Joyce Lam's Staging Area

Overall this was a marathon that really caters to the half and probably local marathoners who can appreciate the highways being closed for runners.
Pre-race: The only pre-race email I got was my bib number and there wasn’t a runner’s guide on the website. It would have been good to know more about the corral start times because there were 26 corrals, meaning you were in for a very long wait if you arrived before 6.15am and were in one of the later corrals. The expo was well-run with bib and shirt pick-up easy, but there were not many non-Rock n Roll vendors.
Race start: I didn’t need to use a port-a-potty but the lines were crazy from what I saw. The corrals were too small to hold everyone so each time they sent off a corral, everyone in the later corrals moved up while people waiting for their corral tried to squeeze in through the entry gates. I was just outside the gate at corral 9 and didn’t make it to the start line until corral 12 or 13. They also announced that all marathon runners had to start by corral 15. Tip: once you’re in, squeeze over to the left side of the corral to make room for everyone pouring into the corrals from the right.
Race: The first half was great – lots of spectators, all kinds of performers, music, and great energy. There were a lot of spectators offering shots and a real party vibe (“PBRs for PRs!”). The course had some ups and downs and helpful things like course signs saying “rough road ahead”. After the course split, it was a totally different experience – there were enough runners that it was definitely not deserted but there were few spectators and just a whole lot of highway. At the halfway point, the course had a short downhill then quickly funneled runners from road onto a narrow path – there wasn’t any advance warning signage and even the pacer I was near didn’t know that this was coming so there was a lot of jostling. After the path came the highway. The sun also came out around that time and fortunately there was a bit of a breeze. I had to stop at a medic tent for ibuprofen and ice just before the highway to hill (shoutout to the helpful medics). There were I think two music stations going up the hill and a water stop so it wasn’t utterly lonely, but the worst part was actually the camber of the road, rather than the gradient – it was aggressively banked. At the top of the hill there was a big sign saying “i conquered the hill” and a line of people waiting to film themselves ringing a bell. After that is a rather nice downhill (albeit cambered) into the city to the finish line.
Post-race: You get your medal and the usual snacks (banana, cheez-its, muesli bar, fruit gummies, water) and have to keep walking to the exit points. Overall, it’s definitely catered to the half runners and I can imagine that local runners could enjoy closed highways for the full.

This was a really fun race lot of community spirit but the real reason I signed up for this race though is for the awesome shirt design with the zodiac sign on it, so it was a horse this year. I paid extra for the long sleeve tech shirt which was totally worth it. The start line had lion dancers, drummers, a labubu mascot, and some very loud firecrackers which was quite alarming even though they did warn everyone. The 10k was two laps of a gentle uphill, then a big downhill, then flat along embarcadero, before a steep uphill for the second lap. The streets were partially closed with occasional stoppages for traffic, and the streets were wide enough that on the second lap it was ok even with the 5k walkers. The volunteers were fantastic and it was overall a really fun event.

Super flat and a two loop course with perfect overcast, cool weather. The big issue was that the course was definitely long – the course that we ran did not match the course map posted on the website with three differences that likely contributed to it being long. The results page has a comments feature with many runners confirming that their watches measured it as long. Hopefully this was just a one-off due to the course being different this year.
The positives:
* Lots of parking at the start/finish area
* Fun stuff to see including goats at the nursery, a seal lion, aircraft carrier, and general waterfront
* Packet pick-up on race morning was easy
* Post-race beers were very popular
* There was a dedicated person to warn people of a step up from the road and onto a path
Other things to know:
* There were a couple of patches of sand and gravel. Not sure if this will exist on the full round-island course
* The distances had turns/turnarounds at different spots which caused a bit of confusion, likely because it didn’t make sense with the distances being captured by GPS watches

It feels like a race that has grown too big for what they can accommodate on the current course and with the organization in place.
Packet pickup: Lines were very long – I waited about 45 minutes in the middle of the day on Saturday. A guy was handing out free beers to people in line. I was surprised to see that there were lots of actual pickup stations with only one or two letters per person and not many people lining up for each. The issue seemed to be that bibs weren’t in order so it took the volunteers (all doing their best) a long time to find each bib and there were a lot of people who didn’t have bibs, so the longest line was for the bib reprinting. The race director did announce at the race start that they would switch to dynamic bib assignment next year. The race shirt had the cute dog logo on the back. There was a bar and maybe some vendors but I just got out of there as soon as I could.
Race start: I got dropped off near the Palace of Fine Arts so it was just an easy trot to the start. Lots of portapotties so there were minimal lines.
Course: The half marathon did an initial loop on the flat and then loops back to the start. However, the 10k started 30 minutes after the half so we suddenly were absorbed into the huge mass of 10k runners. It was massively crowded after having just found some good space in the initial loop. There were also some runners going in a different direction so I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to be running with the 10k crowd or following the others (turns out they were possibly late half marathon starters). We went up a hill and then the 10k split off towards the bridge. After some more hills and beautiful scenery (trees, coastline, all things wonderful about the Presidio), we went to the bridge and ran into the 10k runners. It was rough – the sidewalk is too narrow to have people running at such different paces and it was impossible to find a good rhythm having to constantly dodge people. The bridge was closed to non-race participants, enforced with excessive force. I saw a runner turning towards the bridge (i.e., he hadn’t been following the course and wouldn’t have seen what was going on cause he had taken a sharp turn) and a security guard/cop bodyslammed the runner into the fence to stop him from getting onto the bridge. At the north end of the bridge, we had to go through an underpass which slowed to just inching through. My Garmin shows about 2 minutes of nothing. Once on the other side, it was again so crowded and impossible to get into a steady pace. There was one more course split near the finish that had no direction or signage; people around me were asking which way we should go and we just assumed the half kept going straight.
Aid stations: There were a good number of them but I missed some because they were very short given the number of people fighting to get to them and really quiet. There was water and very watered down powerade.
Finish: There was a flag to the side saying “finish” that was kind of hard to see. After crossing the finish line, we walked around to get medals (everyone got the same medal that says half marathon, regardless of distance). Water was past the medals and past the food tent, and back along the course – there appeared to be a pancake tent, a table with boxes of bananas, and I saw some people also with fruit salad and oranges.

Almost all of these issues could have been avoided by not making the half and 10k collide; I hope they pick one and just make it a great race for that distance. Or start the half at 7am. It’s such a spectacular place to run and could be so much more.

Packet pickup: There was an outdoor expo with some fun giveaways, including tiny Bondi Sands sunscreen which are perfect for packing for weekend trips. Some people had their names printed on bibs but I didn’t even though I signed up very early.
Race start: There were way too few portapotties for the marathon let alone with the other distances starting around the same time. We were lucky with the weather – it was cool and overcast while the next day was blisteringly hot. There was some roadwork going on so the course narrowed to a walk early on. The course was flat but so boring. I didn’t find it scenic – we ran through some parks, along some water, and through some other park area. There was zero city atmosphere with maybe one course marker playing music over a speaker and a taiko drummer spot and the spectators who were out were only cheering for people they knew so it was eerily quiet for most of the course. The one spot with some atmosphere was just before entering the stadium for the finish where there was a good amount of people cheering.
Aid stations: Perfectly fine and they had maurten gels.
Finish: The stadium finish was fun. After crossing the finish line, you get your medal and then head down to the bag check. They also gave out the finisher shirts there of which there had been no details prior to the race. One great thing was that they provided changing areas! Great idea that more races should use. There was some food outside but I think it was mostly stuff you had to pay for.