This course starts at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and ends at the OC Fair and Events Center in Costa Mesa. The first half is hilly, but has enough downhill to make up for the climbs. The second half is extremely flat except for a small climb at mile 14. It is the fastest of the three marathons I have done, and got a PR by 7 minutes. It is a scenic course that goes through the very wealthy areas of Newport Beach. All of miles were marked, and they had plenty of pace groups for those with a specific time goal. If you want to set a new PR and run a scenic marathon, I highly recommend this course.

First half beautiful, second half disaster. Who ever planned this course must not be a runner! Come one now, in the second half we had to circle cones, run through the mall parking lots, a high school campus, so many turns and out and backs. How ridiculous! Hated every step of second half. I am not sure why we couldn't do straight 4 or 5 mile square blocks to avoid these crazy hairpin turns and swirls. My 41st marathon; will not be back!

This is a very well-organized race. From the expo to the start to the finish to the shuttles, everything ran very smoothly. There were over 10,000 finishers including the full, half, and 5k, but the entire event was so well-organized that you didn't notice how big the event really was. The marathon course was very nice for the first half, but the last half was considerably less scenic.

This full marathon is really a half with another 13.1 added to the end as an afterthought. I think at some point we were running around a high school parking lot...??? There were very gentle rolling hills throughout the course, but not bad at all, and MUCH flatter than LA. I was able to score a BQ in this race after missing it by five minutes at LA. T-shirts and medals were awesome; I love how they both distinguished between the races. My only really big complaint is the $5 parking for the expo. Really guys...I understand that expo was co-located with the Taste Fest there at the OC Fair, but if I'm only there to pick up my race bib, I shouldn't have to pay $5 to park. Overall great race, though. I would definitely do it again!

This marathon is not that big.. it has a small town atmosphere. The first half is very scenic, the second half gets lonely.. most people run the half. They could use more clock markers, they aren't at every mile so take your watch if you are trying for a PR. The course is not as easy (flat) as most people think or say it is but is not as challenging as LA marathon. The fans are great (where they are) but you go through a period where you feel you are the lone runner... especially around mile 20 or so. I really enjoyed the course though and I think it was awesome to finish at the fairgrounds. It is a nice run and I think it is under-rated, if more people ran it and more spectators showed up it could rival some of the more popular runs. I will run it again and hope it gets bigger so that the organizers have more support for the runners.

Overall it was a good experience. I guess I have nothing else to compare it with though. The first 1/2 was really good. The fans were great. You run some neat parts of town where the residents would sit out front and cheer you on and in some cases offer things such as cliff bars or oranges. The back 1/2 was brutal though. There were stretches where the only people cheering you on were the police blocking traffic. You ran most of the back 1/2 through the business district and along the canal. There were plenty of water stations along the way, but not nearly enough bathrooms. I calculated that I burned 3-4 minutes waiting in line.

OC Marathon people are slowly putting together a nice event. I have run the marathon the past 2 years and this was the best yet. Other than some small problems mileage markers the race has improved. The Back Bay was a nice feature but if we can't run we can't run it. The first half still has some of the best views for a marathon in the city. I still hate the course around mile 20-23 but what are going to do. I would like to see the organizers start the full half an hour before the half. It would be nice to have splits every 5k.For a race that is somewhat new still they do a good job. See you next year!

INTRODUCTION: I am a race-walker with a median marathon completion time of 5:11:53. The OC Marathon was my twentieth 26.2-miler completed.

COURSE: The course was not what one would consider pancake flat, but it was not possessive of significant hills, either. True, there were some inclines and declines, most particularly in Newport Beachthe most strenuous incline being, perhaps, the 60 foot ascent over a quarter-miles distance at about mile 7. Technically speaking, it would have been moderately difficult to set a new personal best on this course.

The race started just after 6 am on an incline in Newport Center; starting temperature was 54 degrees. The start times for the four corrals, which comprised of both full and half marathoners, were approximately eight minutes apart. Given the three lanes available for use, there was very little congestion at the start. At mile 1, we traveled down a 1-1/2 mile descent on MacArthur Boulevard, where we had our first view of the Pacific Ocean. The rare ability to see both San Clemente and Santa Catalina Islands on this day indicated the presence of Santa Ana winds. About 2-1/2 miles into the course, we turned onto Ocean Boulevard in Corona del Mar, arguably the most picturesque part of the marathon. Here, we were forced to make choices: on our left we could view Big Corona, Newport Harbor, and Balboa. On the right, we could note the architectural styles of the multimillion dollar residences. Or we could keep our eyes on the road in front of us in order to negotiate the shortest course. Just before mile 4, we entered Bayside Drive, where we could see more domiciles, the Coast Guard station (where scenes of the 1970 Disney movie, The Boatniks, were filmed), yacht clubs, and occasionally, Balboa Island.

