Anyone else doing the Wolfpack Hustle LA Marathon Crash Race this weekend?

Cant wait to ride this later....still trying to find out the logistics

 

I just picked up my number. There was a crazy amount of people there, but it was a good vibe!

I think I am just going to park up by the start and then ride back to Tangs afterwards. May throw on some extra distance if I can figure out a route.

If anyone sees me, hit me up. I'm looking for people to ride with who won't be sketchy. I'll be wearing a Yamaha Racing kit and will have a GoPro.

 

All I will say for now is WOW. Probably the most fun I have had on a bike ever.

I was able to stay clear of any issues and kind of bided my time and stayed clear of the crazys until the climbs where I made moves on a lot of people. Once back on Sunset I hooked up with a few guys and we pushed it hard all the way to the finish. We caught a larger group and actually had a police escort down Sunset (after it dropped down from Hollywood blvd) because the opposite side was open, which I thought was cool as shit! Light on and siren chirping. It felt like the big time!

The crowd was massive, but very cool. The vibe at the start and the registration party was fun and one of excitement. The vibe a the finish was the same as everywhere else. War stories were exchanged, people were cheering and chanting, and the hipsters were smoking weed. :lol:

One thing I have to say is that I am pretty pumped with the LA and Santa Monica PD's. They were super accommodating to the entire event and basically worked to keep everyone safe including leading a neutral roll out, escorting the main groups along Sunset, and blocking intersections that were not technically closed, all while letting us do whatever we wanted (riding on the wrong side of the street, etc). I am still in disbelief that in this day and age a non-permitted event of this size can take place 3 hours before the start of the LA Marathon and actually have the help of local law enforcement.

 

Sounds like I missed good one... I wish I was able to go... The LA Funride is coming up... That one is escorted by LAPD and is fun as well...

 

This ride is so much fun. The vibe is awesome and the police are very helpful. It's pretty surreal riding through LA, past all the famous landmarks with 3K other cyclists in the pre-dawn hours. My group and I stopped for beers and breakfast at a cool Irish Pub in Santa Monica after the ride.

 

Honestly the funnest time I've ever had on a road bike! Super good vibes, and mobbing down san vicente was epic! This is definitely going to be an annual thing for me! You cant beat riding through sunset and wilshire with police escorts and good friends!

 

Nice write-up DB. Totally agree. I have always had a general distaste for law enforcement, but during and after this event, I felt like giving a cop a hug. There was way more police support this year and the start was managed much better. I also had a police escort through hollyood, making me feel pretty VIP.

The magnitude of this event is truly Amazing. It's like a fantasy to have that many riders going so insanely fast through such a large swath of LA.

Last year I didn't see any crashes, but this year I saw plenty. As fun as this event is, it is pretty damn dangerous. I love the chaotic feel, really fun....as long as you don't slam! There has to be a list of injuries every year. Hope everyone is ok.

Once we turned onto Rodeo Drive, I was luckly enough to be riding behind BMX pro Todd Lyons with his body-builder skin suit riding a camo PK Ripper. Dude pulls a wheelie down the entire stretch of Rodeo Drive on and off the sidewalk. It was awesome, plus the guy was totally hammering, he maintained a wicked pace!

Oh man, I will be buzzing on this event all the way till next year, can't wait!

 

Here's my GoPro footage:

https://vimeo.com/62138636

some of the shots came out a bit low but not too bad. I was sweating so much that by the halfway point my helmet started moving around on my head on the rough streets. I would reach up and adjust it occasionally, but wasn't really focused on my GoPro. I was more focused on not throwing up.

You can see the car towards the end that screwed us up. I tried to sprint afterwards, but I was done and just cruised it in to the finish.

 

Oh man, you guys are killing me with these awesome ride reports and vids. What were your finishing times like? Was it crazy crowded the whole race or did it thin out a bit? So cool the lapd was escorting!

 

I was just over 1:12 with an average just under 24mph.

It was really crowded until the hills. Just like mountain biking, the hills helped spread people out. After that I never really felt crowded. Well, except for that part of the video where some fixies had me too close to the curb. I just backed off and swung around behind them and went to the front. I spent the entire ride making sure I had an out if something was to go wrong.

 

Nice footage, it captured the vibe of the event well. You were moving, how close to the leaders were you? We had a newbie with us so our pace was much slower (finished in 1:40). It was his longest ride to date and he had to walk most of the hills, so there was some waiting involved. Once we got to San Vicente it was every man for himself and our pace picked up quite a bit. I can't wait to do it again next year, hopefully I'll get some sleep beforehand.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I wanted to make it shorter, but I also wanted to capture all of the different things that went on: party at the start, craziness before all the turns, some of the climbs, the crowd by Tangs, then the speed on Hollywood and Sunset blvds, etc.

I don't know how far back we were. If I had to guess I would say 10 to 15 minutes. I was checking their times on Strava last night and I was about 7 minutes slower, but I also spent the first 10 minutes going really slow in the crowd. If I was on the front with them on the start I think I could have been closer to 5 minutes back. :?:

Did you go to bed that night? There were a lot of people on the start who had just stayed up. I laid down and 8-ish and woke up before my alarm at 2. I woke up a few times because I was so worried about sleeping through the alarm. I got a bunch of sleep on Thursday and Friday night though and I think that helped me on Sunday morning. I felt great driving up there and on the line. (that was also a little experiment to see how I would feel when I get up early for the upcoming Vision Quest).

 

Hard to determine official time since I'm not sure when the the race officially started. But, including the slow roll-out from Tangs, I made it to the finish in about 1:14~16.

Echoing DB.mx, the hillclimb on 1st St. definitely changed the crowd dynamic, but for me it seemed like the crowd thinned into numerous groups. It was awesome to latch on to riders and make a jump to a new group.

The final stretch down San Vicente was the fastest and also the darkest part of the course, everybody was going full tilt. Just as everybody was on the limit, two guys on a blue MTB tandem w/fatty slicks came out of nowhere and totally slayed the group of hammerheads I was in. They looked kind of silly, but their pace was crushing everybody! I have since learned from Facebook posts that the tandem is called the "blue streak". :lol:Anybody with any juice left was trying to latch on to the blue streak. (One of the tandem guys posted on FB = "I felt like a whale shark with lampreys trying to latch on")

Me and a few others latched on to the "blue streak" and we were flying. That tandem provided a motor-pace draft and nobody seemed to be able to get around them. Things got a little hectic on the turn onto Ocean, everybody was sprinting for the line, so I popped out of the group and just cruised through the finish line.

I think other cities are trying to do something similar with their respective marathons. Could be an awesome way to visit other cities.:-k

 

@db.mx. I tried to go to sleep at 8:30 as I set an alarm for 1:30, but couldn't fall asleep.