I flew down to LA with friends to run this race. We stayed downtown and my wife dropped us off for the race, so I can't speak to the bus transportation. However, the traffic heading into Dodger Stadium, where the race began, was pretty congested. Still, we arrived with plenty of time to warm up and there were many honeybuckets at the start. Since it begins in the stadium's parking lot, there's plenty of space to jog around and warm-up. Although this race has a number of elite runners, we had a pretty sparse pack. We were shooting for sub 2:40 and by mile 10, it had thinned out significantly. By 16 miles in, my friend and I only saw a few other runners on our way to a 2:37 and 2:38 (and these are long open roads!). Point being: if you like running with others, bring a friend and don't count on there being other runners to work with. Having never been to LA, the course was a nice tour through some of the neighborhoods I had only heard about and it felt pretty strange (cool) to run down large open roads. The hills early on the course were taller and steeper than I had anticipated, but there was alway a nice recovery down the other end. Overall, the course loses elevation as you make your way down to the beach, but it is by no means easy. It's probably around Boston level difficulty (maybe 30s-1min faster?). The crowds were fair, with some pockets of great spectators. The final 2 miles of downhill are welcomed after having worked up the VA hill late in the race. The finish along the beach is awesome and it's a great way/place to finish the race (although I imagine spectator parking is not easy to come by). Great massages afterwards as well!