This is my second year in a row doing this race. Much better in 2013. Glad the race director made improvements from last year. Packet pick-up was smooth the day before (tho’ no T-shirts were available on Friday). I had to pick up the T-shirt on Saturday before the race started. We also got plastic sunglasses in our swag. Packet pick-up was also available on race day. Race day parking was $10 ($5 if you pre-pay) charged by the city. The race course is much better this year. This year the race course was on a closed course. The course took up a whole inner lane going around the Rose Bowl loop. Much better than last year. There was plenty of room for participants on the course. Didn’t need a wave start. I say it probably took about 5 minutes for everyone to start. Race started a few minutes late. What made this race so much fun is seeing the other participants get all dressed up in 80’s fashions, 80’s movies characters and 80’s singers and cartoon characters. There were a lot of participants dressed up in neon and a few star wars characters. There was a pre-race warm up and music before the start. Also I liked that there were a couple of live bands playing on the course. What I really liked about the race was the cool looking Darth Vader medal! The race T-shirt was also nice with Darth Vader theme on it too. After you finished, they had a small bottle of water, potato chips and some almonds available. It was a little confusing to find the area to get your medals. Their policy was no chip, no medal, which I think is a great policy since a lot of races have issues with bandits doing the race for free and getting a medal. The post race party was just so-so for us. Yes there was a DeLorean car in the finish line area where they had people taking pictures but the line was so long. Also there was a dance floor in the finish line area with some music playing. There were a couple of vendors in the post race area. This was a really fun race to do. Saw a lot of families doing this race together!
