Palisades Park officially has 26 more bike racks as of last Saturday, thanks to the L.A Leggers.
Celebrating their 28th birthday and first day of this year’s training season for the 2018 Los Angeles marathon, the marathon training group hosted a ribbon cutting for the new bike racks on Aug. 5.
This is the second year in a row the Leggers have given back to Santa Monica, last year donating a water fountain on the southside of the Camera Obscura building. L.A Leggers’s Board of Directors President Barry Morrill said this year they donated the bike racks as a recommendation from the City.
The placement of the bike racks was configured by the City, based on where people need to park their bikes the most. The ribbon cutting occurred at six of the bike racks outside the Camera Obscura building, where the Leggers meet every week during training season.
Dressed in his regular purple kilt for raising awareness for Pancreatic Cancer research and treatment, Morrill thanked everyone for their support and for taking care of the park. An estimated 340 showed for the first training day and ribbon cutting.
“Today was excellent, we had a lot of first time runners,” he said. “Not just to the club, but people running their first marathon. That’s what we’re here for, to let people be healthy.”
The bike racks are convenient he said, not only because the City needed them, but also because the Board wanted to give back to Santa Monica for housing the Leggers for over two decades. In addition, many L.A. Leggers runners bike to the weekly training days. Previously, they had to lock their bikes to benches or other random, nearby poles.
“I think more people will commute that way now,” said six year member and recent Leggers Board member Snow Lam-Hansel. She is also one of the runners who bikes to practices.
“Even if you’re not part of the Leggers, what’s great about it is anyone can use it,” she added. “I love that the club donated back to the community. I hope that we can continue to give back every year.”
Afterward, everyone stretched in circular, synchronized groups outside or taste-tested kombucha and grabbed a free Leggers bag in the Camera Obscura building.
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