be Better" (about: 2020)
50+ previous marathons
| 2 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Under the shadow of the coronavirus, LA Marathon proceeded and it was successfully held in 2020-03-08. Kudos to the organizers, the runners,the volunteers, and the spectators. There were many sanitize hand-wash in the start area, the finish area, and some of the aid stations. The organizers had well prepared the event giving the runners some secure feeling. With 27,000 runners registered, this is a large event. All were proceeded with no surprise. The orderly arranged finish area was much better than any one of the so called 'Abbott World Marathon Majors'. The route passes through many Los Angeles famous landmarks. The finish area in Santa Monica coastal park area provided the tired runners excellent resting space. When I was resting on the lawn with the fresh sea breeze and great view after finish the marathon, I understand the real meaning of 'I love LA'. There were plenty of water stations. The volunteers and the entertainment along the route were great. Even under the dark cloud of coronavirus, there were huge turn out of spectators along the way cheering for the runners. A spectator volunteer station supplied beers on the road side around Mile 20. Whomever you are, thank you. It gave me a good boost. Even though the route has some good portion of down hills, there were many section of uphills. There was a 'charity half' starting from the half way of the route. Since there was no separation for those 'charity half' and many of that participants were walkers, those walks turned out to be road blocks in the middle of the running flow. All runners had to zigzag around those walkers. For this reason, the course is much harder than it should be, especially when you are tired. For this reason, LA course is not a good course for runners. And the organizers do not deserved to be praised. | |
S. S. from Vancouver, Canada
(3/21/2018)
"I love LA" (about: 2018)
6-10 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 First and foremost, I really think I lucked out with the weather. Conditions were absolutely ideal. Wear a hat as the sun shines on you for the majority of the course. The Course: Couldn't have asked for a better route to see and experience LA's neighborhoods. Each hood had its uniqueness to it. I guess its all relative depending on where you live or train but the well documented hills are really no big deal. However, the factor that had a material impact on my run were the downhills. Its not something I was prepared or trained for. As a result, my quads were shot at 25kms and that never happened to me before so train for those downhills. Expo: I was staying in Santa Monica and wish there was more information on how best to get to the Expo which was downtown. An Uber cost me $50 and an hour of my time. It wasnt until a volunteer at the Expo told me the Metro costs $2.25 and will get you there faster. So if you are staying in Santa Monica, take the Metro - so easy. Hotels: I suggest staying in Santa Monica and booking through the marathon offers better pricing than doing it on your own. I would stay at the Fairmont, because It is 10 ft from the finish line. I assume taking the bus back to Bev Hills or DTLA after running a marathon would be horrible especially since traffic on Marathon Sunday in LA was a disaster. Transportation: My hotel offered a shuttle to the buses. I left my hotel at 4:30AM and comfortably got to Dodger stadium. Do not be late or last minute - it will hinder your preparation and race. The Start: It was really dark that early in the morning and signage was difficult to see. I just asked my fellow runners on where to go and was eventually routed the right way. I used the indoor washrooms in Dodger Stadium and kept warm in the concourse. To avoid the line ups...walk all the way to the washrooms behind home plate - no line up! Crowd Support: Its not Chicago or New York but its definitely excellent and consistent throughout the course. Thank you LA. | |
Richard Rybak from Chatsworth, california
(10/18/2017)
"Beautiful day to run" (about: 2010)
First Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Wonderful course | |
E. B. from Chicago, IL
(4/16/2017)
"Great race through a cool city!" (about: 2017)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 If you love big city marathons like I do, this is a great race to add to your list! I wouldn't necessarily recommend the LA Marathon as your first marathon though, just in terms of start line logistics and this is not a novice course (i.e., not flat). I stayed in a downtown hotel, which is convenient to the Expo and starting line. The Expo was easy to get to on Friday but completely underwhelming for a big city expo. On race morning I took a race shuttle to the start at Dodger Stadium. I got to the shuttle at 5am and got on it right away, no problems. This would have been ok if the shuttle didn't almost break down and take 50 minutes to get there (probably a freak thing but a little stressful). It was so congested getting up to Dodger Stadium that the shuttle had to drop us off 10 minutes from the starting area. Logistics