The San Francisco Marathon prides itself on its unique nature; like the city itself the race is more individual, the course more challenging, the terrain more beautiful – an event Bart Yasso, former Chief Running Officer of Runner’s World, referred to as “challenging and beautiful…one of the country’s best big …
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The San Francisco Marathon prides itself on its unique nature; like the city itself the race is more individual, the course more challenging, the terrain more beautiful – an event Bart Yasso, former Chief Running Officer of Runner’s World, referred to as “challenging and beautiful…one of the country’s best big city marathons.” The San Francisco Marathon proudly hosts over 25,000 runners and rewards their efforts with unparalleled breathtaking views and a unique course that they will never forget.
Full (26.2 miles)
Take yourself on a running tour of San Francisco, and complete our challenging yet rewarding course. Whether you’re taking on your first marathon or your 50th, your unforgettable journey will take you from the waterfront, across the Golden Gate Bridge, past iconic landmarks including AT&T Park and through historic neighborhoods.
1st Half (13.1 miles)
Picture yourself racing as the California sun breaks through San Francisco’s iconic maritime fog. Bursting from the Embarcadero’s waterfront start line at the break of dawn. Racing up to the Golden Gate Bridge, through towering eucalyptus and redwood trees in Golden Gate Park where you’ll cross the 1st Half Finish Line. Then join your fellow runners at the Main Finish Line Festival.
2nd Half (13.1 miles)
With a start beneath the towering redwoods in Golden Gate Park and a prized finish at Cupid’s Arrow along the Embarcadero, The San Francisco Marathon’s 2nd Half Marathon course winds through city streets, offering a locals’ only tour of the city’s treasured vistas. Racing beside the Conservatory of Flowers, through the Haight-Ashbury and Mission neighborhoods, beside AT&T Park, under the Bay Bridge and more, each runner’s journey unfolds against an unforgettable sense of place. Join the Full Marathoners as you take on 13.1 miles, the 2nd Half of our Full Marathon course.
The 2nd Half Marathon is popular with runners looking to set a PR. Due to its low elevation profile and a gradual finishing descent toward the Embarcadero, many runners return to this course year after year to test their limits and reach new heights.
5K (3.1 miles)
The San Francisco Marathon’s stunning 5K course offers runners the opportunity to conquer an energetic race alongside a range of participants, from experienced athletes to stroller runners. The 5K runs through miles of waterfront that draw millions of visitors each year. Take in views of the Bay, the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, Coit Tower, and much more. Runners enjoy San Francisco’s iconic backdrop while earning a spot at the finish line festival in front of the Ferry Building. The 5K Race invites runners of all levels to experience our fast, flat course and participate in the finish line celebration.
Ultra Marathon
Challenge yourself to take on the incredible feat of running two marathons, back-to-back, to benefit your favorite charity. Starting at midnight, run the full marathon course in reverse, with a brief run detour along the Great Highway, before joining other runners to complete the Official Full Marathon course. Run solo or as part of a 2-person or 4-person team.
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First Marathon with a Double Hernia
This summer I found myself back in San Francisco for what was my third time running the marathon here. And let me just say—it never disappoints. If you’ve ever wanted … MORE
This summer I found myself back in San Francisco for what was my third time running the marathon here. And let me just say—it never disappoints. If you’ve ever wanted to lace up for a race that’s equal parts gorgeous and grueling, this is it. The course winds through the city, across the Golden Gate, and along views that make you forget (at least for a mile or two) how many more miles you have left.
But this year came with a twist. I showed up with a double hernia. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could run a single mile, let alone 26.2. Yet somehow, between the perfect Bay Area weather, the jaw-dropping scenery, and the thousands of encouraging strangers cheering me along, I found myself moving forward mile by mile.
It wasn’t my fastest marathon by a long shot—but praise God, it wasn’t my slowest either. Every step was a reminder of grace and grit, and finishing felt like a small miracle. Since then, I’ve had the hernia surgery, so next time San Francisco rolls around, I’ll be back stronger and healthier.
If you’re looking for a race that will leave you feeling inspired, uplifted, and maybe a little sore, this is the one. San Francisco Marathon—thank you for reminding me why I keep running.
