Ventura Half Marathon Race Review & Recap

Hello everyone!

I ran the Ventura Half Marathon this past Sunday.

As with all of the races that I have done this year, I love to share my review of each event.

So, let’s do this!

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 (top left) and the bib (bottom left) was one of the coolest I have seen.

The race medals (bottom right) 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 picking up by bib at the expo, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting for my race the following day.

I stayed at the Embassy Suites, Mandalay Beach, which was a treat!

The hotel is right on the beach!

Before I went to sleep, I laid out my race outfit…

and prayed for a good nights sleep.

As per usual, I slept like crap.

Typical.

I woke up bright and early at 4 AM and quickly got caffeinated.

After a few dozen cups of coffee, a bonk breaker, a banana and a protein shake…

I was ready to rock!

I felt great going into the race and was hoping to finish in at least 2 hours and 15 minutes.

As you can see, I had my 2:15 PaceBand on as a reminder of my goal.

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.

Anyway, my legs felt great and I wasn’t very tired.

All of my hill training and speed work were really paying off!

I decided that I was going to ignore the mile markers and run my own race.

I was able to sprint to the “finish”!

Another reinforcement that alllllllll of my hard work is paying off.

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

Chip time: 2:20 something
Adjusted time (according to the Ventura Marathon): 2:13.34
Ashley’s watch time: 2:13.56

The time I am going with: 2:13.34

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.

After my horrendous experience running the Shoreline Half Marathon and now this- I doubt I run this race again, or any other race in Ventura for that matter.

-RatherBeRunnin’

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