Allstate Life Insurance Los Angeles 13.1 Marathon and 5K

Awesome Half Marathon Event (4 stars)
The half marathon event was an awesome event.
–online registration was quick and easy
–confirmation came right away
–email information came regularly
–bib pick up was a little downer
–start line was conveniently located on Venice Beach
–route was easily marked with lots of police escorts
–great support from the water stations
–nice bands along the way to entertain
–finish line was nicely located downhill
–lots of shuttle buses to return to the start line
–AWESOME Medal
Yay for my finish at 1:58, and I definitely plan to return next year
Give the option for bib pick up in the morning of the race.

The entire 13.1 miles I kept thinking about President Palmer saying «You’re in good hands». Damn 24 and catchy Allstate slogan.
Free beer, free pizza, and free massage at the end of the race? I’m IN! Sadly all we ended up getting was a can of beer, the pizza was out, and we missed out on the massage. Oh well, I didn’t need those pizza anyway after burning all those calories.
We had two options for parking; either the Santa Monica lot or the Venice lot. We parked in the Venice lot and the walk to the start of the race was actually pretty far away. Jogging there gave us a good warm up I guess.
The event was pretty well organized. They had bag check in and pickup signs everywhere. They had plenty of photographers everywhere. And they had plenty of water booths, porta-​potties, as well as security everywhere.
As for the running portion, it was alright. Parts of the race was really nice as you ran along the shore. Sadly, of all the times, LA suddenly decides to have a cold snap and record lows in temperature!
Throughout the race, about every two miles, there are water /​Gatorade stations and porta-​potties. And at certain mileage points, there are either DJ’s playing music, live bands performing, or groups of people cheering. At one of the turns there was a group of cheerleaders doing pyramids, pretty cool! And at another part there was a group of people playing giant drums, also very cool.
The first half of the race was quite okay, but the second half became freezing as you’re sprinting mostly downhill. It really sucked right before that downhill portion though because it was all up hill for a couple of miles before the loop back down. The worst part was that the road was very deceiving into making you think that it was going to loop soon. and you end up going a good handful of miles before it actually does. Sigh.
Overall its a nice race, on a nice course, with good organization. The medal at the end is pretty neat, and I really liked the free t-​shirt you got at the packet pickup. I was really sad about the pizza running out though, since I was starving by the time I was done.