at Dodger Stadium were all over the place - gear check was on one far end, the corrals on the other...so it took a little while to get your bearings. I used the restrooms in the stadium which were very nice, but if you don't time the pre-race logistics right I think you could easily fall behind somewhere. The fist half mile into the race was crowded (which is ok, you don't want to start too fast anyway). The first 6 miles or so are the hilliest but there are hills throughout the race too. (My Garmin said 800 feet of incline, 1200 feet of decline for the whole marathon). LA is a much hillier city than people realize! The weather was good (low 60s) but a little humid so about as nice as you can expect for a March morning. Wear sunglasses because even a cloudy day will bring out sunshine. The course...AWESOME!! It was a fun and interesting run the whole way, starting with Downtown, the hipster neighborhoods, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Brentwood, and then Santa Monica. Each one was unique and iconic! Crowd support was fantastic - I especially liked the lineup of hot cops in Beverly Hills! :) The race organizers do a great job of making sure each mile has some energetic groups cheering runners on. This is not a necessarily a PR course but happily the last couple miles are a noticeable downhill. I've run 12 marathons and usually I feel like I can barely do simple math by the end. But this is the first marathon where I felt a gravitational pull toward the finish, such that I was running a minute faster per mile than my average race pace. I actually felt great at the end! The finish line was a party, although they don't make it easy for spectators to get past the finish line (a cliff wall and security limit the crowd) so my cheering section couldn't see me finish. Not a huge deal though. There are tons of great restaurants in Santa Monica to celebrate that great feeling of finishing this race! | |
David Goddard from Santa Monica CA
(3/20/2017)
"had to stand in line for bus for 45 minutes" (about: 2017)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I have not run this race for 3 years. In the past, regardless of when you arrived, the buses were waiting and you just walked on. When the bus filled up, it left. This year, they did not load buses until 5 am. I arrived at 5.02a for my scheduled 5.3a bus. I stood in line for 45 minutes (got on bus 5.47a). By the time I sat down in bus, my legs were tired. I ran a 3:14 marathon so I'm in good shape. Recommendation, load buses as people arrive. Don't wait until 5:00 am. Poor execution. Everything else worked well. Plenty of pottys. Bag drop great. Plenty of course support. Don't wait to load buses. Someone else complained it was the same last year. | |
c. w. from PA
(3/10/2016)
"An awesome race!!!" (about: 2016)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The LA marathon is awesome! The continuous spectator support rivals that of Chicago. The course is full of great sights around the city and you get to finish at the beach. There are official water stops every mile and at least one unofficial support stop every mile. I saw chili cheese dogs at mile 5 and nestle chocolate milk at mile 20. Based on previous reviews, I think your best bet is to take a bus from the finish to the stadium. There is plenty of parking at Santa Monica and traffic was not an issue at 5 am. The expo could use improvement with several vendors out of samples/giveaways by noon on Saturday. I would highly recommend that everyone run this race. The fee is a bit high but the course is great and the swag is pretty good and I was very happy with the finish line food. | |
B. C. from Worcester, MA
(3/10/2016)
"LA's fine, the sunshines most of the time..." (about: 2016)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Neil Diamond got it right for this Boston boy who made the trip to the LA Marathon. I loved the course and scenic trip thru Los Angeles. Add this race to your destination marathons and be pleased. Some notes are in order: 1. The course was much hillier than I would have imagined. 1-2 mile sloping uphills met with steep downhills. I found myself seldom on flat route for long stretches. 2. The last 6.2 miles was a party while running downhill. Save your quads because its a 6.2 mile run down to the shore (shows you how high up we were). I welcomed the party tents lined along both sides of the road. Enthusiasm +++. 3. Getting to the start was a mess. Not being near a race bus, my cab could only drop me off at the bottom of the Dodger Stadium entrance. A 1 mile uphill walk in the dark with impatient cars & buses buzzing me. Its a miracle no one was killed. Either have us all walk the hill safely or only allow buses. 4. Aid stations, volunteers and supplies were first class for a big city race. 5. Loved the finish line in Santa Monica. Check out the showers for the surfers for a post race rinse off on the beach. Surprised no one used them. Orlando Bloom was sitting next to me while I ate lunch. It's LA man! 6. Expect a $120 Uber ride back to town! 7. Keep the race in February. It was hot enough. I can't imagine why its held in March for 2017. |