The Camarillo Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K was held on January 6, 2013. This is the third year this race was ran. Previous years had been criticized over the race course and organization. This years race seemed to have some of those kinks worked out.
The Start: The Marathon started at 7am, the Half Marathon at 7:30. There was a free, and easy to find parking lot right next to the start line. I arrived at 6:30 and stood in a quick 10 minute line for my bib and t-shirt. There were also public restrooms which beat port-a-potties. The announce said they're were 150 participants for the full marathon and close to 300 for the half. The race started on time and without any problems.
The Course: Have you been to the Camarillo/ Oxnard area? It is covered in strawberry fields and other types of agriculture. Yes, the race course is boring. I didn't mind it. I grew up in an agriculture based community so for me it was like a game of trying to guess what kind of plants they were. The race was run along side of the road, so many areas were not closed off and you did have to be careful with traffic. I hate it when races do this :( The course is flat but because of the rain it was also muddy which made me fearful of slipping so that was not fun. The race course was difficult to figure out. I pretty much had to follow the person in front of me. At one point, there was nobody in front of me and I did feel confused as to what direction to take. My suggestion would be to make sure the path is clearly marked. At one point, we needed to turn around but I wasn't sure where to make the turn so I ended up running further than I needed to and added a whole 0.2 of a mile to my time :(
There were not many volunteers and some water stations were self-served. But I want to make sure and thank those who are out there in the chilly weather.
The After Party: After finishing, I got my medal and headed for some water. There was a small booth set up with water, bananas and pretzels. It was small but not congested at all. It was a small race so I guess people got what they needed and moved on. Shortly after, I walked to my car and was back on the freeway in no time.
The race is small and the course is not awesome, it needs a little help with clearly marking the path. Overall it was a decent race, the weather was nice and the volunteers were really nice.
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