the ojai loop
By PaceKit Team · Updated April 2026
The most common post-race complaint at Mountains 2 Beach isn't about the weather, the aid stations, or the finish area. It's some version of: "I signed up for a downhill marathon and the first three miles went up."
The marathon starts in downtown Ojai at roughly 700 feet and immediately heads east into the foothills. For the first 2.8 miles, the road climbs through orange groves and rural roads framed by the Topatopa Mountains. The grade is moderate, not savage, but it is a genuine sustained uphill on fresh legs. If you went out at goal marathon pace, you went out too hard, because goal pace on an uphill is a harder effort than goal pace on flat ground.
After the initial climb, the course turns back toward Ojai and descends into town, passing the start area again around mile 6. The loop nets roughly zero elevation: you climb about as much as you descend. But the experience of running it is not "zero." It's rolling, with short climbs and dips that runners describe as "hidden elevation," terrain features that are invisible on most elevation profiles but very present under your feet.
By the time you leave the Ojai loop and head west toward Meiners Oaks at mile 6.5 to 7, you've covered 7 miles of rolling, hilly terrain on a course that was sold to you as downhill. Your pacing spreadsheet is already off. Your watch shows splits that look slow. And the downhill you came for hasn't started yet.
This is the M2B pacing trap, and it catches people every year. The correct approach: run the Ojai loop as a warm-up. Easy effort uphill (miles 1 to 3). Controlled effort downhill and rolling (miles 3 to 6.5). Settle into goal pace only when you leave Ojai heading south. Accept that your opening 7 miles will look slow on paper. They're not slow. They're smart.
Several experienced M2B runners recommend starting with a pace group slightly slower than your goal (e.g., the 3:07 group if you're targeting 3:05) for the first 10K, then gradually moving ahead as the descent begins. This keeps you disciplined through the hills and lets the downhill do the work.