The Clif Bar Mountains 2 Beach Marathon and Half Marathon took place this past Sunday, May 26th, on Memorial Day wekeend. The course begins near Nordhoff High School in Ojai with a 10k road loop followed by over 10 miles of downhill, paved bike path before beginning a road and bike path loop near the Ventura Oceanfront. There is a net downhill of over 700 feet over the course.

We saw some of the final finisher coming through back up the bike path from Marina Park to Surfers Point underneath the pier.This I believe was the 3rd year of the event (previously called the Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon) and it has fast become very popular , selling out registrations for both the full and half marathon. I think it is safe to say that this is the fastest marathon course located solely in Ventura County. There 1,258 finishers this year and the top 3 finishers were:

• 41 year old Ricardo Ramirez of Sun Valley in 2:31:23
• 22 year old John Svet of Brea in 2:31:57
• 52 year old Matt Ebiner of Covina in 2:32:55 (Run at age 52 and just 6 weeks after running the Boston Marathon 2 seconds faster! In fact Matt is something else...according to his El Camino College website, he is currently ranked #1 in the WORLD for age 50+ marathoners and ran the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials Marathons. Wow Matt, let's get you transfered out to a local Ventura County college!)

The top female finishers in the race were:

• 33 year old Jenni Johnson of Tustin in 2:51:34 (16th place overall)
• 20 year old Paige Burgin of Los Alamitos in 2:53:20 (23rd overall)
• 29 year old Jill Himlan of Santa Barbara in 2:55:25 (32nd overall)

A total of 54 runners, or 4.3% of the total, ran under 3 hours at Mountains 2 Beach. That compares to less than 1% of runners at the Los Angeles Marathon, 2.2% of runners at 2012 Santa Barbara Marathon and 1.1% of the runners at last year's Rock 'n Roll Marathon in San Diego as a comparison.

The fastest marathoners based in Ventura County were:

• 38 year old John Kitt of Ventura in 2:52 (18th overall)
• 28 year old Jose Lastre of Camarillo in 2:55 (30th overall)
• 40 year old James Casper of Newbury Park in 2:55 (33rd overall)
• 37 year old Joseph Jauregui of Newbury Park in 2:59 (51st overall)
• 28 year old Melissa Hernandez of Oxnard in 2:59 (54th overall, 6th female)

Congratulations! Learn more about this race at www.mountains2beachmarathon.com.