Ventura marathon experience

I haven't run it, but I have worked on building projects at both ends of the course. Ojai is a great little town. The drive from Ventura to it is very scenic. The course ends in downtown Ventura. There is an Amtrak station a short walk south of the finish (across the 101). You'll probably be told to park at the Ventura fairgrounds lot, which is where the Amtrak stops.

I did Mountains to Beach 2x which is very close to the same course. Ventura is actually a faster course. it is a much much faster course than CIM. I did CIM once.

the two downsides 1 you would have to put an • if you get your PR on the course since it is near perfect amount of downhill without hurting your quads. 2 There is a some risk of bad weather and running into a head/side wind at that time of year.

I ran it in 2019 so things may have changed, but overall it was good for a small race. I didn't have any issues with logistics: there was plenty of room to warm up, enough toilets etc. The course is fast too with a rolling first 10k then dropping substantially to around the 20 mile mark with, I think, only one or two significant hills.

My one big complaint is that at around mile 20 the course funnels onto a pretty narrow bike path and at that point you will be passing hundreds of half marathon participants who don't know to stay out of the way. Hopefully the organizers have done something to remedy this but it made for a very difficult finish for me.

Thanks for the replies. I’m also looking at SoCal Marathon or Surf City Marathon (both in Newport Beach). SoCal looks fast but fairly new with small marathon fields. Surf City is an older race with larger fields.

The race confirmed that for 2023 the marathon and half marathon fields will still merge at some point during the race.

Ran it in 2015 but it was an out and back at that time. Looks much faster now!

SoCal Marathon will be a very small event. The course will be pretty much be dead flat. If you would have run along one section you would have run through a big homeless area but it is cleaned up now. I used to run through it when I had to go to events near the convention center. The section made national news for being so filled with homeless. It would be a pretty dull course, but would be pretty fast as long as you don't have a headwind. If you have a headwind you are screwed.

Surf City is in HB. It is a pretty fast course where a lot of it is run along the coast and is pretty scenic. If there happens to be a storm coming in, you will be kind of screwed because there is no where to hide from the wind. If it is windy, you will likely have a good tailwind when you go south and a headwind when you go north toward Bolsa Chica.

Ventura would be much faster course than these two.

I run on the Santa Ana River trail all the time, and the So Cal Marathon would have an elevation drop of about 600' feet or so, with no real rollers (except short underpasses under roads and the 91 freeway). But I agree you'll be running solo for lots of it and a headwind, which doesn't happen that often, would be a major b1tch.

What does "put an •" mean?

put an asterisk

means shove it in your pie hole