ASICS Los Angeles Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start sits at 154 metres in the Dodger Stadium lots. The first 500 metres actually rise, to 169 metres and the high point of the day, before the course drops down Vin Scully Avenue and Sunset Boulevard into downtown: through Chinatown past the Dragon Gate, south along Spring Street and on through Little Tokyo. Kilometre 5.7 is the low point of that loop at 80 metres, ninety metres of height are gone, and none of it cost anything.

The only two real climbs follow immediately: Bunker Hill at kilometre 6.65, up Hill Street and 1st Street, 400 metres at 5.7 per cent average and 7.7 per cent maximum, then Temple Street at kilometre 7.93, 730 metres at 4.2 per cent back up to 135 metres. After that the climbing is done. Glendale Boulevard skirts Echo Park Lake, four and a half kilometres of Sunset Boulevard cross Silver Lake, and at kilometre 13.6 the course reaches Hollywood Boulevard for five almost level kilometres along the Walk of Fame, past the Capitol Records Tower and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, before the rolling Sunset Strip takes over.

The closing third is what gives this race its character. At kilometre 23.4 San Vicente Boulevard falls 36 metres in 580 metres, the steepest descent of the day, and kilometre 25.5 on Doheny Drive is the lowest point of the course at 63 metres. Burton Way, Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard roll through Beverly Hills, and at kilometre 29.3 the course reaches the finish line - and runs straight past it. First comes the climb up Sepulveda Boulevard and the out-and-back along San Vicente Boulevard to Bundy, then the same boulevards head back east. The last 350 metres rise ten metres to the line.

Pacing Strategy

A good 41 per cent of the course sits under one per cent of gradient, and the first six kilometres hand you ninety metres of descent. That is where the day is decided. The drop from Dodger Stadium into downtown runs itself at goal pace, on fresh legs, in the dark and with a thick crowd - and it is claimed back immediately at kilometre 6.65, when Bunker Hill arrives at 5.7 per cent and Temple Street follows at 4.2 per cent. Take the descent deliberately conservatively and accept that the two climbs together will cost a minute or two.

The race is not decided downtown, though, but between kilometre 29 and 38. You run past your own finish line, lose the Beverly Hills crowds, climb twenty metres up Sepulveda Boulevard and then turn the shadeless out-and-back on San Vicente Boulevard to Bundy. This is the part where the clock of the day works against you: the organiser puts the finish area at around 22 degrees at noon, against roughly 10 degrees at the Dodger Stadium start at seven in the morning.

The classic trap sits at kilometre 23.4. The San Vicente drop, 36 metres in 580 metres, is the steepest descent on the course and invites a split you pay for later - eighteen kilometres still lie ahead of it. Keep cadence rather than stride there, and save something for the final 350 metres, which climb ten metres to the line.

Training plan for ASICS Los Angeles Marathon: 12-week build

For an age-group runner this marathon takes roughly three to five and a half hours depending on level; the organiser's limit is six hours thirty from the last starter. The demand is aerobic throughout but never steady: close to 30 per cent of the distance points up, close to 30 per cent points down and the rest is flat. What it asks for is less the ability to hold a pace than the ability to hold an effort across terrain that never settles.

Four sections shape the preparation: the long descent from Dodger Stadium over the first six kilometres, the two short steep climbs at kilometre 6.65 and 7.93, the steep drop at kilometre 23.4, and the lonely stretch between kilometre 29 and 38 with the Sepulveda climb and the out-and-back. Rehearse the short climbs regularly, 400 metres at close to six per cent tacked onto the end of a long run, and plan for the closing ramp.

Do not underestimate the descending: across the day the course drops 366 metres, more than it climbs, all of it on asphalt and through a great many right-angle turns on wide boulevards. Easy downhill running at high cadence therefore belongs in the plan, as do long runs on a rolling road profile rather than the flat loop at home.

Conditions belong in the same plan. The organiser gives a race-day range of 13 to 23 degrees, about 10 at the start and about 22 at the finish around midday - a five-hour runner covers the last ten kilometres in the warmest part of the day, and the wide boulevards offer almost no shade. Build in some heat exposure, and at the same time clothing you can wear in the cold, damp start area and discard on the way. There are 19 aid stations roughly a mile apart from mile 2, but gels at only mile 12 and mile 18.