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Sunday, November 22, 2015

The Great Los Angeles Walk 2015 Recap: A Gold Medal for Olympic Boulevard

Great LA Walk 2015

We did it again!

16 miles. 38,060 steps (per one Walk participant). 400 (or so) participants. Hundreds of passionate Angelenos, fueled by love of city and community, hiked across the city via Olympic Boulevard this past Saturday.

The 10th annual Great Los Angeles Walk attracted what was quite possibly our largest crowd ever, including many new walkers!

Together, we kicked things off at the newly rehabilitated Clifton's Cafeteria (which opened an hour earlier than usual, at 9 a.m., to accommodate us). After brief pep talk from Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, we were off... over to Main St., and then starting down the entire length of West Olympic. For lunch, Walkers experienced food trucks, Ethiopian restaurants and the legendary Tom Bergin's. The majority of the crowd made it to the beach by sunset.

Some pics from this year's event:

cliftons
Pic by Jon Weisman of the crowd waiting to go in, outside Clifton's

Great LA Walk 2015
Waiting to go in, from the top of the line

Great LA Walk 2015
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times' Christopher Hawthorne for kicking things off! (And sorry that Clifton's couldn't turn the music off!)

Great LA Walk 2015
Group shot!

Great LA Walk 2015
Even more group

Great LA Walk 2015
My selfie with the group

Great LA Walk 2015
And they're off! (Down Broadway)

Great LA Walk 2015
Waltarrrrr's GLAW-themed pith helmet, with Olympic already included!

Great LA Walk 2015
Passing the Orpheum

Great LA Walk 2015
HA HA!

Great LA Walk 2015
Buddha

Great LA Walk 2015
"Mirrors should think longer before they reflect"

Great LA Walk 2015
Keeping an eye on us

Great LA Walk 2015
Standard Oil Company

Great LA Walk 2015
Give us a hand!

Great LA Walk 2015
Spotted in a downtown store

Great LA Walk 2015
"Olympic" (at downtown's JW Marriott hotel)

Great LA Walk 2015
"Happy Day Sale"

Great LA Walk 2015
Open Ur Heart

Great LA Walk 2015
Olympic Boulevard was named after the 10th Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles in 1932. (As spotted in Koreatown.)

Great LA Walk 2015
The face of Olympic

Great LA Walk 2015
Yikes! Maybe walking is the way to go!

Great LA Walk 2015
Koreatown

Great LA Walk 2015
Guelaguetza Restaurant

Great LA Walk 2015
Imaginary phone

Great LA Walk 2015
Give us a hand!

Great LA Walk 2015
Olympic Car Wash

Great LA Walk 2015
Oxford Square

Great LA Walk 2015
Selfies!

Great LA Walk 2015
"Always a hill, always a tower, always a timepiece."

Great LA Walk 2015
The chained-up underground tunnels of Olympic

Great LA Walk 2015
Tom Bergin's for lunch

Great LA Walk 2015
The Bergin's bar

Great LA Walk 2015
Inside Bergin's

Great LA Walk 2015
The horse heads of Tom Bergin's

Great LA Walk 2015
"Well, we sorta welcome you."

Great LA Walk 2015
The stairs of Olympic (in West L.A.)

Great LA Walk 2015
Mt. Sidewalk

Great LA Walk 2015
One walker noted that, of all the streets the Great LA Walk has traveled, this was the most pleasant 405 experience. That's because, unlike streets like Wilshire or Santa Monica, there is no off ramp here.

Great LA Walk 2015
The Expo line. As of next year, Great LA Walkers will easily take Metro light rail back to downtown!

Great LA Walk 2015
Are You Ready?

Great LA Walk 2015
Welcome to the Hotel California

Great LA Walk 2015
Tongva Park

Great LA Walk 2015
We made it! A group gathers at Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, at around 4:30 p.m.

Great LA Walk 2015
More walkers at the end

Great LA Walk 2015
16 miles, completely on bare feet! Thanks to this Walker, who came all the way from Santa Fe!

Great LA Walk 2015
This guy was waiting for us at the end!

Great LA Walk 2015
Day is done!

Send us links to your photos! Some roundups below:

Scott Trimble

Edward Kirkpatrick

2 comments:

Scott Mumford said...

My heroes! (Especially the Barefoot Dude!) Congrats on another fine Angelic Event.

Unknown said...

Love it. This is what so many don't understand about Los Angeles. People love this place, and for good reason.