To start out, traffic was horrible getting there. I know that there isn’t anything that the race directors can do about that, but maybe talked to the city to have more traffic cops to make it move a little smoother. Again, not sure if there was anything that could have been done, we left with plenty of time and got there about 7 minutes before the 9PM start. Getting to the start once we were down wasn’t an issue and neither was getting in to the corrals. The late start (9:30PM for me) wasn’t fun, but I would rather them clear traffic so I was ok with it.
The course had more hills then I expected. I think when we signed up the course wasn’t set yet (we signed up with the first 500 deal) I looked at the course map but didn’t think the hills would be that bad. It was challenging and showed me what I need to work on. I wasn’t a fan of the parking lot loops. There were a few areas which weren’t lit that great and I stumbled a few times because of the ground. I hope in the future they can adjust the route to not have so many parking lot tours. Going through Dodger Stadium was cool – even though it was under construction there was nothing that the organizers could have done about that, it was most definitely a highlight. I made sure to walk during that part since who knows when I would be able to be down on the field again. There wasn’t much spectators or entertainment, the drums were great. The volunteers were great, energetic and very cheerful – which was nice.
Finishing the race was very anticlimactic, there wasn’t an announcer cheering everyone along which I’ve always found to be a good pick me up at the end. The volunteers with the medals and Mylar blankets were nice to make sure everyone got one. The post race fuel wasn’t much. There wasn’t post race entertainment, we got to the beer tent with 4 minutes to spare, there were food trucks, but I didn’t buy anything so I cant comment on those. With all the post race activities it was like they didn’t take in to consideration the race started late.
Overall I felt that there were little things that needed to be fixed and it was a good experience for a first time event.