You Call that a Road Race?

Gosh, I think I might be embarrassed to proclaim, "hey, I won the state road race championship" this year.

Well... maybe not, but... road race?

Is it just me? Am I missing something? Is this what has become of the term "road race"? Like some bad booze in a sleazy bar, have the Southern California / Nevada District (SCNCA) Road Race Championships, ie. state road race championships been watered down as much as they can, only a faint hint of bite remaining?

What ever happened to the years of Pyramid and Castaic, of Punchbowl, GMR, and San Luis Rey? What's happened to the tradition, when "road race" meant something more than a four mile circuit with a "slight uphill finish"? Hell, a loop around Bonelli Park offers far more challenge than this year's staid out-and-back along Westchester Parkway, and paralleling the runways of LAX. "Rolling terrain" the description says; extreme literary license I say. If by "rolling terrain" you mean that if a racer were to stop pedaling, would she continue to roll forward, then okay, sure, "rolling terrain" it is. [Notice my eyes rolling] Even the rolling terrain of flat Nebraska has more roll to it.

I'm sorry, I realize this is nothing more than your standard Danny Downer type complaint. I have no answers as to why a course like this would be selected as an appropriate venue for a road race championship. Maybe there is a valid reason, or reasons. Never-the-less, considering how many potential locations for challenging courses exist locally, this just seems so very far removed from some of those legendary courses of years past.

[Note: They invented asterisks for years like this.]