2024 OC Half Marathon Race Review!

Hello there! Welcome back to the Unexpected Abundance blog, man I am SO excited to be here with you today. I was gone for the last few months, but I swear I wasn’t being lazy. Quite the opposite actually. My wife and I welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world in June and as you can probably wonder, that has kept me pretty occupied. Ever since completing the OC Half Marathon back in May, I took a step back from running and started to shift my focus towards preparing for the arrival of my son. It has been the biggest blessing in my life, besides my faith and marrying my wife. I swear he’s growing up so fast, and he is still a newborn!

Now that I’m transitioning into my new life as a father, it’s time to get back into posting and running! I have been running for the last few weeks now, as I signed up to run the Mission Inn Half Marathon on October 20th, here in Riverside, CA. This will probably be my last race of the year, so I wanted to end on a good note and get accustomed to training with a baby for future races. But before I start talking about the Mission Inn race, I need to give my review of the OC Marathon!

I want to start writing reviews about races that I participate in, because it’ll help provide closure for me and information for anyone that’s researching what race to participate in. I’ll talk about the cost, hospitality experience with the expo and race day, course, traffic, and give a final grade! This is by no means meant to be a criticism of the wonderful people who volunteer on race day or the organizers that spent countless hours organizing the race. It’s just a way for me to reflect on the race 😊Let’s get into it!

Goals: When I started training for this race, I had just finished running the LA marathon where I didn’t have my best day. I had a goal of finishing under 5:30 hours and ended up crossing the finish line at 6:39 hours. Mentally, I was not feeling confident heading into this prep. I decided to dial it back and run the half marathon instead and focus on beating my time from the San Diego half marathon I ran last year at 2:38 hours. I was in marathon shape, so training wasn’t going to be too bad. Since the LA marathon was on March 17th, and the OC half marathon was on May 5th, I had a quick turnaround time to get ready. All I wanted was to finish faster than my previous best half marathon time. I had a solid 6 weeks of training and felt good heading into race day.

Cost: I got lucky with this race because my job was a sponsor, so I was able to get in for free! But a friend of mine ran the race and paid about $150 for the half marathon. I also looked on the website recently, and as of July 31st, it costs about $115 for the full marathon and $105 for the half marathon. It’s not the most expensive race, but it’s not cheap either. The further from your start date, the cheaper it’s going to be.

Grade: 7/10.

Expo: The expo where you can find different vendors and pick up your bib the day before the race is a great opportunity to get your mind right for the race. The expo was held at the OC fairgrounds, and I was pleased with how organized it was. For the most part, race expos are easy to navigate but it can be chaotic, depending on the popularity of the race. It cost $12 to park at the fairgrounds for the expo, and I was able to pick up my bib in less than 10 minutes. Since this is my 4th race, I’m not too interested in buying stuff from vendors. I’ve gotten lazier with each race, but if you’re interested, there are always vendors selling a lot of cool gear, especially for the races the following day. The expo wasn’t too crowded, and it was easy to walk around.

Grade 9.5/10

Race day hospitality: I was traumatized by how long it took me to travel 2 miles to get to the starting line at Dodger Stadium for the LA marathon. It took my wife and I one hour to travel 2 miles. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake here, and I left the house at 4:30 and got to the OC fairgrounds at 5 am. To my surprise, it was fairly smooth getting into the parking lot. There was a bit of traffic because there was a line to pay for parking (again, $12), but I was in line for less than 5 minutes. Our start time for the half marathon was 6:30, so I made sure to arrive on time. One thing I really enjoyed was the shuttle transportation. Runners had the option of parking at the start line and taking a shuttle once they finished the race back to the start line, or parking at the finish line and taking a shuttle to the start line. My friend and I opted to park at the finish line, and it was relieving knowing my transportation was being taken care of. I know it’s offered for other races, but runners didn’t have to pre-select shuttle transportation when signing up for the race, as it’s required for the LA marathon. Sometimes, your race day plan changes and your planned transportation may not be feasible. This provided some comfort for me, and it allowed me to just focus on the race.

As I mentioned before, the energy from the staff and volunteers was amazing. The aid stations were always encouraging, and the turnout from the public was great too. It always helps me when I hear words of encouragement from the staff, because they’re more tired than I am, being on their feet for long periods of time. The corrals were organized, and the runners weren’t breathing on each other, making it sometimes uncomfortable for us.

Grade: 10/10

Traffic: It’s California, so there will always be traffic and I’m used to it. But this was kind of bad. Getting to the race was no problem. I drove in from La Habra, about 25 minutes from the finish line and there was no traffic. I briefly mentioned there was a line to get into the parking lot, but only because we had to wait to pay for parking. Once the race was finished, that was a different story. Now, there were a lot more people when I tried to leave around 11 am because the half marathon and full marathon runners were finishing at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to leave immediately, but it took me an hour to get out of the parking lot. It took my friend 1.5 hours to leave the parking lot. I looked through previous threads on Reddit and it seems to be an occurring issue year after year. Again, I’m used to traffic being from California, but this was discouraging, especially since I was tired from the race. The last thing runners want to do after the race is be stuck in traffic for extended periods of time.

Grade: 4/10

Course: I was blown away by the half marathon course. You start at Newport Beach, and about a mile into the race, you’re heading down a big hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I’m so upset I didn’t get any pictures, but I was trying to focus on my breathing. It was breathtaking, and I would love to experience it again. For the majority of the half marathon course, you’re running along the beach or the piers surrounding Corona Del Mar and Newport Beach. The ocean breeze is constantly hitting you, and the weather is outstanding. There’s a portion of the course where you can hear the waves crashing and if you’re a beach lover, you’ll enjoy this course. The hills were average, except for big hills at miles 7 and 11. The hill at mile 11 is pretty steep and can be crucial to your finish time, so make sure to save energy for that last push. Once you overcome that hill at mile 11, it’s flat until the finish line. I will preface by saying that I spoke with other runners who completed the full course, and they mentioned that the second half of the full marathon course goes through mostly industrial locations, such as warehouses and factories. It basically means that part of the course can be a little boring, especially if you’re coming from the first part of the race where you can overlook the Pacific Ocean. I can only speak for the half marathon course, so be mindful when you’re researching the course.

Grade: 10/10

Final Results: I was proud of myself for keeping my half marathon pace the entire race and finished with an official time of 2:30 hours. My Garmin clocked me at 2:28 hours, but for some reason, the distance was longer on the big screens they have throughout the course, so my watch clocked me at 13.32 miles. Either way, I was able to shave off 8 minutes from my personal best. I was so happy with the result, considering I had a quick turnaround with the LA marathon, and I wasn’t feeling too confident. I did a better job of hydrating myself throughout the race with my waters and gels, and I was in a better headspace that day. As always, there is always room for improvement, but this was a big step forward for me!

Overall Grade: 8.1/10

My experience running the 2024 OC Half Marathon was a great one! Besides the traffic leaving the race that lowered my overall grade, I thought it was a really well organized race with a beautiful half marathon course and reasonable pricing. There truly are few places nicer than Newport Beach, so there’s nothing like getting an early morning run through the beautiful streets of South Orange County. I will definitely be running this race again, whether it’s the half or full marathon. To the organizers, you all did an amazing job! Not to mention the shirt and medals were designed really well, AND runners got a free Michelob Ultra

afterwards. 😊

That does it for today’s post. I’m really glad to be back with you guys, and I’m looking forward to blogging and running over the next few months. As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently training for the Mission Inn Half Marathon on Oct. 20th, so be tuned in for posts on my training.

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Until next time, happy running!