I had such a great time setting Echo Park. I took inspiration from Marcy Beard’s TSN event in April (The Last One Standing) and created themed Zones for this 2 Hour Score-O:

Zone 1: Lake was the most compact, looping participants around Echo Lake. It was pretty scenic and participants could even “shop-and-stroll” along the way. Some folks stopped at least for coffee

Zone 2: Historic also stayed fairly compact and packed in a lot of character, taking people through clusters of beautiful Victorian homes and a few recognizable filming spots (Fast & Furious, Thriller, and Charmed all made appearances).

Zone 3: Miles had the most points and covered the most distance, stretching into Chinatown and wrapping around Dodger Stadium.

Zone 4: Hills had some cultural controls, some hidden gems tucked into the neighborhood, and, of course, plenty of hills. It was my favorite and runners got extra points for the burning thighs (and calves, and lungs).

Unfortunately, at least one participant attempting Zone 3 got jammed up as the map was not reflective of the accessibility around parts of Dodger Stadium. I did successfully stroll from Control 340 into China Town (via Amador and Broadway), but that was not the most direct route of the final map. Kudos to Rich Hoesly for updating the maps already—making those sections out of bounds so not to mislead future runners!

Winners were all about the Bonus Points! Ryan Dekany and Sofia Somova were winners as male and female juniors. It was a two way tie for the winning Family Team with Team Dragonfire and Team McQuinell, and Team MMKULTRA was the winning Adult Team. Sergey Biryukov and Olga Urbanovskaia were the winners in their adult categories. Total possible points, including Bonus Points, was 1970, and Sergey came the closest with 1630.

Thank you all for coming out for Echo Park Urban Adventure! We had 33 starts, which included 12 teams—so a fun day for over 50 folks!

And thanks to the LAOC crew below who made it all possible:

Course Setter: Recinda Sherman (who is grateful for Rich Hoesley for his coaching especially with Condes!)

Map: Rich Hoesley

Registration: Alan and Jen Perez

Beginner Clinics/Event Overview/MassStart: Recinda Sherman

Finish: Recinda Sherman and special shout outs to Steven Tischler who stepped in to help with the WOW Certificates and Clare Durand who recorded clock numbers for the final participants

Scoring: Recinda Sherman

LiveLox: Rich Hoesley

Control Pick up: It was Q & A so no control pickup!!! Woohoo!

We are grateful to our facility host, the City of Los Angeles, for the use of this beautiful location.