This is really one of the best races around. I wish more people would sign up for it.
The course is flat and fast. The view of the L.A River bike path area is nice and the streets of Wrigley are very pretty with lush trees and cute houses it’s a pretty good course.
There is plenty of entertainment and music along the course. This year they had cheerleaders giving out high 5s and doing high kicks along the way. There were 2 water stations which is something you don’t normally see on a 5k course. It is both a 5k and 10k course and if you are fast enough you can do a 15k for a discounted rate. I have complained in the past about them not having timing chips and I thought it was an issue. This year I am here to take my words back and tell you it is NOT an issue. Pacific Coast Race Timing does an excellent job of getting perfect results. My strategy this year since I was trying to sub 30 was stand close to start and go mostly by my Garmin. When I hit the finish line I had a new PR with plenty of time to spare and thought maybe there time and my Garmin time might be off by a few seconds. When I checked official results that night it was a dead on match and I couldn’t be happier about it!
The post race food does not get any better at any event is Southern California. They have fresh cut up fruit ranging from grapes, oranges, bananas and watermelon. Buono’s pizza and pasta is served and they had kids pools filled with flavored or non flavored ice cold water.
The thing I love most about this race is that the streets of Wrigley are very wide and at no point during the race does the course bottle neck or get clogged with walkers. I also loved that this year they had a separate starting time from strollers. Hands down the best race in So Cal!