This was my second time doing HHM and my 4th half overall.
I felt like they did a good job of addressing concerns from last year (running out of cups, removing the cahuenga hill, not enough time at the expo, etc).
Pros: As I mentioned, they did a good job of addressing concerns. My biggest concern last time was the running out of cups at the water stations. This was not a problem with this race. I know because I’m really fat and slow and was in the last couple hundred to finish. Additionally, I thought the course was just challenging enough for a newbie like myself with one serious hill thrown in to make you feel it. I thought it was great that they had two days for the expo, made it pretty easy to get over there and pick stuff up. The reservoir was a prtty nice view to get after that climb. Gave it a kind of zen feeling. A suggestion for that area: When we pass sunset junction maybe have a water station set up that also hands out ironic fake mustaches so we blend in to the silverlake neighborhood?
Cons: Nothing is perfect, and this race was no exception. While I didn’t see the problems many did with the porto-potties at the start of the race (There were 8-10 on HW Blvd., and another half dozen or so up Orange), I did feel like there weren’t enough on the silverlake portion of the race (I seriously considered peeing in an alley or behind a building). I felt like the finish line area was a little underwhelming as well. I realize that I was finishing way in the back of the pack, but I felt like a lot of the volunteers were just kind of looking to leave. Maybe try to set up the volunteers to be in two shifts so that the people handing out medals/water/bananas to us slow fatties at the end of the race are still high energy? If anything people should be most excited for US to finish not these guys who can bang out 13 miles in an hour five. Hell, most people looking at me wouldn’t guess that I could run 13 steps, much less 13 miles!
This isn’t a con so much as a general suggestion, but, I think that with the course heading east you’re missing out on some opportunities to go south and west and see more of what visitors expect to see of hollywood. Maybe if you go down Sunset in the strip area (I know that;s weho, and a different city, but it’s worth looking into)or south towards Wilshire so people can see LACMA, the Petersen, Etc. Again, this is something more for visitors. I think those of us who live in LA are area of what Hollywood actually is, but I think east of Vine might be a bit of a shock to the non-angelenos who run with us.