2023 California International Marathon

Given the reviews, I was expecting the worst. However, the race organization was flawless. Plenty of portapotties, plenty of fluids, medals etc. Transportation to and from start flawless. Weather, flawless. Kudos to the organizers.

Course is not flat, not inclusive for all runners, catered more for elites and not the average runner, which is disappointing to have elitist attitudes on the transport bus disparaging slow folks with passive/aggressive comments. Way to start a marathon. Sportsmanship and support was nonexistent amongst those I sat with on the bus, though met many runners (yes, we are runners even if our time is slower) along the way who were supportive of each other. No bananas at the end. Seriously. CIM puts on a big to-do with over 10,000 participants, but can't have enough bananas at the finish.

This race was not prepared for 10,000 runners: (1) the waits were too long for the bathrooms; (2) the start line was chaotic with various paces running over each other; (3) there were shortages of finish-line bonuses. I had hoped for a unified 2:40ish pace group, and there just was not. Further, the course is definitely rolling hills and not flat at all, albeit with a slight net elevation loss. Yes, some people get their OTQs/BQs at CIM, but I would place other courses as faster (Houston is one example). My sense is that the race has many fast runners and not such a fast course. The quality of competitors there was impressively high. My recommendation: go out conservatively and shoot for negative splits!