Valeriia Saitova's Staging Area

It was my first race, so don’t have a baseline to compare with, but:

1) I didn’t like that same day bib pick up was +$25, so had to go to the city 2 times – on Saturday and Sunday.

2) Swag included only a t-shirt (short sleeve for 5K runners and long sleeve one for half-marathon runners). The shirt is nice.

3) I underestimated my speed (was expecting to run slower because of the hills on the course) and started with 7th or 8th wave that was supposed to run the whole distance in 2h 15 min or so. I was faster than some of the runners in the wave and had to pass them which was a little bit tricky on the golden gate – a lot of slow runners were not moving to the right side of the sidewalk so I had to zigzag all the time. But that’s my own fault so won’t complain too much.

4) The views are well worth running. I wasn’t listening to any music while running – I was just enjoying the views and wasn’t bored at all.

5) There were enough water/aid stations, energy gels were also provided at mile 4 and 8. I usually need some energy boost around mile 6, so I took a gel with me while passing the 4th mile and then ate it when reaching mile 6

Overall I enjoyed the race but looking for more other half marathons to compare with this one.