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Urban Biking: Wolfpack Hustle's Marathon Crash Race Hits the Streets of L.A. Pre-Dawn This Sunday
Photo from the 2011 Marathon Crash Race by mikeywalley via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
This Sunday, Wolfpack Hustle (yep, the crew whose cyclists raced a JetBlue airplane from Burbank to Long Beach during Carmageddon last year and won) is putting on their Marathon Crash Race, which takes advantage of the closed-off city streets and uses the Los Angeles Marathon course for car-free racing.
When the L.A. Marathon did away with the cycling portion of the popular annual running event, local cyclists decided to mobilize on their own and "crash" the course, creating what has become one of the world's "largest under- ground urban bike races."
"No one knows exactly why the bike tour was dropped, but one theory is that when the Marathon route changed from a circular route to a crosstown route Marathon organizers figured that bike riders were too wimpy to ride back to the start on the L.A. streets," explains event organizer Roadblock via KCET's Departures blog.
Pffft! Wimpy is not how many of L.A.'s cyclists see themselves, that's for sure. And even with inclement weather in the forecast for Marathon weekend, nothing is gonna stop these riders: "This is a RAIN OR SHINE. OR EARTHQUAKES, OR LOCUSTS, OR NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST Event," their event page declares.
Of course, with the runners' early start, the cyclists have to start even earlier, which means gathering at 3 a.m. in East Hollywood to get rolling at the 4 a.m. start. A pre-event party is slated for the day before, 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Portfolio.
Registration is required to participate in the Marathon Crash Race, which can be done online via the Wolfpack Hustle site. Wolfpack Hustle adds this note about who can and should come, and how the riders are organized:
Not everyone who shows up is racing. Lots of folks just want to ride and have just as much FUN as those racing. Come on out no matter who you are and what you ride. Leave the egos back at home nestled in a warm bed. Plan a picnic at the finish, you know, like some peanut butter n’ jelly sandwiches and a banana. CATEGORIES: Women’s Fixed Women’s Geared Men’s Fixed Men’s Geared
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Here's the Marathon Crash Route
View Wolfpack Hustle: 2012 Marathon Crash Race in a larger map
Here's a video from last year's event:
RACING THE END ------(Marathon Crash Race 2011) from Warren Kommers on Vimeo.
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