ran it in 2009, Great race, even though I had a poor result. Course was really nice but lack of spectators and lack of entertainment make me drop it to B in that grade; i understand they have tweaked the course a little it a bit since then. plenty of volunteers at water stations, I was wondering if everyone got to the start line in time. A lot were waiting when I got on my bus and I only had a couple minutes to spare so dont wait until the last minute to get to the shuttle buses. It was billed as a net downhill, I think, but my Garmin said that it was slightly uphill. There were only a couple of hills in the whole thing though, and they were brief hills, like when the route went over the 405 Freeway. The first couple of miles were mostly downhill though.
The half-marathon splits at mile 12, which I like because it gives you more people to run with at the beginning.
Weather in ’09 couldn’t have been much better – 60 degrees and overcast at start. The sun came out after about 3:30 after the start gun.
Post-race food was sparse: bagels, bananas, chocolate milk, oranges and Clif Shot Blocs. That’s it. It’s a mostly quiet course, with no bands or music, and few fans. The course is good and diverse; we ran through parks, shopping malls, residential areas, by the ocean, and by the performing arts center, It had a little bit of everything. It was a big enough course that it thinned out quickly in the first few miles; I can’t remember a race where I had so little trouble passing people in the early going