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Marathon Details - City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)

North America Marathons > USA > CA > Los Angeles > City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)

City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)

Asics City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) & Charity Half Marathon

Los Angeles, CA USA

March 16, 2025

http://www.LAMarathon.com

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SUMMARY: Iconic Stadium to the Sea course begins at Dodger Stadium and finishes in Santa Monica, running past every major landmark in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Marathon is an event that showcases the vibrancy and diversity of the city, drawing runners from all over the world. The race starts at the iconic Dodger Stadium and weaves through the heart of Los Angeles, passing numerous landmarks and neighborhoods, each offering its unique charm and energy. This marathon, whether it's a runner's first or their fiftieth, provides a memorable experience filled with challenges, achievements, and the support of enthusiastic spectators.

Participants gather early in the morning, ready to take on the course. The initial descent from Dodger Stadium can be tough on the legs, but the excitement of starting such a prestigious race keeps spirits high. As runners make their way through the city, they encounter rolling hills and vibrant communities, all the way to the finish line by the Santa Monica coast. The route is filled with entertainment, including live music and cheering sections, which provide much-needed motivation.

The marathon is known for its excellent organization, with plenty of aid stations offering water, snacks, and even ice towels to keep runners cool. Volunteers and spectators are stationed throughout the course, handing out refreshments and cheering on the participants. The festive atmosphere is infectious, making even the toughest stretches enjoyable.

Upon reaching the finish line, runners are greeted with applause and an array of post-race amenities. Medals, food, and space blankets are provided to help runners recover and celebrate their accomplishment. The finish area, set against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, offers a beautiful and relaxing environment for participants to unwind.

The Los Angeles Marathon is a well-organized event that captures the essence of the city. From the bustling expo to the energetic crowd support, every aspect of the race is designed to create a positive and unforgettable experience. The combination of a challenging yet rewarding course, outstanding organization, and the vibrant spirit of Los Angeles makes this marathon a standout event for runners of all levels.

Contact Information

Name:
Address:	871 Figueroa Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone Number:	213-542-3000
Fax Number:	213-542-3020
Email:	Email the organizers

Runner Reviews (473)

Course 3.8

Organization 3.6

Spectators 4.4

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Number of comments: 473 [displaying comments 1 to 11]

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 47 > ]

