LA Marathon Course Preview: Miles 14-20

Another Sunday, another beautiful day in LA (for awhile anyway). It was the perfect opportunity to go exploring another portion of the LA Marathon course with Danica, aka Chic Runner.



(In case you missed it, you can read about our run through miles 20-26.2 last week here.)

We knew there was a week-long storm blowing through by that evening, but on Sunday morning, we were treated to crisp air and sunny skies - perfect running weather. After placing one of our cars at the finish, Danica and I drove over to mile 14 where we would begin our 6 mile journey from the Sunset Strip.





It would take us a few minutes to get going thanks to her uncooperative Garmin (affectionately dubbed "Claude"):



Once that was taken care of, we headed westbound on Sunset for just a couple of blocks before turning south down San Vicente. Here, you are treated to a very nice descent for a couple of blocks before hitting Santa Monica Blvd. A right turn took us into West Hollywood towards Beverly Hills.


Danica running down San Vicente Blvd

Along the way on Santa Monica Blvd, you'll see celebrity favorite Dan Tana's Restaurant and the world famous Troubadour - both off to your right.





We hit Mile 15 shortly thereafter when the course heads south again down Doheny Blvd officially taking towards Beverly Hills, albeit mostly the residential part.





Another turn right took us down the Burton Way for a bit where we paused to take a photo of Mile 16 of the course in front of a funky art piece and some palm trees.





A little further down and we would once again veer left, this time down a little street called Rodeo Drive. Yes, one of us turned into a giddy, wide-eyed mess upon entering (hint: not me). You could almost hear the harps playing and angels singing, calling our girl home.




"I'm HOME!"









At the end of the Rodeo is the famous Wilshire Beverly Regent Hotel made famous by "Pretty Woman".



Taking a right down Wilshire Blvd, we went on to hit mile 17 of the course.



Shortly thereafter, we saw some road closures on Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd. When we asked one of the guys working security detail, he informed us that the Golden Globes Awards will be taking place there in a few hours.

Psh, of course. So LA.


Danica at the Globes! Kinda.

We then turned and headed down the very wide, almost freeway-like Santa Monica Blvd once more and would remain on it for awhile taking us from Century City into Westwood. Miles 18 and 19 of the course comes down this way and while mostly flat and/or downhill, we encountered our one and only brief uphill right after mile 18. No problemo.





After a right on Sepulveda and a left down Ohio Avenue, we were back to our car and hit mile 20 once more.



Done for the day and absolutely famished (you know us), we headed back east and ate brunch at Du-Par's, a popular and long-standing establishment in the Farmer's Market (with 2 more locations in the Valley). We each ordered our own dish AND split a short stack of their famous pancakes.



You gotta love LA. Oh, and you'll love miles 14-20 of this course. We certainly did!