Oc Fair 5k Fun Run

Like fried food? Hate lines? Pygmy goats your thang? Don’t go to the Oc fair at night, do this run instead.
Oh wait, did I say run? I meant to say pay 30 bucks to get inside the fair before its open, thus allowing you to take pics without the crowd. Oh the goats are along the way? Cool. Wait, you can go inside and pet them? Way cool. Wait, if you detour the right way, you can pass by the place where they keep giant stuffed animals? Oh and you get a free ticket to go again the following week? And a free t shirt? And free snacks and drinks?
Say whattttt!!!
What. Are you doing by going to the Oc fair at night. Screw that. It’s crowded, parking sucks and the lights aren’t even that cool.
Come here for the fun run. Stay inside the park after you’re done. Sell your free ticket or give it to a friend. You don’t need it. You get to eat and ride everything with no crowds. Plus you can pretend you ran 5 kilometers (hah) the run is a week before the week closes fyi

Fun run. Absolutely worth it. I would do it again next year. We stayed in the park after we finished the run and enjoyed the quietness in the fair before the public rushed in. I definitely recommend this way to enjoy the fair. Plus free and easy parking in the morning. Since when do you get free and easy parking at the OC fairground?
The course itself was easy to complete. I ran and walked most of my way. The cloudy weather was nice for running. Over 2500 runners this year. Tons of drinks and snacks past the finish line for you to rehydrate and fuel up. The –1 star was because I completed the run first and then went back to the detours. All detours except the slide were closed when I went back after the run. I wish all the detours would remained opened until the run ends. The medal is so cute tho!

The medal is so cute! This race is pretty small and probably doesn’t have more than a thousand people total. It got pretty congested in the actual fair. I feel like it would have been so much better if they turned on the lights inside of the fair. Instead it looked like a sad run down fair. At one point, the line for games and the actual course intersected and runners could not get by. It’s a great concept, but it was pretty unorganized and I got a little frustrated. I might give it another go next year tho. ;)

Fun Run it was!
The course itself was pretty cool. It took you throughout the fairgrounds, even through the stinky horse area. They also had some fun detours where you could take a break from the run and play some carnival games and go down the big slide. Pretty cool.
Plenty of volunteers, which is always nice. Only one water stop though. Especially with today being as terribly muggy as it was, and extra water stop would’ve been appreciated. There were plenty of bathrooms that were open along the way.
Parking was free for all those who ran (normally $ 10). Registration included a free ticket to the fair, which we just decided to stick around for after the race. You also received a shirt and a medal!
The most annoying thing about this race was the people who decided they didn’t want to listen to instructions. Yeah, I’m talking about the stroller moms and dads who didn’t want to start at the end of the pack and instead ran into ankles and took up a ton of space. Or the parents with little kids who pushed them too hard right out of the gate and were falling all over the place because of all the early congestion.

So far this is the best 5k that I have done. It’s truly a «fun run» and I’m not quite sure why they even time it. There are detours along the way so you can play carnival games and win a prize and go down the giant slide. All this is free. Parking is also free, as well as fair admission after the race so I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth out of this race.
Registration was very simple. All the lines went super fast. I just wish they labeled the restrooms better because there was an insane line at the closest one about 15 minutes before it started. But there were several other restrooms open, but no one knew about them.
The course itself is not so interesting. You just go around the parking lot, the inside of the fair, through the theater, and back out again. It is also very confusing to navigate if you get lost from the crowd because there are just volunteers pointing which direction you need to go. It gets complicated once people start going through the detours since some people are still running the main course, while some people are just finishing a detour and trying to find their way back to the course.
Next time, I will probably just finish the whole 5k and then go back and do the detours. The lines get pretty long and I was curious to see what my time would’ve been if I hadn’t stopped. By the time we finished, all the freebies at the end were almost gone :(

What a quick lil fun run! I was pleasantly surprised how fun this race is.
This is a great starter race with plenty of distractions. The volunteers at the detours made them easy to spot. I did the break a plate carnival game and slid down the big slide. I didn’t care how it would screw up my final time. Running with a small stuffed animal was a bit of a pain but a great souvenir I can give away.
One of the volunteers wasn’t patrolling her station so a bunch of people cut through the course to get on the big slide. Boo.
I only saw one water stop. Meh.
Lots of walkers and baby strollers. I wish all races were like Disney races since everyone walking knows they should stay on the sides and not hoard the middle of the path. It got annoying for those of trying to run. Hmph.
Cute shirt and medal! Yay!
Real toilets! Hurray!
Free parking and a free ticket to come back another day makes this an affordable 5k.

A nice local 5K. A great high quality medal for finishing, a great post race food and health fair, and plenty of parking.

It’s timed, but why bother? This is the OC Fair «Fun Run». Have fun! There were 4 «fun detours» to take advantage of as you make your way around the OC Fairgrounds. Unfortunately, the workers didn’t make the detours overly obvious, so I missed one completely, and it seemed most people missed the 3 that I actually had the opportunity to do:
— Ride the Euro Slide.
— Try to break plate (s) with a baseball (you can win a prize if you do).
— Have your photo taken holding a guitar on the Pacific Amphitheater stage.
Race fee includes:
— General admission ticket good any day of the fair.*
— T-​Shirt.
— Large medal.
— Free parking.
— You technically can just hang out after the race and spend the rest of the afternoon at the OC Fair.
*WARNING: The fair ticket (one of the biggest perks) comes in the goodie (coupons, promos, etc) packet that you pick up on race day after you run. My packet did NOT have a ticket in the bag and I didn’t realize until I left. I contacted the OC Marathon people who put this together, and at their convenience, scheduled a time to pick up my ticket. I drove to their office, and they flaked! No one answered the door. I contacted them about flaking and they never responded! Although the race was fun, this really left a sour taste in my mouth about anything OC Marathon related for the future.
If you run this race, keep your eyes peeled for the fun detours, and make sure to check your packet for the ticket!

Definitely one of the better run Fun Runs I’ve been to.
Registration is pretty simple and you get to see inside most of the fairgrounds with your fellow runners. There are various fun stops along the way. You can go throw darts at balloons, sink a basketball, take a picture of you holding a guitar on the amphitheater stage, or slide down the the big slide. The carnival games have the added bonus of giving stuffed animals to winners.
After the run, there were also plenty of sponsors and vendors handing out samples and selling food.
You get a free ticket to the OC Fair on the day of your choosing. To be fair, there was only about a week left in the fair. You can just wash up and join the fun later on the same day.
Finished in about 40 minutes even with the stops to take photos and play the carnival games!

This race will get the most out of your $ 25. Most 5k’s don’t even give out medals at the end, but this one does. And you get a semi-​decent shirt plus an entrance to the OC fair as well.
Oh, and you get free parking too. You can pretty much stay after the race and stick around for the fair itself and not pay for the usual $ 7 for parking.
And as for the expo, well, not much, maybe a dozen or so vendors, but with a lot of freebies such as 5 hr energy drinks and FRS, you can get so many samples that you essentially get back your $ 25 investment.
So what a great way to get some exercise before you gorge yourself into the endless onslaught of fried twinkies, funnel cakes or fried butter that can only be found at the OC fair.
Note to self: 21:19 in 2012.

Very fun I ran the whole way in 40 min