April 30th 2022: The OC Marathon returns tomorrow with a start time of 5:30 am with the start and finish at the OC Fair & Event Center. The full marathon is followed by a half marathon that starts at 6:15 am which still sounds like a long way to me but I’m sure there will be lots of runners for it.
If you are up early on Sunday morning and want to cheer the runners on and are not on the route I would suggest getting there early. Its early on a Sunday morning and traffic is light but with temporary road closures as well as delayed traffic i would avoid the fairgrounds area if you don’t need to be there. I usually take a bus down Fairview but usually during the marathon its diverted to Beach Blvd where they usually stop the traffic to allow runners to cross. This traffic break doesn’t cause huge backups but does cause a little bit of delay.
The cut off time for runners to finish the race is noon for the full marathon and half marathon is noon so expect disruptions until after then. Remember parking at the OC Fair & Event Center is $10.