Decided to go the same way as Greg and start out from BUR. Going through all the neighborhoods in LA was a really interesting way to see the city. The first 3/4 of this were not too bad, but I really fell apart in the last quarter. I started around 8:30am so the beginning was pretty cool and flat. The Hollywood hills were a nice change of pace and then you have a long mostly gentle downhill towards mid city. the last quarter got really hot, the smog started to get worse, and mentally all the street crossings started getting to me. Really had to push in the last couple miles to get through it. I think Greg's advice was good - I would start really early to avoid the heat and worse traffic. Anyway, lucky I managed to barely beat the original time. Still lots of room for improvement on this!