The OC Marathon will be held on its customary first Sunday in May date Sunday for the first time since 2019 after being held on a virtual basis in 2020 and moved to November without a marathon in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s so good that we’re back, said Gary Kutscher, the race director for the SDCCU OC Marathon Running Festival, which also includes a half-marathon to be run Sunday and a 5K and kids’ mile run that were held Saturday. “I think it lets people know we’re getting back to normal.”
The marathon field of 2,200 will include 85 runners from WeRock, We Run Our Community’s Kids.
The return of the event in its entirety in its usual calendar spot, “mentally, it means everything,’ ‘ program founder Andrea Kooiman said.
“To go out there and run with the mass sound of feet pattering on the ground, to hear the cheers on the course, see the funny signs, to have all that back is such a true gift,” Kooiman said. “The feeling of excitement and joy and appreciation is overwhelming.”
The 26-mile, 385-yard marathon course begins in front of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, then goes through Corona del Mar and the Newport Harbor area.
The runners then enter Costa Mesa, pass the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, going around the South Coast Plaza and through Segerstrom High School.
The course continues for one mile in Santa Ana, then turns onto the Santa Ana River Trail for 1.5 miles, exiting at the Gisler foot bridge to run through the Mesa Verde neighborhoods and then the “Bird Streets.”
The race ends at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa.
The race’s 15 charity partners will raise a total of $500,000 through the event, race publicist Dan Cruz told City News Service.
The charity partners include:
— Project Independence, which promotes civil rights for people with developmental disabilities;
— PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, which seeks to end preventable stillbirth;
— Strides in Recovery, a nonprofit organization leading goal-oriented group running and walking programs for people with substance use disorders;
— The OM Foundation, which seeks to build “early learning” centers providing various types of therapies for children with disabilities; and
— Outreach to the World, which supports orphans and widows, the sick and the poor in the rural community of Kiminini, Kenya.