This is the inaugural run of Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon and Half Marathon, limited to 600 total participants.
It's a no frills event but full of fun:
1. Bib Pick Up - No health expo, pictured I.D not required and no freebies except 2 packets of chewable stuff. Out of there in 2 minutes with my bib#, timing chip & shirt.
2. Start Line (Half Marathon) - Stay on the trail, go south by about 1/4 mile and you will find a surf board planted on the sand with Start painted on it. No banner, no cones, no balloons.
3. Hydration Stations - I left the comment(s) to the expert(s). I always run with my hydration belt.
4. Finish Line - Look at the picture: You can't get simpler than this.
My Perspective of the Race - Fun started at 5:15am. I left the hotel on foot(still dark) and walked toward the fairground where I thought the HM starts. My bad, had to turnaround when told the start line was near the historic pier. Together with a couple, a female runner and her companion on a bike, we got a simple direction from the event staff near the pier. Stay on the trail, keep walking till you find a surf board with
Start painted on it. After walking 1/2 mile, we reached the start line. That was fun and a good warm up.
The race started on time. The trail was crowded with runners and had to run slowly for almost a mile. At the bike trail the crowd thin out and now on my normal HM pace. As usual, I look for a pacer and stayed with him/her till I lost them and had to look for another one. Majority of the participants are young men and women, serious runners and from the look of their appearance, lead a healthy and active lifestyle. At age 69, I thought I was the oldest participant(the results listed another participant at age 72).
At mile 6, I was still running strong and at paced to set a PR. On the 2nd loop, the crowd really thin out and there were times, I can not see a runner ahead of me. At mile 10, this is where I usually get tired, I found a pacer that motivated me to run behind her all the way to the finish line.
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| Almost there!! |
Crossed the finish line strong and when I looked at my Garmin watch I was shocked. I finally reached my ultimate goal ----- to finish the 1/2 marathon under 2 hrs. Unbelievable, awesome, it's a miracle were the words that can described my feelings. Unfortunately, a further looked at my Garmin watch, the course distance is only 12.62 miles. Short by about 1/2 mile.
Official Time : 1:56:54
Overall Place : 95/268
AG(65/74) : 1st Place
It's a PR for me even if I add a conservative time of 5 minutes to my official time to run the other 1/2 mile.
I had fun at the race and above all, my wife and I enjoyed our weekend in Ventura.