Iconic Bridge Run
Obviously the appeal is saying I ran across the Golden Gate Bridge. Race was well organized, lots of communication leading up to the race. Expo was easy for packet pickup. … MORE
Obviously the appeal is saying I ran across the Golden Gate Bridge. Race was well organized, lots of communication leading up to the race. Expo was easy for packet pickup. Nice early start for the full and first half so you still have lots of Sunday left to explore or travel back home. Although, I recommend spending time in the city, or book a book tour in advance and do that if you have not spent time in San Francisco.
The course was a good challenge pretty flat or decent until you make the climb to get on the bridge. I think that was mile 4 or 5?? Then cross the bridge. Big downhill, then a little flat or slide downhill. Then big uphill maybe after mile 9 around 10? Then cross the bridge and maybe a very slight incline just before the finish. Beautiful course! My weather was cloudy and a little mist. Seems common for the Bay Area morning though.
After getting few snacks, there is a free shuttle bus back to the start. I didn’t have more than 5-10 minutes of a wait and I finished then went straight to the line around the 2 hour mark. The bus ride was about 20-30 minutes though, so be sure you plan for that time. If you did drop a bag when you get off the shuttle, that line also took about 15 minutes or so to pick up and then if you need a shirt exchange, add another 5 minutes. Just be aware if making post race plans for these little time additions for a bigger race.
Overall, great race, great pace team for the 2 hour group this year. Side note after the bridge they have two signs for marathon miles and half marathon miles. So at 8.5 it says 9, but it was blue for the marathon marker. Then at 9 ours popped up but it was orange. Took me half a mile or so to figure that out, as well as those around me because it was subtle coloring if not knowing about it.
I definitely recommend this race. Nice shirt, nice medal. I felt the women’s fit was tight personally, so I exchanged for men’s/unisex and that was normal sizing for me.
Again, great fun race for the first half bridge section. Stay close to the start it makes it easy to just walk there. I had a good place at club headquarters hotel in the financial district and felt safe walking to and from in the morning solo.
Awesome tour of SF
Oh the views, oh the hills.... This race starts early in the misty SF weather. The first 6 or so miles are pretty flat, and then come the hills until … MORE
Oh the views, oh the hills…. This race starts early in the misty SF weather. The first 6 or so miles are pretty flat, and then come the hills until you hit about mile 19. Getting to cross the Golden Gate Bridge is iconic and the views are amazing. Once your back across and heading to Golden Gate Park there are a good amount of spectators to keep you motivated. One thing to watch out for is the hill down from Haight Street is steep. That one beat me up a bit. But I survived another go at the SF Marathon and I’m already signed up for next year. Hope to see you there.
A Tale of Two Halves
I chose to do the San Francisco Half Marathon even though it is a far trek for a weekend because I was sick of doing small, hot and humid half … MORE
I chose to do the San Francisco Half Marathon even though it is a far trek for a weekend because I was sick of doing small, hot and humid half marathons which are the only summer offerings in the Northeast and wanted to do a big city half marathon in cool weather. When I was looking a half marathon options this weekend I saw San Francisco and decided that as long as flights and hotels were reasonable that I would do it. Flights and hotels were very reasonable priced and I signed up. One big negative about the race is it is really expensive to register for. The Half is around $200 and the half + 5K combo + shipping packet was about $300 total. I completely understand that San Francisco is an expensive city to hold a race in. However given the high price tag I am going to hold this race to a higher standard than let’s say the free race I did in Connecticut the following weekend. I wouldn’t mind the expensive price tag if the race had flawless production and while this year there were no huge production mistakes (such as a short course like in 2024) there were a lot of little things that made me drag the rating down to 4 sneakers especially given the price despite the fact that I had an excellent time during the race. For the race there are 2 options for the half marathon. The first half is more popular and you run on the bridge but it has a stated 3 hour time limit and starts earlier. The second half has a 3.5 hour time limit and starts later. I didn’t want to stress about time limits and also went to a concert Saturday night so wanted to start later so I chose the second half. The race is not strict about the time limits though so I’m sure I would have had no issues getting a finishing time for the first half even if I was having a bad race but I didn’t want to have to worry. Pre race communication was okay. There was a lot of communication. It wasn’t always accurate. More of the issues affected the 5K so I’ll put more details there. For the weekend I flew in Friday evening and stayed at the Intercontinental in downtown SF. This was convenient for the half marathon as it was a bit under a mile from the shuttle and finish line so you could walk but it was far enough way to not have traffic around the hotel affected by the race. I had my packet mailed so I did not go to the expo. The packet arrived in the mail a few weeks before the race. Race morning was smooth. For the second half there are shuttles to the start. I walked to the shuttle with plans to arrive for the first shuttles and got on