J. L. from Bay Area, CA (4/7/2024) "Excellent big city marathon" (about: 2024) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Expo The expo was outside Dodger Stadium and was kind of confusing and a lot of walking to get to the actual entrance. There were loads of stalls and freebies, plus food. Since I had come straight from the airport, I needed to get a rideshare out but there wasn't a designated spot so it was more walking to get far away enough from the stadium to get picked up. Race morning I stayed near the finish line, so it was easy to get a shuttle from there to the start back at Dodger Stadium. I hadn't found any info about how long the ride would be, so I ended up being incredibly early. The only thing confusing was the corral set up - there were corrals A-E that you had to submit a qualifying time for, and then a massive open corral with incredibly fast people who then overtook the slower folks in the earlier corrals. Course Really fun course that went past lots of sights. It was pretty crowded for the first few miles especially since there were quite a lot of turns, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. There were some rolling hills but I didn't really notice them because there was so much to see and so many people cheering. It's always tough running past the finish and then doing an out-and-back, but the huge amount of cheering sure helped a lot. There was a good amount of entertainment on the course too, with a lot of variety: a string quartet in evening wear on rodeo drive, a killers tribute band, taiko drummers etc. Aid stations There were so many! It was great because it was sunny and pretty hot at the end, so having frequent water was very appreciated. Spectators were also handing out water, snacks, beer, ice towels. Finish line There was lots of food and ice towels and space blankets. The chute takes you straight past the bag drop trucks so it seemed really smooth. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the race, and loved the big city atmosphere. The organization was great, and was the best fun I've had in a marathon for years.
Cesar Bolanos from Los Angeles County in Sylmar (1/5/2024) "Amazing route bring it back!!! 2004" (about: 2015) 6-10 previous marathons \| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Amazing marathon experience being it was my first. Also, the route was not the same as it is now, I loved it.
J. V. from Wynnewood, PA (3/22/2023) "Good race, limited by curious decisions" (about: 2023) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Overall, I'm glad I ran it. Nice way to see a lot of Los Angeles. Great spectators for much of the race. Good food/drink support and volunteers. Expo is huge, befitting a big city marathon. Some negatives that hold it back from being a top-notch race: Understanding that there are probably logistics and permits that the general public isn't aware of, it seems like an odd decision to shuttle participants to the start-line and encourage parking in the city, when Dodger Stadium's parking lot would be tailor-made to welcome so many cars. Since it seemed like the half-marathon is de-emphasized in importance, count me as one that would prefer the race continue on to the coast and finish there, which would be so cool. Right now, miles 20-24 are the worst of the course - it's on beat-up pavement next to the freeway, and the course doubles back on itself. Would be cool to go to the coast! There is no shuttle back to the start, so I took the bus. The first 1/2 mile has a brutal descent off a hill out of Dodger Stadium, which trashed my quads early. It's a massive race, and if you get caught towards the back at the start-line, it takes a long-time to break free. I was on a sub-4 pace, but didn't have elbow room until mile 8-9. (This aint a PR race, too many hills and crowds.) The website could also be more comprehensive. Most of the FAQs are dismissive one-sentence answers, which is more frustrating than helpful. Overall, it was fine, but if you're looking for a California race, I imagine there are better ones out there.
S. J. from Arizona (6/26/2020) "Too much fun" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 3 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have ran this course multiple times. It is just so fun... you run through every neighborhood of Los Angeles and end up on the beach! The spectators are fantastic with lots of families out cheering and handing out treats. You WILL wait forever to start. It's crowded and the waves take a long time to get through. Be prepared for that. Otherwise, I cannot wait to run this one again! Ran once in a crazy storm with warming busses and twice more in perfect weather!
W. W. from Los Angeles (3/9/2020) "Good Event. It Should be Better" (about: 2020) 50+ previous marathons \| 2 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Under the shadow of the coronavirus, LA Marathon proceeded and it was successfully held in 2020-03-08. Kudos to the organizers, the runners,the volunteers, and the spectators. There were many sanitize hand-wash in the start area, the finish area, and some of the aid stations. The organizers had well prepared the event giving the runners some secure feeling. With 27,000 runners registered, this is a large event. All were proceeded with no surprise. The orderly arranged finish area was much better than any one of the so called 'Abbott World Marathon Majors'. The route passes through many Los Angeles famous landmarks. The finish area in Santa Monica coastal park area provided the tired runners excellent resting space. When I was resting on the lawn with the fresh sea breeze and great view after finish the marathon, I understand the real meaning of 'I love LA'. There were plenty of water stations. The volunteers and the entertainment along the route were great. Even under the dark cloud of coronavirus, there were huge turn out of spectators along the way cheering for the runners. A spectator volunteer station supplied beers on the road side around Mile 20. Whomever you are, thank you. It gave me a good boost. Even though the route has some good portion of down hills, there were many section of uphills. There was a 'charity half' starting from the half way of the route. Since there was no separation for those 'charity half' and many of that participants were walkers, those walks turned out to be road blocks in the middle of the running flow. All runners had to zigzag around those walkers. For this reason, the course is much harder than it should be, especially when you are tired. For this reason, LA course is not a good course for runners. And the organizers do not deserved to be praised.
