Long Beach Marathon Course Report

This (Sunday) morning a group of us set out to skate the LB Marathon
course. Overall the course is in great shape and will be really fun to
skate. It is the same course as last year, with one improvement for us.
Oh, and some of the worst pavement has be resurfaced! Of course, this
is an outdoor event over city streets and even after it is swept there
will be pebbles, twigs and a bit of rough pavement here and there so
keep your eyes open.

We started out on Shoreline Drive over a dozen of us; the pavement is
excellent. We followed the course as best we could, took the bike lane
over  the Queen¹s Way Bridge of course, and we picked up the course
again near the Queen Mary at about the three mile mark. This morning
there was water across the lanes at Chestnut leading to the bridge.
I¹ve been told that the city will turn off its watering next weekend
and that the local businesses will too.

There¹s nice sweeping lefthand turn on a slight downhill with a
prevailing tailwind back under the the Queen¹s Way Bridge that I really
enjoyed. Harbor Scenic Dr. is good right up until the top of the off
ramp where it joins Ocean.  You are now at the top of the bridge, watch
for the expansion joint -- it will be covered with a metal plate as it
was last year. The pavement smooths out shortly, about one third of the
way down the hill and there is a loooong straight roll out that¹s three
lanes wide.

The 90 degree right turn onto Magnolia takes you downhill to the
downhill Golden Shore off ramp towards the Catalina boat landing. We¹ll
bear left and follow the road around towards and around the Aquarium.
No bricks.

The road takes us back out to the excellent pavement of Shorline Drive.
Turn right onto Shoreline Village Dr. and then a quick left to cut
through the parking lot. Lots more good pavement.

At the end of the parking lot is a smooth transition up to the bike
path. The city of LB has done a great job of making smooth asphalt
ramps up and down curbs in addition to patching holes, cracks, rough
spots, etc. The bike path is smooth concrete for the next 1.5 miles.

There is a ramp up to the Belmont Pier, at the top make a quick 90 deg
left, followed by a quick 90 deg right turn to go down the ramp on the
other side. The down ramp is like a sidewalk. Watch for the
seams/grooves. Thereis a wide asphalt ramp just over the curb. You¹ll
want to be at the left approaching the bottom, because we¹ll be bearing
left to follow a small road between The Belmont Pool on the right and
Yankee Doodle¹s bar on the left. (Feel free to stop for some
refreshment.)

The pavement on the road is good past the right turn at its end as it
approaches a parking lot. The pavement there is a bit rougher, the
worst spots have been patched, and then the last five feet or so before
getting back on the smoooth concrete bike path are a real foot massage.
There is actually a good line through there, but you really have to
look for it and it may not be worth the effort.

At the end of the bike path we make a 90 deg left onto the near lanes
of Ocean. The pavement here is good. From this point on, we have skated
virtually all of the course in previous years.

>From Ocean we turn onto Termino and go up a short block to Livingston
and downhill to Nieto. The pavement is good all the way to Nieto where
it turns into concrete with narrow tar snakes. So as you are charging
up the hill, mind your feet and you¹ll be fine.

There is a sweeping left turn at the bottom of Nieto onto Appian Way.
Here the pavement is, mmm, not so good at the right side of the road. I
think it¹s smoother towards the middle and far side (which we will
skate on our return trip).

Once we turn onto Park and then 6th street and on into residential
streets, the pavement is very nice.

Here is the change from last year according to Roger who went over the
course with Dan earlier this week: instead of turning left onto
Colorado as we did last year, and skating up a ways and then making a
U-turn (see #22 on the Turn Sheet), we will avoid that by making a
right turn (skip to #26). This does make the course a tiny bit shorter,
but it will be much nicer and safer to skate.

There used to be a short bit of not-so-good asphalt on Nieto on our way
to the Marine Stadium area, but it has be repaved! The pot hole is
gone. The long straight through the Marine Stadium has good pavement to
the right side.

After that it¹s mostly long straights with good to wonderful pavement
the rest of the way to the fininsh. I did see three 2-inch wide cuts
across the street (for cable?). They are easy to cross, but be mindful
of them. Two of these are at the intersection of Ocean and Redondo, one
cut on each side of the intersection. The other one was earlier on the
course, but I¹ve forgotten where. There¹s a week to go, and I would not
be surprised to find that these cuts to be filled before race day.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun this morning. It was a blast
having over a dozen of us cruising along chatting about this and that.
If you have comments to add, please send them along to me so I can
include them in a late week update if needed.

Larry Quimby