OC Marathon

All other marathons I have ran don't charge for parking, and the traffic is flawless. This one have a $10 fee and getting out took hours. It seems that they don't have any body in charge of traffic, but they sure has teenagers charging. We have to check out of the hotel and are stuck in the parking lot

I really really enjoyed this marathon after the 12.5 mile split and before 6 miles. The half marathon starts 45 minutes after the full, but the full was delayed for about 10 minutes. Therefore, the elite half marathoners caught up to the 5 hour marathoners in the 6th mile and the half marathoners were with us until the 12.5 mile split. At this point, the half marathoners were going at about a 1:50 pace. During this time, at every water station, we had a mix of very fast runners getting their water efficiently, the usual 5 hour runners who stop or slow down at the water stops and the efficient 5 hour runners who were desperately trying to avoid both. I'm sure there were some collisions and scary near misses. I think the half marathoners should be delayed by at least 75 minutes after the actual start time of the marathon.

I ran the half marathon this year, having run it once before in 2009. I thought the race had some organizational issues six years ago, and surprisingly, there still are some. They've been holding this race for 10 years; I would have thought they would have worked the kinks out by now. Those of us who live in SoCal are lucky to have a ton of races to choose from. It surprises me that this race isn't better, given the amount of competition. Pros: - Weather was very nice, overcast, 60s. - The few spectators were great. - Post-race finish refreshments were adequate. - I parked near the start and didn't have a problem finding a spot. But it was rather confusing: there was a sign that said 'event parking' pointing into the lot I parked in, but no race staff collecting $/doling out parking passes, so I was half-afraid my car was going to be towed. (It wasn't) - Nice race t-shirt and LOVED the disposable race jacket given at the end. Will be great to wear to my next race and just throw out at the start Cons: - Expo: not worth the $7 in parking and battle with Friday evening traffic on the 405 freeway. It would have benefited from more signage directing which way to go inside the expo - I had a tough time just figuring out how to leave the building. Next time I'll probably pay to have my bib mailed to me - Water stations: would have benefited from more (I was thirsty by the time I hit the first one) and from better placement. Please put them on both sides of the street to avoid congestion. And please don't put them on corners for runners to try to grab/drink/toss while also turning. And not sure who thought it was a great idea to have a water station at the bottom of the hill around mile 9/10, but putting it there causes you to lose all momentum you have going into the hill. Would be better placed at the top of the hill - The course: not as fast as advertised. There are a lot of 90 degree turns, which I found disruptive. The last 1 mile stretch is really discouraging - a long straight section with a few small (but noticeable) hills and then a not-so-scenic run over the 55 freeway. - Not cool to put a sign 0.2 miles before the finish line saying 'half a mile to go'. The sign was clearly much closer to the finish than half a mile and was VERY discouraging to see - Congestion: I started encountering slower marathoners around mile 5 and then had to spend the rest of the race dodging them. In some parts, the course is so narrow you can only have 2 people abreast, and I witnessed some near-collisions, which should NOT be happening 6 or 7 miles into a race. Either limit the number of entrants to the race, stagger the races even more, or change the course to accommodate more runners. - Pacers: I hate to criticize pacers because I know people are doing this out of the kindness of their hearts (THANK YOU, PACERS!), but the 1:45 pacers ran the first half at a blistering pace, to the point where other runners were confused that maybe they had the wrong pace group (they were running sub 1:40 pace for parts of it). I know they might have been trying to bank some time to account for hills in the second half, but it just ended up burning some folks out. All in all, I found the race just OK. I much prefer Long Beach, Carlsbad, and even Surf City to this one. I might do it again just because I'm a local and do many of my training runs at the Newport Back Bay anyway, but it's not a race I'd rave about.