right away and arrived to the start area about an hour before the race. The porta potty area is a bit far from the start but there were a good number of porta potties. I feel like there could always be more but I didn’t feel like I had to wait too long for the size of the race. For the race you are assigned one of 3 corrals and then self seed into waves. I was in the last corral. There were pacers so I stood between the 2:45 and 3:00 pacer since that’s what I thought my finishing time would be. I thought it was well organized but there seemed to be a lot of newbie runners confused by this and didn’t know where to go. Some people also seemed to be assigned the wrong corral. Race started very promptly and we crossed the start line pretty much on the dot from what the pre race instructions said which is impressive for a big race. The first half of the race is through Golden Gate Park. Not only are there two half options for the race. There were also two very distinct halfs for the second half marathon with miles 1-6.55 being very different from miles 6.55-13.1 and hence my review title. The Golden Gate park half feels quite similar to running in Central Park though there was not as much congestion from non-race participants. It is scenic though more quiet, park scenery with lots of trees than exciting city scenery. You do pass some museums and landmarks. Golden Gate Park is also even hillier than Central Park and the first half of the race is hilly and net up hill. While this is a hilly course, the hills are set up quite well and it is a fast course for having 500-600 feet of elevation gain. Of course it is not as fast of a course as a race with significantly less elevation gain. The section through Golden Gate Park was well marked and had mile markers. There was not as much spectator support in this section though there was some. There were two issues with production in this section. The first was I feel like the first 2 miles had a lot of fast runners trying to catch up and some were quite rude and pushed passed us. Not sure if they got stuck in the bathroom or stood in the wrong corral. The other was there were only 2 aid stations in this section. I didn’t feel that was quite enough. The worst part was the second aid station in this section ran out of water which is frustrating especially for an expensive race. Luckily I had a handheld water bottle and the rest of the aid stations had plenty of water. The second half of the second half marathon is through the city and is a very different vibe and is also mostly downhill. You go out of Golden Gate Park into Haight Ashbury (the Grateful dead neighborhood) which is really fun and cool to run through. There are a lot of spectators and things to look at here. The next section is a little less exciting through some more boring streets but its still fun to run in a city. The end is cool past the basketball arena and baseball stadium and ends at the embarcadero. I really liked how the elevation profile was set up. After the hills in Golden Gate Park it is mostly downhill with a big, steep downhill around mile 8 when I usually lose steam which helped keep me going. There are a few uphills in the second half but all were small. The last mile is very flat and good for the finish. So even though it is hilly, it is really not too bad. It’s not a good PR course but you could have a good finishing time with the right strategy. In terms of production for the second half, some things were better and some things were worse. It was all well marked and on closed roads. The aid stations were better and more frequent and never ran out of water or electrolytes but there were some missing mile markers. Also I didn’t see any nutrition on course. The course was also not short this year. I felt like it may have been a bit long but there are a lot of turns so I may have had bad tangents. I was very happy to finish such as hilly course under 3 hours but the weather was beautiful, there was good energy from the crowd and as I said the course is designed so the hills are in the right places. At the finish you get your medal which is nice and has the bridge and a little seagull that moves. There were water and basic snacks at the finish which I appreciated as I did not have time to go to the festival. I like this set up as some races I’ve seen you have to go to the festival for any snacks. It was also clear where to get my shirt and challenge medal for also doing the 5K since I did bib mailing. This seems to have been an improvement from what I can tell from other reviews. The shirt is a nice, long sleeved tech shirt but it’s white which is not my favorite color and is very similar to the 5K shirt. The challenge medal is nice but not you absolutely need to do the 5K to get this nice. I had to catch a flight in a couple hours so I didn’t get to go to the finish festival and just walked back to my hotel to get an uber to the airport. It was very easy to navigate leaving the race area. Overall I thought this was a fun, big city race and it was so nice to be able to run in perfect, cool weather in the summer. However there were some minor production issues and the price is very expensive. If you are a 50 stater who really wants to do a half in SF or wants a big city summer option and doesn’t mind paying a bigger price tag to run in SF I’d recommend this race. However if you are open to running anywhere in California, I’d have a hard time recommending this over the many wonderful options in Southern California (Beach City Half’s, Rose Bowl Half, RnR San Diego) that are equally good and cost about half the price. Even though the price was expensive, I might come back and try the first half next year if I have the weekend off and flights and hotels are fairly priced as it was so nice to get out of the heat and I love visiting SF.
