People run, not walk to starting line of OC 5K in Costa Mesa

The Orange County Marathon returned this weekend as part of the San Diego County Credit Union Running Festival after a year-long hiatus.

On Saturday, about 2,000 people ran a 3.1-mile long course that began and ended at the OC Fair and Event Center, starting at 4:30 p.m. while music and other festivities such as the OC Lifestyle and Fitness Expo was held on the Costa Mesa fairgrounds.

Runners of all ages at the start of the O.C. 5K Run/Walk at the OC Fair and Event Center on Saturday.

(James Carbone)

It was the 16th annual marathon, though race director Gary Kutscher said that they cut down what would be the traditional 26.2-mile trek due to rescheduling conflicts faced by both Orange County organizers and organizers of Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon.

The O.C. Marathon traditionally is held in May, but Kutscher said safety concerns about COVID-19 forced organizers to push the date back to fall.

It also led to the cancellation of the Kids Run the O.C. race this year after race officials spoke with teachers and local after-school programs this year, though Kutscher said the hope is still to hold it — along with the full running festival — next spring.

The fastest runners take the lead during the 5K event.

(James Carbone)

“It’s incredibly exciting for us to be able to produce events. That’s what we do. I think we put on great fun events. We did do a lot of fun virtual events, but we’re hearing a lot of great words from our runners about getting to be out here,” Kutscher said.

“There’s still some that are uncomfortable with it and deferred to 2022 and or still doing it virtually. In normal years, we don’t offer those type of changes to their registrations without fees. This year, we’re doing it all,” Kutscher said.

“We want to make sure they’re running the race that they’re comfortable running and we hope that it’s out here with us.”

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