We left Bayside Drive at mile 6, crossed the bridge over Newport Harbor and took the underpass to the north side of Coast Highway. This was our first point of congestion, where the path only could accommodate three runners across. At mile 7, we ascended Dover Drive to Castaways Park. While affording us panoramic views of Newport Bay, the congestion on the bike path forced us slow our pace by about 30 seconds on mile 8, where we entered the Westcliff neighborhood, which lasted about two miles. Some slight inclines and declines here, and we had to navigate the turns in order to find the shortest course. Entering Irvine Avenue at mile 11, we had one notable ascent before having our final glimpse of Upper Newport Bay. Some of us observed the planes flying into John Wayne Airport were coming in from the south, again indicating the presence of Santa Ana winds. At mile 12, the half-marathoners turned left onto Mesa Drive as we continued onto Red Hill Avenue.

In May, weather along the Orange Coast is moderate, with temperatures ranging from a low in the fifties to a high in the sixties with cool, coastal breezes coming in from the south and west. On marathon day however, this was reversed by the presence of hot, gusty Santa Ana winds coming from the north and east. We first felt this travelling north on Red Hill Avenue. The winds, combined with scaling the bridge crossing the San Diego Freeway, gave us a challenge as we entered Irvine at mile 14. At mile 15, our predominantly westward route toward the Performing Arts Center and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa lasted approximately two miles. Anyone who felt like abandoning the race at this point to shop at Nordstrom would have been disappointed to find the store had not opened yet&perhaps after the race. At mile 17, we turned north on Bear Street into Santa Ana and felt the headwinds for one final mile.

The wind was finally at our back as we headed west on Segerstrom Drive. At mile 20, we headed south on the Santa Ana River trail toward Costa Mesa. We encountered cyclists weaving in and out of marathon traffic during this time, which was more of an annoyance than a danger. At mile 23, we proceeded eastward on a trail in Fairview Park, and continued onto the finish line at the Fairgrounds. Finish temperature at 11:30 am was 84 degrees.

ORGANIZATION: Expo was average for a marathon of this size. A good selection of marathon merchandise was available. The most unusual item was an OC Marathon-logoed cowbell selling for five dollars. Just before I left, I noticed my complementary tech tee was for the half marathon. The apologetic volunteer happily exchanged it. The energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers at the expo and at the race was commendable. Traffic control was excellent.

The big negative was the misplacement of the mile markers. For the first time, I was forced to abandon the recording of mile splits on my chronograph. This was no small issue, for it was difficult for me to obtain feedback about whether my pace was too quick or too slow. For future races, I hope the marathon organizers invest in some more visible and sturdy markers that can withstand the winds.

FANS: Some of the Newport Beach residents came out of their houses to cheer us on. Cheer squads in place at miles 12 and 14.

CONCLUSION: Race director Gary Kutscher had to contend with some difficult issues this year. In March, the Newport Beach City Council directed him not to repeat last years route on the scenic Back Bay Drive unless he could remove the water stops. This would force the runners to be without support for three miles. Given the race day temperature, he made the correct decision to reroute the course. I expect he was under a lot of pressure to pull off these changes in such short time.

This was the seventh OC Marathon and the third course used. The excellent views along the route justified participation in this marathon. This marathon showed promise. But the question remained, can OC settle into a great marathon?

Marathon was mostly as expected from reading remarks from 2010.
Negative:
Expo was nothing huge, but OK. Limited 'goodie bag' as mentioned below for 2010.
No wave start
Somewhere around mile 17 the mile markers were a mile behind till about mile 21. Then they were back on track.
Miles along riverbed were very hot, very limited shade. I realize that's hit or miss depending on weather, it was pretty hot by that point for a 5 hour marathoner.
Water stop between miles 3 & 4 (on backside of PCH) was very congested and hard to get to (on the outside right hand corner of a left hand turn), had to dodge people to get to it.

Positive:
Nice design for medal, always like when medals strap has design/detail put into it, which this one does.
Parking for expo was free if you told attendant that you were their for the packet pickup. Parking was fairly easy.

All in all it was a decent marathon, the first 10 miles or so were fairly scenic, the rest could have been anywhere, nothing exciting.

1. I recommend staying at the host hotel just feet away from the start. I was getting out of bed while most runners were waiting at the starting line.
2. The comments on this site for previous OC races held pretty true. The first half of the course is awesome, second half not so much. Spectators were sparse but good. The Expo was weak and the finish line spread was really weak...very surprising.
3. Pleased to see Gatorade instead of some knock off drink offered
4. Aid stations were well done
5. Transportation back to the start was great.
6. Lots of walkers in the first few miles despite wave starts. Not a big deal to me but worth pointing out.

Overall it was a nice race. I came a long way from Kansas City so can't say I will be back but don't regret it at all. Seems like you could do some basic marketing to get more buy-in from the neighborhoods the race goes through?

This year once again the course was slightly altered from years past. Specifically, the first couple of miles went around Fashion Island (not a big deal to me), and then miles 7 - 12 were not run in the Back Bay (yaa!), but rather on city streets where there were actual people and things to look at! The second half of the marathon course was the same as previous years, which although not ideal, is at least acceptable (I'd still prefer starting & finishing at the same place, but it appears this race is destined to be point-to-point).

This race is one of the local ones I run every year along with Long Beach in October and Surf City in February, and I will probably continue to do so as it fits nicely into my schedule.

P.S. Thanks for the place on the back of the medal for a place to engrave my finishing time and position (am I the only one who does this?), but I don't really need a place for my name (don't think even I will forgot that!).