Great Race - Great Views
This is a great race. Well organized and well communicated. The race starts early, which is great for weather and traffic. I took an Uber from my hotel to the … MORE
This is a great race. Well organized and well communicated. The race starts early, which is great for weather and traffic. I took an Uber from my hotel to the race start and that worked perfect. If I were to do it again I would take a Waymo. The race is beautiful, crossing the GG bridge is amazing! There are some tough hills but you pry know if you were considering this race.
Great experience for my first marathon!
This was such a fun and amazing race! It was really well put together in my opinion, with a great course and great sights, and I can only think of … MORE
This was such a fun and amazing race! It was really well put together in my opinion, with a great course and great sights, and I can only think of a few very minor things to improve. I would highly recommend it to anyone, even as a first-timer. I got a lot of reactions from friends and family who have run marathons before that it’s not a good first marathon because of the hills, but I couldn’t be happier with the experience and my time!
First off, the course was great, especially for SF – of course it’s gonna have some hills, that’s part of the character of the city, but it was not nearly as hilly as it could have been. Three major hills that if you prepare for, are not that bad. At the same time it hit so many of the iconic sights, starting and finishing at the ferry building, the Embarcadero, Fort Mason, Crissy Field, GG Bridge TWICE, the Presidio, GG Park. I think the only not so exciting part was the last 5 miles through Potrero Hill and Mission Bay… yes it’s nice to finish flat but a longer loop through GG park and finishing down Market would have been much fun in line with the rest of the race.
The start and finish seemed well organized overall. It went off on time, was easy to find your way around, find your corral, use the portapotty without an insane wait, etc. The energy at the start and finish was great – crowded and excited in a good way rather than a stressful way.
The weather was perfect: cool and mostly cloudy but not cold, not too windy. Even over the bridge the wind was not too much of an issue, it was 10mph pretty much perpendicular to the bridge so you didn’t have to run into the wind either way. The weather is a big plus for anyone looking for a summer marathon because of SF’s unique weather.
A Fun Race with Many People
The aid stations were awesome and the volunteers gave a lot of hydration. The most unique aspect of the race was the 2 laps. The race could be improved with … MORE
The aid stations were awesome and the volunteers gave a lot of hydration. The most unique aspect of the race was the 2 laps. The race could be improved with more porto potties.
Finish line left a bad taste
Overall this was a decent race. This race definitely has some elevation which is part of why it has such picturesque scenery. The biggest problem was the finish line in … MORE
Overall this was a decent race. This race definitely has some elevation which is part of why it has such picturesque scenery. The biggest problem was the finish line in the Presidio. Spectators couldn’t reach the finish and there were far too few shuttles back to the start. It took one hour to catch a bus back to the start.
I'm Not in New England Anymore
I did the Saturday 5K as part of the 5K + Half Marathon Combo. Some details will be in my half marathon review. I will start off by saying the … MORE
I did the Saturday 5K as part of the 5K + Half Marathon Combo. Some details will be in my half marathon review. I will start off by saying the communication for the 5K was weird. There was frequent communication but a lot of errors. One that really kind of annoyed me was the website clearly said no race day packet pick-up. I assumed this meant for the Saturday 5K as well as most races that do have packet pick-up for Saturday only make it very clear. I was arriving too late to make the expo on Friday so I opted to pay extra to have my packet mailed so I was a little annoyed to see you could have picked up your packet for the 5K Saturday morning. Another weird communication issue is the race page for the Saturday 5K said it was an untimed fun run. I was like wait did I pay like $65 for a 5K and it isn’t even timed but when I got the packet in the mail it had a timing chip and I got a finisher time so that was just some very weird incorrect detail. Anyways these communication things should be fixed. The 5K takes place Saturday morning at Crissy Field. There wasn’t a great way to get there by public transportation and it was too far to walk so I took an uber. The race started on time and is a loop. It was beautiful cool weather. There was a bit of a tiny drizzle but I actually like a bit of a drizzly. Grey, drizzly, cool weather is my favorite to run in and New England as either been hot & humid or a downpour so I was so happy to be running in this weather. The course is mostly nice. There was a short trail section that did have some roots and rocks and got a bit crowded. Most was on roads or smooth dirt trail. There were beautiful view of the bridge throughout much of the race and on the way back some beautiful views of the city. Production was good during the race as it was well marked. There was an aid stations with water in the middle. However there was terrible runner etiquette. One thing also different from this race than races in New England is there is definitely a more casual and fun crowd. I usually like this as I am a more casual and fun runner. However so many people were making videos on their phones or using selfie sticks especially on the portion with views of the bridge and not paying attention to their surroundings. This kind of thing doesn’t fly in New England. So if you do this race be wary of running influencers lol. I still had fun and enjoyed the energy and large number of back of packers. Another production issue is the course was a smidge short. Not a huge deal as my GPS had 3.08 miles but I definitely didn’t have good tangents maneuver around the selfie sticks so measured it’s probably shorter. You get a nice but small medal and a race shirt. The only swag complaint and why I gave it 4 instead of 5 sneakers even though it is very good 5K swag is the design of the medal and the shirt are the same as the design for the longer races. There was water and pretzels at the end. Overall this was a fun 5K and a nice way to get some extra bling but it wasn’t good enough to say you absolutely have to come to SF early to run this before the longer races.
