the bq gong and the beachfront finish
By PaceKit Team · Updated April 2026
Mountains 2 Beach has one of the best finish lines in American distance running, and it's built around two things: a pier and a gong.
After 25 miles of mountains, orchards, river trails, and city streets, the course makes its final turn and you see the Pacific Ocean. The Ventura beachfront promenade stretches ahead, the Channel Islands visible offshore on a clear day, and the Ventura Pier marks the approach to the finish area. You run along the beach for more than a mile, which is a long time when you're 25 miles deep but also a long time to take in what you've just done. The salt air hits. The sound of the surf replaces the sound of your breathing. And the finish banner appears.
At the finish, there's a gong. If you BQ'd, you get in line and ring it.
The BQ gong has become M2B's signature cultural moment. It's a large, resonant gong, and the sound carries across the finish area. One runner who'd also rung the BQ bell at CIM described the M2B gong as "a much more satisfying exercise." The line can get long on high-BQ-rate years (and with 21 to 28% of finishers qualifying, it does), but nobody seems to mind waiting. You just ran 26.2 miles from a mountain valley to the beach. Standing in line to hit a gong is the easiest thing you've done all day.
The finish area sits at the San Buenaventura State Beach Park, steps from the sand. The post-race festival includes music, a beer garden, food, and the general atmosphere of 1,700 runners who just ran through some of the prettiest scenery in Southern California. Some runners walk straight into the ocean afterward for a cold-water recovery. The Pacific doesn't care about your BQ time. It's 58 degrees regardless.
The reason M2B sells out every year months early is not the net-downhill profile. Lots of courses are fast. It's that the race gives you the speed AND the finish. You start in a mountain valley surrounded by orchards. You end on the beach with a gong in your hand. The miles between those two points are where the time happens. The start and the finish are where the memory lives.