OC marathon report (5/4/2025)

OC marathon report

This is a point-to-point marathon which I don’t like, but I got to sign up this year because I was sick and missed surf city marathon in Feb.

Race day

I woke up around 3:40 am and arrived at start line around 4:40 am.

Parking

It was fine because marathon starts at 5:30 am and only marathoners will arrive that early. Half marathon will start 6:30 am. I dropped off my stuff cuz I will take shuttle back from finish line and I wanted to be on the shuttle with clean clothes. It took me at least 20 minutes to change because all the cramps.

Shuttle service

It was smooth surprisedly. If you prefer this way, you can do that. It’s good for whoever lives closer to start line and have some extra sleep time before the race.

Weather

The weather on race day was perfect, mostly it was cloudly with so drizzling, I would say I never seen this perfect weather in any of my race, but I wasn’t perfect that day. I tried to follow the nutrition plan, but I couldn’t take anymore after 2 GU as always. And at Mile 4, everything was off by plan. Mile 10, I felt I just wanted to stop and go home. Mile 18, I started feeling cramping. And I suffered to the end. It was just not my day.

Other than race information, what I learned was if your original training plan already worked, no need to change a new one. Unless the new one is on top of your original one. I am not an expert to read all this stuff, but my VO2 dropped from 62 to 56 with the new plan, not sure what happened. It might be because I was sick every month . Also with missing longest run, daughter switching to new swim team, having fever for more than 10 days for no reason without going to school, and wife being sick, the taper period made me more stressed.

Anyway, I’m glad it’s over. I insisted to do this marathon because I really wanted to test if the training plan fits me. Lots of doubts during these months are all clear.