FONTANA HALF MARATHON RESULTS AND SCORE -

Here are the Fontana Days Run 2023 5K and Half Marathon Race Results and Recap. If you’ve run this race and are looking up your finish time, I’ve linked it below. It was a little hard to find because the race didn’t receive email or text results and they don’t have a specific race website.

You can find your results and finish line photos here – Results of the 68th Annual Fontana Days Run (Click on the race distance you ran and search from there.)

Now here’s my lil race recap of my Fontana Half Marathon in the form of a LOVE / Don’t Love list.

1. I woke up in the middle of the night the morning of the race with the worst cramps, took the ibuprofen, took the heater and tried to go back to sleep. The pain woke me up again around 3am so I decided to just get up and start getting ready for the race. —> Don’t love (jerks or running a half marathon on your period)

2. The race offers race day packet pickup. So I was able to get my number, shirt, and bag easy before the race. —> LOVE (Race Day Packet Collection and Well Organized Race)

3. Since I was on cycle, I came prepared with a tampon tucked into my new running belt. (I use a cup most of the time, but sometimes I have problems with it. So this is the best option rn.) —> LOVE (small tampons) / Don’t Love (change tampon in porta potty)

4. The race is downhill, so runners must travel by bus to the start area. We had a race rep on the bus with us and he gave a speech at the start of the ride. It’s a small race and seemed well organized overall. —> LOVE (and the downhill race) and LOVE (that they have someone on every bus who can answer runners’ questions. The bus driver’s job is to drive safely and most of the time they don’t have the information about the race. All races need shuttles or buses will do it 🙂

5. The buses drop runners off near the campsite so there are porta potties and some camp toilets. I met a follower queuing for the restroom and we chatted about upcoming races and training. —> LOVE (making new running friends and talking about running)

6. There is no real physical starting line like the ones you see in most races. And there is no race announcer at the start. (I’m assuming this is due to the logistics of a point pointing the way down, to campers, and to reopening the street).

It was a little quiet, without the usual music and a race announcer shouting out last minute directions and reminders at the start. So the energy seemed low considering we were all about to run 13.1 miles and weren’t supposed to be buzzing. —> Don’t love the quiet start line and will volunteer to bring my own microphone and be the race start line announcer next year.

7. There is no service near the starting line, which means you can’t stream music. I forgot about this last year until I tried to start my playlist and…Nada. Luckily I remembered this year and downloaded a good half marathon playlist to my phone. —> LOVE (a good running playlist, especially for half and full marathons)

8. Two miles into the race I started cramping again. I forgot to take more ibuprofen after waking up in the middle of the night and they came back full force. —> Do not love.

9. My Aftershokz headphones during the race it suddenly turned off and I had to pull out my phone to reconnect. This has never happened before?!!

I think it has something to do with my new running belt as there have been a few other weird things like this lately. It is waterproof and lined on the inside with a plastic material that is sticky. I think my phone rubs the plastic and reacts like a finger. Even though it’s on the lock screen, you can still pause or change songs from that screen. I’m not sure why/how the bluetooth would turn off, but that’s the only theory I have rn. —> Don’t love (I have to plug in my headphones mid-race)

10. Overall, the Fontana Half Marathon has a great course and is well organized. I have run this race several times before. Last year I remember feeling good on race day and pushing myself harder than I could this time (even though I’d only run another half marathon 5 days before). It speaks to how much external factors can affect race day.

My finish time was 1:48:49 / average pace of 8:18 min/mile. —> LOVE (even though it wasn’t my best race and I had a rough day – I’m thankful for the day and the experience)