S. S. from Vancouver, Canada (3/21/2018) "I love LA" (about: 2018) 6-10 previous marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 First and foremost, I really think I lucked out with the weather. Conditions were absolutely ideal. Wear a hat as the sun shines on you for the majority of the course. The Course: Couldn't have asked for a better route to see and experience LA's neighborhoods. Each hood had its uniqueness to it. I guess its all relative depending on where you live or train but the well documented hills are really no big deal. However, the factor that had a material impact on my run were the downhills. Its not something I was prepared or trained for. As a result, my quads were shot at 25kms and that never happened to me before so train for those downhills. Expo: I was staying in Santa Monica and wish there was more information on how best to get to the Expo which was downtown. An Uber cost me $50 and an hour of my time. It wasnt until a volunteer at the Expo told me the Metro costs $2.25 and will get you there faster. So if you are staying in Santa Monica, take the Metro - so easy. Hotels: I suggest staying in Santa Monica and booking through the marathon offers better pricing than doing it on your own. I would stay at the Fairmont, because It is 10 ft from the finish line. I assume taking the bus back to Bev Hills or DTLA after running a marathon would be horrible especially since traffic on Marathon Sunday in LA was a disaster. Transportation: My hotel offered a shuttle to the buses. I left my hotel at 4:30AM and comfortably got to Dodger stadium. Do not be late or last minute - it will hinder your preparation and race. The Start: It was really dark that early in the morning and signage was difficult to see. I just asked my fellow runners on where to go and was eventually routed the right way. I used the indoor washrooms in Dodger Stadium and kept warm in the concourse. To avoid the line ups...walk all the way to the washrooms behind home plate - no line up! Crowd Support: Its not Chicago or New York but its definitely excellent and consistent throughout the course. Thank you LA.
Richard Rybak from Chatsworth, california (10/18/2017) "Beautiful day to run" (about: 2010) First Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Wonderful course
E. B. from Chicago, IL (4/16/2017) "Great race through a cool city!" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 If you love big city marathons like I do, this is a great race to add to your list! I wouldn't necessarily recommend the LA Marathon as your first marathon though, just in terms of start line logistics and this is not a novice course (i.e., not flat). I stayed in a downtown hotel, which is convenient to the Expo and starting line. The Expo was easy to get to on Friday but completely underwhelming for a big city expo. On race morning I took a race shuttle to the start at Dodger Stadium. I got to the shuttle at 5am and got on it right away, no problems. This would have been ok if the shuttle didn't almost break down and take 50 minutes to get there (probably a freak thing but a little stressful). It was so congested getting up to Dodger Stadium that the shuttle had to drop us off 10 minutes from the starting area. Logistics at Dodger Stadium were all over the place - gear check was on one far end, the corrals on the other...so it took a little while to get your bearings. I used the restrooms in the stadium which were very nice, but if you don't time the pre-race logistics right I think you could easily fall behind somewhere. The fist half mile into the race was crowded (which is ok, you don't want to start too fast anyway). The first 6 miles or so are the hilliest but there are hills throughout the race too. (My Garmin said 800 feet of incline, 1200 feet of decline for the whole marathon). LA is a much hillier city than people realize! The weather was good (low 60s) but a little humid so about as nice as you can expect for a March morning. Wear sunglasses because even a cloudy day will bring out sunshine. The course...AWESOME!! It was a fun and interesting run the whole way, starting with Downtown, the hipster neighborhoods, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Brentwood, and then Santa Monica. Each one was unique and iconic! Crowd support was fantastic - I especially liked the lineup of hot cops in Beverly Hills! :) The race organizers do a great job of making sure each mile has some energetic groups cheering runners on. This is not a necessarily a PR course but happily the last couple miles are a noticeable downhill. I've run 12 marathons and usually I feel like I can barely do simple math by the end. But this is the first marathon where I felt a gravitational pull toward the finish, such that I was running a minute faster per mile than my average race pace. I actually felt great at the end! The finish line was a party, although they don't make it easy for spectators to get past the finish line (a cliff wall and security limit the crowd) so my cheering section couldn't see me finish. Not a huge deal though. There are tons of great restaurants in Santa Monica to celebrate that great feeling of finishing this race!
David Goddard from Santa Monica CA (3/20/2017) "had to stand in line for bus for 45 minutes" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I have not run this race for 3 years. In the past, regardless of when you arrived, the buses were waiting and you just walked on. When the bus filled up, it left. This year, they did not load buses until 5 am. I arrived at 5.02a for my scheduled 5.3a bus. I stood in line for 45 minutes (got on bus 5.47a). By the time I sat down in bus, my legs were tired. I ran a 3:14 marathon so I'm in good shape. Recommendation, load buses as people arrive. Don't wait until 5:00 am. Poor execution. Everything else worked well. Plenty of pottys. Bag drop great. Plenty of course support. Don't wait to load buses. Someone else complained it was the same last year.
c. w. from PA (3/10/2016) "An awesome race!!!" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The LA marathon is awesome! The continuous spectator support rivals that of Chicago. The course is full of great sights around the city and you get to finish at the beach. There are official water stops every mile and at least one unofficial support stop every mile. I saw chili cheese dogs at mile 5 and nestle chocolate milk at mile 20. Based on previous reviews, I think your best bet is to take a bus from the finish to the stadium. There is plenty of parking at Santa Monica and traffic was not an issue at 5 am. The expo could use improvement with several vendors out of samples/giveaways by noon on Saturday. I would highly recommend that everyone run this race. The fee is a bit high but the course is great and the swag is pretty good and I was very happy with the finish line food.

