OC Half Marathon Race Recap

The OC Half Marathon has been on my “to do” list for a couple years.  I love the area and had heard good things about the race.  This year the date worked out for me and I was able to run it.  Added bonus: I have to say that the participant tech shirts were super cute which is always a plus.

The couple days leading up to the race were in the high 90’s and I spent them with my family running around Disneyland  (Not the smartest move before a half marathon, but I had a ton of fun).  I clocked in at 12 miles walking around on Friday and 10.5 miles walking around Saturday.  We were staying at a hotel near Disneyland which meant I had about a 20 minute drive to the race Sunday morning.

The course is a point to point, so they provide shuttles when you park at the finish line.  My assigned shuttle time was 4:35am, which meant I got up at 3:30 to get there on time.  The OC Marathon started at 5:30am and the half marathon started 6:15am.  The morning was nice and cool which was a great feeling after being so hot the days before.  I met up with my fellow INKnBURN Ambassador Tam.  We both wore our Red Run or Die tanks.  I thought I would sparkle a bit for this race and also wore my Sparkle Athletic skirt and visor.

The course was not super flat.  It had its fair share of hills.  The down hills were great, but that means there were also uphills.  Haha

We ran past some of the most beautiful houses in Southern California.  When the sun came out it definitely was hot.  I could feel it zapping my energy.  The first half of the race I felt great, but the second half I started to feel more sluggish in the sun.

Overall I really liked the race.  My only complaint would be that the first 6 miles the water stops were over 2 miles apart from each other and then after that the water stops were to small and not enough water was set up.  The awesome volunteers were frantically trying to fill cups as people waited.  With such hot weather leading up to the race it might have been a good idea to add more water stops.

Here is the recabling for this year, which was also the 10th anniversary.