reggie r's Staging Area

Sounds like everyone already mentioned the big things that went wrong with this race so ill keep this review limited to other things.

This marathon got a lot of hype from some of my running friends so I decided to give it a go to BQ. As much as I wanted it to, the race didn’t live up to the hype (again, this is aside from the big issues already written about in other reviews this year)

I’ve never been a fan of expos in the first place, but this one definitely didn’t do anything to make me excited about this race. It did it’s job–the volunteers were great–but it was just kinda small and uneventful. I guess I was expecting more since we had to pay $10 to park there.

The race had busses chartered to take you to the top of Ojai. It seemed like they had tons of busses and that whole system really worked well.
The start of the race was ok. There were a lot of portajohns but lines were very long–pretty typical of any race. The PA and music system was really low. My guess was that there is some sound ordinance in Ojai so they had to keep the volume low. Standing in the corrals, a bunch of us kept asking “What did he say?” over and over again which got to be really alarming the after 6am came and went and the race hadn’t started. We all started to get frustrated standing there–but you can read that in other reviews. But again, usually the pomp and circumstance gets you fired up before a race with the music blasting, and I just didn’t feel any of that. Kinda just “line up lets go.” and then “hurry up and wait”. The only fun part of standing in the coral was when someone got a chant started (that was much much louder than the PA system) and we were all chanting “LET’S GET STARTED” CLAP CLAP, CLAPCLAPCLAP.

The start of the race was a little touch and go. Yes, the missed turn that costs us about half a mile. Other than that, the first 4 miles or so, we shared half the two lane road with cars. There was a cone to help “guide” us and keep us in the lane, but there are always people trying to make there way around the pack and cars were surprisingly frequent on these roads. No close calls or anything, but we were out there yelling “CAR!” a bunch so no one got hurt. After that, larger areas of roadways were blocked off so it felt safer later on.

I want to say 70% of the race is on a bike trail. Which was actually pretty nice since the group thinned out by this point. Not to mention running downhill finally. The only issue was that the bike lane wasn’t closed for the race. I remember seeing signs that basically said for non-racers to be cautions on the trail, but as I was running, I passed a good deal of (non-race) walkers and I was passed by several cyclist. I almost ran into one walker near the end of the bike trail because i was toast at that point and just didnt have all my wits about me anymore.

Near the end of the race, we got running down (ahem… UP!) Main Street in Ventura and–while that street is permanently blocked off for cars–it is completely open to the public. And the Ventura residence/visitors were not there to watch us run. Myself and others found ourselves having to weave around people enjoying the day on Main Street. And 23-24 miles in, this street was a freaking mountain to climb. Not to mention the sun was in full force and you are running straight towards it. I got hammered. No June gloom to help us out that day. So at this point, between the extra .4, the people, and the sun; I gave up on my BQ and just wanted this race to be over. But i digress…

The last stretch of race was flat along the beach. This was the only place sanctioned for spectators so it was nice to finally see the people that came to watch me run.
As for the end, the medal we got was cool, a little different than typical metals being wood and metal. The only kinda crappy thing is that it says “marathon, half, and 5k” on it, so if you display it, its not obvious which race you ran. The ribbon does specify but… who’s looking at that.
The food at the end of the race was weird. All I wanted was a banana and gatorade but only water was provided at the end. As for the food, I was handed a basket full of “samples”. From what I remember, it was a third of a banana, a quarter of a bagel, an orange slice, a twizzler, and a couple of peanut m&ms. I think there were a few more odds and ends in there, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Fortunately, when I went up to the volunteers and asked for a whole banana they came through for me.
In the finisher area, the only talk was of the extra mileage we ran and people were livid. People also mentioned that the course was changed from previous years and that Main Street run was a new addition to the race and was way more uphill than anyone expected–so just be warned when reading old reviews about the course. Anyway, the finish area totally killed the vibe, so my family and i decided to bail on Ventura pretty quickly so we didnt experience any of the afterparty.

Overall, this race had a small town vibe. I’m not sure why I expected more out of it, honestly it made sense. My biggest takeaway was that this race is meant for runners from southern california. As someone traveling from far way, the amount of travel arrangements we had to make should have tipped me off. I felt pretty out of place the whole time. Everyone other than me seemed to be from SoCal. Not to mention the loose-y goose-y production of the whole event (see anyone else’s reviews). I’ve already given my running mates crap for recommending this one to me. Overall, this race was a big let down.

TL;DR: Only run this if you live near Ventura.