Where is the mileage signage?
Very pretty in Golden Gate Park and fun running through some neighborhoods but FINANCIAL DISTRICT was pin-drop silent and had nothing to see until maybe 1ish miles out from the … MORE
Very pretty in Golden Gate Park and fun running through some neighborhoods but FINANCIAL DISTRICT was pin-drop silent and had nothing to see until maybe 1ish miles out from the finish. Also I didn’t see any half marathon mileage signs from around 8 or 9 miles all the way till mile 11. The course had too many people, and there were a lot of bottleneck points with running traffic jams.
Shirt is nice though.
Fun and scenic!
I loved the medal and the race shirt! Really thought it was challenging, but it's San Fran, so I expected some hills. Weather for me was excellent, relatively dry and … MORE
I loved the medal and the race shirt! Really thought it was challenging, but it’s San Fran, so I expected some hills. Weather for me was excellent, relatively dry and cool most of the race. This might be an outlier of a year, but it was a nice one really!
Hard to take it seriously
Scenic, but a LOT of things went wrong. Saturday 5k was too short, 2nd half-marathon was short by 0.5 miles (I heard that the 1st one was a bit short … MORE
Scenic, but a LOT of things went wrong.
Saturday 5k was too short, 2nd half-marathon was short by 0.5 miles (I heard that the 1st one was a bit short too). Marathon was 26.5 miles, not due to tangents, you can see in race results that almost EVERY runner has a pace drop in the last 2 miles (because it was longer than this).
I was assigned a wrong corral and “my” pacer started 5 mins before me.
My bib was mailed (paid $20 for it), so I had to collect my shirt and jacket after the race. The shirt pickup was in a different place than the jacket pickup. Both a long way from the finish line (imagine walking there after the race).
And did I mention that they ran out of jackets? Oh, and also MEDALS on Saturday 5k?
All of this for $200.
Hilly but beautiful.
There are hills galore. I wish I had trained more. It is a gorgeous route. So scenic, enthusiastic spectators. Be warned: here are several races going on. It was a … MORE
There are hills galore. I wish I had trained more. It is a gorgeous route. So scenic, enthusiastic spectators. Be warned: here are several races going on. It was a crowded field. I’m glad I did it. It is a tough race, but so rewarding. They wait for runners after the six hour limit, too.
Beautiful and chaotic
I signed up for the 5K/half marathon challenge. Packet pickup was chaos. First, they emailed me the wrong bib number for my 5K, so I had to go to a … MORE
I signed up for the 5K/half marathon challenge. Packet pickup was chaos. First, they emailed me the wrong bib number for my 5K, so I had to go to a computer to look mine up. I think that was the case for everyone because it was with our entire group. Second, the shirts they gave us for both races were identical… long-sleeved tech shirts that just said SF Marathon and had Sunday’s date… quite disappointing for the cost of these races. They gave us the challenge medal at packet pickup, yet they made us wait till after the race to get our jackets. That was just nuts, because there were horrendous lines at the 1st half to get them plus they ran out. Getting our jackets at packet pickup and the challenge medals on Sunday would have made SO much more sense. The medals were all quite nice, and the towel and the tote bag were nice too.