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J. L. from Bay Area, CA (4/7/2024) "Excellent big city marathon" (about: 2024) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Expo The expo was outside Dodger Stadium and was kind of confusing and a lot of walking to get to the actual entrance. There were loads of stalls and freebies, plus food. Since I had come straight from the airport, I needed to get a rideshare out but there wasn't a designated spot so it was more walking to get far away enough from the stadium to get picked up. Race morning I stayed near the finish line, so it was easy to get a shuttle from there to the start back at Dodger Stadium. I hadn't found any info about how long the ride would be, so I ended up being incredibly early. The only thing confusing was the corral set up - there were corrals A-E that you had to submit a qualifying time for, and then a massive open corral with incredibly fast people who then overtook the slower folks in the earlier corrals. Course Really fun course that went past lots of sights. It was pretty crowded for the first few miles especially since there were quite a lot of turns, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. There were some rolling hills but I didn't really notice them because there was so much to see and so many people cheering. It's always tough running past the finish and then doing an out-and-back, but the huge amount of cheering sure helped a lot. There was a good amount of entertainment on the course too, with a lot of variety: a string quartet in evening wear on rodeo drive, a killers tribute band, taiko drummers etc. Aid stations There were so many! It was great because it was sunny and pretty hot at the end, so having frequent water was very appreciated. Spectators were also handing out water, snacks, beer, ice towels. Finish line There was lots of food and ice towels and space blankets. The chute takes you straight past the bag drop trucks so it seemed really smooth. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the race, and loved the big city atmosphere. The organization was great, and was the best fun I've had in a marathon for years.
Cesar Bolanos from Los Angeles County in Sylmar (1/5/2024) "Amazing route bring it back!!! 2004" (about: 2015) 6-10 previous marathons \| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Amazing marathon experience being it was my first. Also, the route was not the same as it is now, I loved it.
J. V. from Wynnewood, PA (3/22/2023) "Good race, limited by curious decisions" (about: 2023) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Overall, I'm glad I ran it. Nice way to see a lot of Los Angeles. Great spectators for much of the race. Good food/drink support and volunteers. Expo is huge, befitting a big city marathon. Some negatives that hold it back from being a top-notch race: Understanding that there are probably logistics and permits that the general public isn't aware of, it seems like an odd decision to shuttle participants to the start-line and encourage parking in the city, when Dodger Stadium's parking lot would be tailor-made to welcome so many cars. Since it seemed like the half-marathon is de-emphasized in importance, count me as one that would prefer the race continue on to the coast and finish there, which would be so cool. Right now, miles 20-24 are the worst of the course - it's on beat-up pavement next to the freeway, and the course doubles back on itself. Would be cool to go to the coast! There is no shuttle back to the start, so I took the bus. The first 1/2 mile has a brutal descent off a hill out of Dodger Stadium, which trashed my quads early. It's a massive race, and if you get caught towards the back at the start-line, it takes a long-time to break free. I was on a sub-4 pace, but didn't have elbow room until mile 8-9. (This aint a PR race, too many hills and crowds.) The website could also be more comprehensive. Most of the FAQs are dismissive one-sentence answers, which is more frustrating than helpful. Overall, it was fine, but if you're looking for a California race, I imagine there are better ones out there.
S. J. from Arizona (6/26/2020) "Too much fun" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 3 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have ran this course multiple times. It is just so fun... you run through every neighborhood of Los Angeles and end up on the beach! The spectators are fantastic with lots of families out cheering and handing out treats. You WILL wait forever to start. It's crowded and the waves take a long time to get through. Be prepared for that. Otherwise, I cannot wait to run this one again! Ran once in a crazy storm with warming busses and twice more in perfect weather!
