The Ventura Marathon offered a Full Marathon, Half Marathon, Century Bike Ride and a 5K.

I paid about $85 for the Half using a discount code that I found a few months ago.
Score.

The race’s swag was awesome and went right along with the race’s “Beach Party” theme!

They gave all the runners a neat reusable shopping bag and the bib was one of the coolest I have seen.

The race medals were awesome too (and also double as a bottle opener!)

The race expo was great… larger than most.

ProCompression, Addidas and Altra were there- as well as lots of food vendors and other race vendors (Santa Barbara Marathon, Los Angeles New Years Half Marathon and Surf City.. to name a few.)

After barely making it to the start at the gun time, (thanks to road closures and a full parking garage), I was stressed!

I managed to push it all aside and reminded myself that I was going to do great.

The course runs from the Ventura Pier towards the Oxnard Harbor and back.

I kept looking at my watch to try to keep up with my PaceBand (which was extremely helpful).
I felt great!

The race website boasts a pancake flat course, and notes the highest elevation is 50 feet.

I can definitely attest that there are no HUGE hills, but the middle 6 miles are a steady stream of small rolling hills.

It began to get hot at 7:30 am, and by 8 am it was about 80 degrees.
No thank you.

Up until mile 7 my Garmin was ON TARGET with my PaceBand and the mile markers.

And then something strange happened.

My Garmin and the mile markers were all of a sudden off by almost .6 of a mile.

I ran next to a lady at mile 10 who confirmed that her watch matched my mileage…

Apparently, the mile markers were over a half a mile off.

No, it wasn’t a joke.

My legs felt great and I wasn’t very tired.

I ended up run/walking the “rest”, but was so proud of myself for running my fastest race of the year.

Overall, I thought the race was well organized and the race swag was great.

However, I am extremely disappointed that the race was over a half a mile too long.