Albert Yang's Staging Area

(This portion pasted from last year’s review.)
There were a number of tunnels and an overpass that you run on in each direction. They were not very steep, though runners who live in a flat city and don’t do any hill training may not like them too much.

The course is mostly paved roads, but there is a section (about 1.5 miles) that is gravel . A good portion of it also goes through parks, so the scenery is often more interesting than watching cars go by.

This is an easy (i.e. flat) race through the Sac State campus (The funny thing is that even though I had done my master’s degree at Sac State, I had never seen this part of the campus before.

(copied from my review of last year’s race.)

The middle 7-ish miles of this race are relatively flat; the first few miles are downhill and the last few miles have their ups and downs (with more climbing than descending.)

The medal and the shirt were nice, but the “beer garden” was simply a can of cheap beer. Also, the bus from Dick’s Sporting Goods to the start line was supposed to leave at 6, but didn’t leave until close to 6:30. In my opinion, they should have said that we had to show up at Dick’s before 6:30, since we still got to the start line about 45 minutes early.

Update for 2019: The beer was better this year. it was still canned beer, but it was an IPA. I still think the bus coiuld have left later.

This race starts just outside Oracle Park, and continues near the ocean until you reach Crissy Field, where you have a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then you head back to Oracle Park, getting a nice view of the Bay Bridge. The race ends inside Oracle Park.

This race advertises itself as the flattest race in San Francisco, and I believe it. I didn’t think that the hills (mile 4 and 9) were bad at all (and I hate hills.)

There were lots of volunteers manning the aid stations (and they had plenty of drinks even for the slower runners).

This race is not that difficult. The most difficult “hill” is the overpass.

Even though I was really slow (because I cramped up at mile 4 and did a lot of walking), I did not have problems with the aid stations (like some of the other reviewers reported.

i think there should have been more volunteers, as it was difficult at some points to figure out which way to go.

This race has so many participants (about 20,000) that they have multiple corrals, each with several waves. This worked out very well. The race is very flat, and unfortunately, the scenery is not very interesting except for the one lap (2.5 miles) around the Indianopolis Motor Speedway.

There were lots of volunteers (standing in the rain) cheering us on, and handing out water and electrolytes and the many aid stations.

The swag included a medal (which had a map of the course on the back), a long sleeve tech shirt and a tech hat. Very nice!

If I lived within driving distance, I would definitely run this every year; even though I live in California, I plan on running it again someday (and hopefully it won’t rain!)

The course is a fairly flat course, which goes about halfway over the Tower Bridge (before making a U-turn), a short selection along the Sacramento River, and ends on the warning track of Raley Field.

If you start near the back, beware of all the walkers.On other races I have run, the congestion clears up before mile 1, but I was not able to get free of the pack until about mile 2.5.

The t-shirt and medal were pretty cool, and they provided lots of post-race snacks/

The race starts just outside Raley Field, goes over the Tower Bridge(twice), and a long stretch south along the Sacramento River, ending near William Land Park before heading back north through the city and ending up inside Raley Field.(The course is very similar to that of the Urban Cow Half, except in the reverse order.)

I gave the course a difficulty of 3. If you practice on hills, it would be a 2 (or possibly a 1.) Going through old Sacramento, part of the road is cobblestone, which was a little annoying (but fortunately it was less than half a mile.)

I really liked the shirt and the medal. However, it wasn’t clear where you were supposed to go to pick up your free burrito and the race goodies (a bag of Doritos and a bag of Blue Diamond almonds.) I also appreciated the free beer; I suppose a higher quality beer than Budweiser would be too much to ask for 🙂

There is no onsite parking, so you have to park offsite and take a shuttle in. (Ton’t know if this was an issue in previous years, but they shuttle you in using school busses, but the returning shuttles are private cars, so I missed all the shuttles going back to the offsite parking.)

It was perfect weather — about 45 degrees and sunny, so there were no muddy trails. The trails were generally easy even for people who don’t hike or do trail running, except for one rocky steep downhill section near the end.

I thought the hills were pretty challenging, but that is because I live in a very flat city and have not done any hill training. I don’t think the hills are that difficult if you have done hill training.

The scenery was pretty nice, and the aid stations were well stocked with water, electrolytes, and snacks.

The only complaint I have is that the forks (where half marathoners go one direction and 5K or 10K runners in another) weren’t as clearly marked as they could have been. I would have liked to have seen bigger signs at the forks; I ended up running an extra 0.71 miles because I took the wrong fork and had to double back. (I do realize that it is my responsibility to know the course, and I should have paid closer attention to the course map.)

The medal was alright, but the tech shirt was fantastic.

(This was my first marathon, so I can’t compare it with other marathons.)

It was rather cold (high 30s), so if you tend to be cold, you really need a throwaway sweatshirt at the start.

The course starts downhill, and then there are multiple rolling hills, none of which are too bad in itself, but the sheer number of them was annoying. (Note: I live in a very flat city, so I don’t get a chance to do any hill training.) The course is fairly flat after about mile 22.

There were plenty of aid stations offering water and Nuun, and a good number offering bananas, oranges. and Clif bars.

The medal is really nice and qualifies as “heavy metal”; it is the heaviest medal I have. My only complaint is that many of the volunteers had their hands inside of the cups that they were offering.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I will definitely run it again.

The first 13.1 miles is the same course as the American River Parkway Half Marathon. It is not quite as flat as I remember from reviewing the American River Parkway Half Marathon, but it wasn’t too bad even for me (I live in a very flat city, so I never do hills.) The scenery was pretty nice.

At the 13.1 mile mark, the half marathoners go through their finish line, while the 20 milers keep on going.

There was a little bit more climbing on the last 6.9 miles, but it wasn’t too bad either. The scenery wasn’t as good as on the first 13.1 miles.

The weather was nice — it started in the low 50s. For slow runners like me, it was fairly hot at the end.

This was my first trail run ever. I was coming off a 6-week layoff, so I decided to take it easy. The first 2+ miles were mostly on paved surfaces and was fairly flat. There was a large hill during the 3rd mile that killed me (disclaimer: I live in a very flat city and never do any hill training); also, since I never do any hiking, I was very cautious going downhill (though I think experienced people could easily run it.)

I was pleased by the selection of food after the race.

The course is very flat. The course starts at William Land Park and goes northwards until you get to Sacramento just east of the Tower Bridge, and then you head back to William Land Park through Old Sacramento and along the Sacramento River. (I got to really enjoy the river view while doing a lot of walking because I was unable to do much training for the previous 6 weeks.)

The swag was fantastic — an Urban Cow pint glass, a cowbell medal, and the usual tech t-shirt.

This course is fairly flat, and the climbing involved is not very steep. It is mostly on paved roads, with something like 1/2 a mile on a dirt path.

The tech shirt was a nice design, the personalized medal was awesome, and the post-race snacks were delicious.

This was my first race, so I just tried to enjoy it (though I did pick up the pace during the last mile.)

It was not difficult at all — the only climbing involved was one overpass. Part of the course went through a greenbelt area, so there were some trees, which definitely beats looking at cars.