The good: A challenging but rewarding trail race through the northwest side of Griffith Park. It is an out-and-back course that is almost all uphill on the way out. The course turnaround is at the Mt. Hollywood summit, giving you great views of Hollywood/West LA and of course the Hollywood sign. Decent medal and shirt (soft 50/50 blend). I always appreciate when a race organizer includes a back or sleeve graphic and doesn't get cheap with the bare minimum. Easy access and parking near the Abandoned LA Zoo.

The bad: packet pickup was a mess and the course was almost certainly short. I waited in line almost an hour to pick up my packet the morning of the race, and I got there in plenty of time. The race started 15 minutes late, and I didn't make it across the started line until 30 minutes after the scheduled start. It seemed like the organizers needed more volunteers to check people in. This organizer runs multiple races throughout the year, and this was a relatively small race with a capped field, so this was preventable.

The course distance is noncertified, and like I said above, the course was almost certainly short. My Garmin measured it about 0.4 miles short--whereas GPS trackers tend to measure long during races because runners don't follow the shortest possible route. Participants will have to approach this race from a recreation/training aspect and not expect to establish a credible PR.