W. W. from Los Angeles (3/9/2020) "Good Event. It Should be Better" (about: 2020) 50+ previous marathons \| 2 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Under the shadow of the coronavirus, LA Marathon proceeded and it was successfully held in 2020-03-08. Kudos to the organizers, the runners,the volunteers, and the spectators. There were many sanitize hand-wash in the start area, the finish area, and some of the aid stations. The organizers had well prepared the event giving the runners some secure feeling. With 27,000 runners registered, this is a large event. All were proceeded with no surprise. The orderly arranged finish area was much better than any one of the so called 'Abbott World Marathon Majors'. The route passes through many Los Angeles famous landmarks. The finish area in Santa Monica coastal park area provided the tired runners excellent resting space. When I was resting on the lawn with the fresh sea breeze and great view after finish the marathon, I understand the real meaning of 'I love LA'. There were plenty of water stations. The volunteers and the entertainment along the route were great. Even under the dark cloud of coronavirus, there were huge turn out of spectators along the way cheering for the runners. A spectator volunteer station supplied beers on the road side around Mile 20. Whomever you are, thank you. It gave me a good boost. Even though the route has some good portion of down hills, there were many section of uphills. There was a 'charity half' starting from the half way of the route. Since there was no separation for those 'charity half' and many of that participants were walkers, those walks turned out to be road blocks in the middle of the running flow. All runners had to zigzag around those walkers. For this reason, the course is much harder than it should be, especially when you are tired. For this reason, LA course is not a good course for runners. And the organizers do not deserved to be praised.
S. S. from Vancouver, Canada (3/21/2018) "I love LA" (about: 2018) 6-10 previous marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 First and foremost, I really think I lucked out with the weather. Conditions were absolutely ideal. Wear a hat as the sun shines on you for the majority of the course. The Course: Couldn't have asked for a better route to see and experience LA's neighborhoods. Each hood had its uniqueness to it. I guess its all relative depending on where you live or train but the well documented hills are really no big deal. However, the factor that had a material impact on my run were the downhills. Its not something I was prepared or trained for. As a result, my quads were shot at 25kms and that never happened to me before so train for those downhills. Expo: I was staying in Santa Monica and wish there was more information on how best to get to the Expo which was downtown. An Uber cost me $50 and an hour of my time. It wasnt until a volunteer at the Expo told me the Metro costs $2.25 and will get you there faster. So if you are staying in Santa Monica, take the Metro - so easy. Hotels: I suggest staying in Santa Monica and booking through the marathon offers better pricing than doing it on your own. I would stay at the Fairmont, because It is 10 ft from the finish line. I assume taking the bus back to Bev Hills or DTLA after running a marathon would be horrible especially since traffic on Marathon Sunday in LA was a disaster. Transportation: My hotel offered a shuttle to the buses. I left my hotel at 4:30AM and comfortably got to Dodger stadium. Do not be late or last minute - it will hinder your preparation and race. The Start: It was really dark that early in the morning and signage was difficult to see. I just asked my fellow runners on where to go and was eventually routed the right way. I used the indoor washrooms in Dodger Stadium and kept warm in the concourse. To avoid the line ups...walk all the way to the washrooms behind home plate - no line up! Crowd Support: Its not Chicago or New York but its definitely excellent and consistent throughout the course. Thank you LA.
Richard Rybak from Chatsworth, california (10/18/2017) "Beautiful day to run" (about: 2010) First Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Wonderful course
