The ribbon on the medal is very nice. It is printed on both sides with photos of the 'Icons of LA' that we ran past during the race. Unfortunately, the medal design looked really familiar to me. This is a comparison with the Long Beach Half Marathon 2009 medal:
As for the race itself, the course is destined to be a classic. It starts at Dodger Stadium (literally waited on the outfield grass) and ends at Santa Monica Pier. And it is a tourists' L.A. primer in between. People stopped to take pictures in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and I stopped to get a photo (camera on phone) with one of the cross-dressing cheerleaders in West Hollywood:
One of the funniest sights were the store managers standing outside of their shops on Rodeo Drive-- apparently to keep out the marathon running rif-raf. They were ridiculously serious. I guess they were trying to prevent the marathon runners from (literally) running off with a Versace Suit! At mile 20 when I was just ready for it to all be over with, we entered the Veterans Administration. They had American Flags posted along the side of the road and some veterans came out from the hospital to cheer us on. It was really really nice.
Though it was a great course, I was happy to see the end of this race. Personally, it was my worst marathon time by far and I'm not happy about that. But I'll leave the drama and complaints about the events that transpired that day out of the blog.
Advice for those running the race in the future and are reading this blog entry for suggestions: 1. The McDonald's on Hollywood Blvd is a great place to use the bathroom (around mile 14-15). Otherwise you risk having to compete with a homeless person for the portable toilets. 2. Hill training. The first half of the race is hilly, and the first 5 miles have some steep hills. A lot of people didn't know this and it killed them in the end. 3. There is another not-so-fun up-hill section around mile 20. It doesn't look bad on paper, but it isn't fun on legs after 20 miles. 4. The traffic leaving Santa Monica after the race was really bad compared to normal horrible L.A. gridlock. Be prepared to spend a few hours in your car.
Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this race. The organizers tried to put on a great race and it showed!
