Overall, this race is getting a B from me only because I just loved the half marathon course. It is beautiful, with ocean views and beautiful homes. The last couple of miles aren’t so great, but that was okay. At that point I don’t care, I just want to finish! I was not so impressed with pre-race which includes the expo. This was my sixth half marathon and I never had to wait in line to get into an expo. Maybe I have just been lucky with good timing in the past. But, yes I had to wait in line just to get in. The vendor area was kind of cramped and just not inviting. The set up was odd. Okay, that was that. Thankfully I was getting dropped off at the start line. The OC marathon website gives directions on how to get dropped off from EITHER side of PCH. Well, traveling northbound was closed. Luckily, I know the area well so I knew how to get where I needed to be. How do they not get something like this right on their own website? After I was dropped off everything was fine. As stated earlier, the course was beautiful. There were some hills but nothing I couldn’t handle….I don’t do well on hills so the fact that I didn’t poop out says that the hills were not so bad. Post-race. Everything was good until it was time to leave. When we got to the car, we got in line to get out. 10 minutes…nothing. NO MOVEMENT. Finally we saw a passenger from another car who came back to report to us all. The ONE exit was closed because it crosses the marathon route. Really?! So the entire parking lot was backed up. They could have at least told us that this was the case. We did not want to sit there for any longer…I just ran a half marathon I was hungry! Well, we parked and went back in the event area to kill some time. Spent some money. Well, I am no conspiracy theorist, but a small part of me wonders if we played right into this trap. Anyway, I am very lucky that my boyfriend was there at the finish line and had my stuff in his backpack so I did not experience the bag pickup nightmare I keep reading about. This was my first time running OC and did so because it was my last stop in the Beach Cities Challenge. Not sure if I will run it again.
