LA Marathon Crash Race 2013

I participated in this at the weekend, so I thought I'd share a little report wot I done wrote...

Early (like 2:30am early) on Sunday morning I dragged my backside out of bed to participate in the Wolfpack Hustle LA Marathon Crash Race.

Essentially, underground street racers have been hi-jacking the LA Marathon course for the past few years, in that short window of time between the streets being closed off and the Marathon Runners showing up.
I think a few crews do it in London too?
It's technically illegal but the organisers have been working with City Hall and the LAPD to bring a sense of decency and liability to the whole thing for a while now. I had to sign a waiver, have a race number and everything.

Anyway, I got my number the night before and prepped my kit. Up at 2:30 for a 3:00am rendezvous about 2 miles from my place.
As I rolled up Sunset Boulevard, the number of cyclists around me increased. All sorts of folk were showing up for this...

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I knew they'd had over a thousand riders attend in the past, but this looked like significantly more. The rolling start wasn't for another hour, and the street was already super-crowded.

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It wasn't a total sausage-fest either!

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There were also some fixie foos rocking the 'cool five years ago' look with inappropriate cycling footwear:

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This dude had a fantastic foam muscle suite on, and was pulling wheelies up and down the street in between his FaceTwatting sessions. Note the heavy Police presence on the left.

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One of four tandems I saw do the race. I'm sure there were more.

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Anyway, 4:15am soon rolled around and the rolling start began.
It was a fantastic feeling to ride completely unhindered by other traffic along such a major road. I started off relatively close to the front of the group (I was probably in the first 500 riders to roll away).

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We would ride a mile or so down Sunset to a predetermined marker, and then it was an all-out sprint into Downtown. It's at this point that I stopped taking pictures and concentrated on going fast.

We hit the marker and (almost) everyone took off hard.
I say 'almost' because there were clearly a few too-cool-for-school kids who thought they just HAD to be at the front for the start, and could later be heard whimpering, "Oh shit, oh shit, please don't hit me" as hundreds of racers screamed right by them at full tilt. They looked like footballs kicked into the rapids.

A couple of miles down the road we hit the first hard turn - a 90-degree left-hander with a downhill entry. There are a lot of very fast, very competent track bike (fixed gear) riders in Los Angeles, and most had fitted a front brake just for this race, but that wasn't enough. The amount of skidding it took for a group of them to get through that (and every subsequent) 90-degree corner made the streets smell like an actual racetrack. I could hear the tyres screeching at least a corner ahead. I'm guessing anyone who's done an alleycat knows what that's like (I haven't).
Trying to hold my line on a road bike amongst whip-skidding FG riders got pretty difficult. Still, the Downtown section was immensely enjoyable, a proper high-energy chase through the city.
Exiting that sector we entered a long downhill stretch. 50 feet ahead, an FG rider either lost concentration or tried to brake for something. Either way, his rear wheel locked up and spat him onto the road, spinning downhill amongst a pack of riders doing 25+mph.
"RIDER DOWN! RIDER DOWN!" echoed back throughout the groups of riders following us downhill.
As I passed him he was on his back with his thumbs up, smiling. So naturally I carried on.

The next sector was a long (practically flat) run from Silver Lake all the way to West Hollywood, via Hollywood Blvd then Sunset Blvd. Keeping the pace high was great, it meant I was with a lot of competent riders.
Street race etiquette dictated that every rider should call out anything they see, whether it's upcoming turns, obstacles, cars, pot-holes, cones, whatever. 95% of the time, this happened. I did it, everyone did it.
Then, rolling through an intersection on one guy's wheel at about 25mph, it didn't happen.
The guy in front of me must have seen the pot-holes, because he bunny-hopped them. I was too close to react to that, and only just managed to hitch up my front wheel a bit as they came into view. I hit them still seated, the impact was followed by a bang and a whistle. Fuck.
I coasted to the side of the road, praying for my rim to still be in one piece. Thank god it was.

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As I knelt down to flip the bike over, some tit (in the race) had mounted the pavement to answer his phone, and practically hit me! Silly twat.
11 minutes later, I was back in the game.

In that 11 minutes, all of the fast riders had disappeared from Hollywood Blvd and had been replaced by stoners doing 15mph on flourescent-painted cruisers. My adrenaline was still pumping to the max so I did what I could to tear through packs of slower riders for about 5 miles, until finally, as I entered Beverly Hills, I was back amongst people who had the taps open.

It's not often you get to ride down Rodeo Drive with the place to yourself...

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After Beverly Hills came Brentwood, the last stretch before the finish line in Santa Monica. The route took us down San Vicente Boulevard, a glass-smooth but practically unlit section of tarmac that rolls down towards the sea.
This slight downward incline was fantastic, I was maxed out in 50/12 gearing at about 30mph for what felt like ages. A motorcycle-bright headlamp appeared directly behind me, casting a shadow of my cycling self right up the road in front.
After about a mile of 'pulling' this rider at full tilt, another rider cruised up past me and pulled over to sit in front of me. Then, a minute or so later, another rider did the same. I'd become part of a paceline without realising it! That was the ideal end for me, we approached the last bend like a freight train and rocketed across the finish line to cries of "Woo-hoo!" and "Slow the fuck down!"

There were probably 600 or so riders already there when I came to a stop on the seafront, so no danger of any prizes coming my way. It was a great feeling to finish though, and I knew I'd gone as fast as I could.

I hung around for about half an hour watching other riders roll in, the winner's dog tags & prizes getting handed out, and had a natter with a few familiar faces.

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After that I headed off to Starbucks as I knew it would be open. It was packed full of riders so I took a seat at a table and joined the conversation.
This kid emerged from the toilet bloody but smiling.

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It turned out that he had been in a sprint for the line with a few mates, and he had called out "ON YOUR LEFT!" to a slower rider ahead of him.
Instead of being aware of a passing cyclist on his left, the slow guy had turned left...

After bingeing on coffee and artisanally-reheated sandwiches, I started the slow (25-mile) roll home in the emerging sunlight.

Got back to Downtown LA to find the Marathon proper in full swing...

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These runners are right bloody litter bugs, let me tell you.

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I picked my way back through various closed and deserted streets, making it home for 9:00am on the dot.
My lovely wife was still in bed...

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Any city that hosts a Marathon for runners needs to host a race like this. Loads of fun.

Great thread. Particularly like the pictures of the spok rider and the runners.

Whens the london marathon??? Who's keen to join?

Awesome thread by the way Mr B.

^^Please don't post about riding the LDN marathon route. It just gives the forum mods unwanted grief from po-po and organisers.

^But yes good thread!

Great read, reminded me of my time on the LA critical mass.
Miss LA

^^Please don't post about riding the LDN marathon route. It just gives the forum mods unwanted grief from po-po and organisers.
^But yes good thread!

Cheers!
Whilst on the route I did wonder how feasible it would be to have 3,000 or so riders do the same in London - narrower streets, fewer straights etc.
Also, notice the complete absence of metal crowd-control railings lining the streets in my pics. They just don't need to do that here. Railings are a rare sight in general in LA.

i like the covert pics of the female talent on show, very good haha!

^^Please don't post about riding the LDN marathon route. It just gives the forum mods unwanted grief from po-po and organisers.

^But yes good thread!

Too right, Point taken.