E. B. from Chicago, IL (4/16/2017) "Great race through a cool city!" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 If you love big city marathons like I do, this is a great race to add to your list! I wouldn't necessarily recommend the LA Marathon as your first marathon though, just in terms of start line logistics and this is not a novice course (i.e., not flat). I stayed in a downtown hotel, which is convenient to the Expo and starting line. The Expo was easy to get to on Friday but completely underwhelming for a big city expo. On race morning I took a race shuttle to the start at Dodger Stadium. I got to the shuttle at 5am and got on it right away, no problems. This would have been ok if the shuttle didn't almost break down and take 50 minutes to get there (probably a freak thing but a little stressful). It was so congested getting up to Dodger Stadium that the shuttle had to drop us off 10 minutes from the starting area. Logistics at Dodger Stadium were all over the place - gear check was on one far end, the corrals on the other...so it took a little while to get your bearings. I used the restrooms in the stadium which were very nice, but if you don't time the pre-race logistics right I think you could easily fall behind somewhere. The fist half mile into the race was crowded (which is ok, you don't want to start too fast anyway). The first 6 miles or so are the hilliest but there are hills throughout the race too. (My Garmin said 800 feet of incline, 1200 feet of decline for the whole marathon). LA is a much hillier city than people realize! The weather was good (low 60s) but a little humid so about as nice as you can expect for a March morning. Wear sunglasses because even a cloudy day will bring out sunshine. The course...AWESOME!! It was a fun and interesting run the whole way, starting with Downtown, the hipster neighborhoods, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Brentwood, and then Santa Monica. Each one was unique and iconic! Crowd support was fantastic - I especially liked the lineup of hot cops in Beverly Hills! :) The race organizers do a great job of making sure each mile has some energetic groups cheering runners on. This is not a necessarily a PR course but happily the last couple miles are a noticeable downhill. I've run 12 marathons and usually I feel like I can barely do simple math by the end. But this is the first marathon where I felt a gravitational pull toward the finish, such that I was running a minute faster per mile than my average race pace. I actually felt great at the end! The finish line was a party, although they don't make it easy for spectators to get past the finish line (a cliff wall and security limit the crowd) so my cheering section couldn't see me finish. Not a huge deal though. There are tons of great restaurants in Santa Monica to celebrate that great feeling of finishing this race!
David Goddard from Santa Monica CA (3/20/2017) "had to stand in line for bus for 45 minutes" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 6+ City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)s COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I have not run this race for 3 years. In the past, regardless of when you arrived, the buses were waiting and you just walked on. When the bus filled up, it left. This year, they did not load buses until 5 am. I arrived at 5.02a for my scheduled 5.3a bus. I stood in line for 45 minutes (got on bus 5.47a). By the time I sat down in bus, my legs were tired. I ran a 3:14 marathon so I'm in good shape. Recommendation, load buses as people arrive. Don't wait until 5:00 am. Poor execution. Everything else worked well. Plenty of pottys. Bag drop great. Plenty of course support. Don't wait to load buses. Someone else complained it was the same last year.
c. w. from PA (3/10/2016) "An awesome race!!!" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The LA marathon is awesome! The continuous spectator support rivals that of Chicago. The course is full of great sights around the city and you get to finish at the beach. There are official water stops every mile and at least one unofficial support stop every mile. I saw chili cheese dogs at mile 5 and nestle chocolate milk at mile 20. Based on previous reviews, I think your best bet is to take a bus from the finish to the stadium. There is plenty of parking at Santa Monica and traffic was not an issue at 5 am. The expo could use improvement with several vendors out of samples/giveaways by noon on Saturday. I would highly recommend that everyone run this race. The fee is a bit high but the course is great and the swag is pretty good and I was very happy with the finish line food.

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Marathon Details - City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)