As for the race… it said it had a cutoff of 3 hours for the 1st half. I was concerned I wouldn’t make the time, so I emailed to ask. They said as long as I was there by 3.5 hours, I would still get my medal. I was doing pretty well pace-wise, but it was tough on the bridge since we were all packed onto the sidewalk. I was told they closed a traffic lane previously to accommodate runners, and they really need to do that again if they have strict time constraints. I had just come off the bridge and was making good time when I was diverted. There were MANY people behind me, and I was at the very beginning of the diverted group as I saw people in front of me still moving forward. The diversion skipped all the portion returning to the bridge and sent me directly back across the bridge, cutting off approximately 3 miles. I was pretty upset I got diverted when I’d previously been told I could continue, so it took the wind out of my sails and I slowed down. I finished slightly over 3 hours total. Apparently both halfs were short, and the full marathon was long. You’d think after 47 years of doing this race, it’d be really streamlined.
I would have given this race 3 shoes because of how everything went down, but the swag (other than the shirts) pushed it up to a 4.
Worst Race Experience EVER
Here is a summary of my experience at the The San Francisco Marathon 5K and 1st Half Marathon / Bridge Half this past weekend: Saturday 5K 1. There was no … MORE
Here is a summary of my experience at the The San Francisco Marathon 5K and 1st Half Marathon / Bridge Half this past weekend:
Saturday 5K
1. There was no bag check (runners were instructed by a race official in the solutions tent to “just put your bags on that picknick table over there”. Said picknick table was not covered, secured, or supervised by any race official.
2. The course was shorter than the advertised 3.1 mile distance (it was short by 0.05 miles); a portent of things to come.
3. The finish line area was VERY cramped which created a log jam right as we crossed (ANOTHER portent of things to come!).
4. There was ZERO signage to indicate where we should have gone to collect post-race gift items.
Sunday 1st Half Marathon/Bridge Half Marathon
1. There were only 28 port-a-potties for 5,162 runners (a fellow runner counted them). Twenty. Eight. 😠
2. There was VERY poor signage overall, especially for gear check (which was labeled “Sweat Check” for some reason which confused everyone).
3. The race was AGAIN short by .10 miles (I verified with other runners who also recorded distances less than 13.1).
4. The finish line area was SUPER cramped and disorganized caused by the race organizers deciding that the finish line area was the best place to put a premium distribution point manned by one official who resorted to throwing our finisher item (towel) at us like we were peasants begging for scraps of food.
5. The finisher jacket area was ALSO very disorganized and confusing. Apparently, there were separate men’s and women’s jacket tents. Runners were not made aware of this until they approached the table because (you guessed it)…THERE WERE NO SIGNS to indicate which tent was which. A visibly overwhelmed volunteer finally made a rickety carboard sign written in black Sharpie to communicate with people in the line. Then, of course, they ran out of sizes, so some people had to wait even longer.
6. I found out the hard way that the challenge medals were handed out at the EXPO, not the finish line for some odd reason so I didn’t collect my third medal for completing the 5K and half after the race. This was just a really odd choice to me. Why weren’t the jackets distro’d at the Expo and the special medals distro’d on race day you know…AFTER we actually completed our respective challenges?!?!
7. Because of the lack of proper signage, runners didn’t’ know where to go to catch shuttles back to the starting area (SOME runners, that is…).
8. Runners who ran the 1st Half Marathon didn’t have shuttles for us back to our starting area which was 3.5 miles from the finish line; we were left hanging. I was able to get a Lyft and shared my ride with a fellow Bridge Half runner. This was the final straw for me…
The highlight of the weekend was seeing my wear blue: run to remember family on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on the Blue Mile.
Given everything that I experienced, I can safely say that this was the absolute worst race I have EVER participated in. The fact that I traveled all the way across the country to experience it makes it somehow even worse; I feel like I wasted thousands of dollars on a rather forgettable experience. I won’t be running this event again and I highly recommend you not do so either.
Hills and wild temps
1700ft of elevation for the full, steep hills as well, way to many photo ops along course, decent Hydration along course, good crowds for the last 2 miles or so, … MORE
1700ft of elevation for the full, steep hills as well, way to many photo ops along course, decent Hydration along course, good crowds for the last 2 miles or so, went from 55 degrees to almost 80. Great weather though. Great fun. Warning marathon was long 26.6, but the halves were both short, the second half marathon was 12.6 ….
Disappointed
Look. I love this race. I want to love this race. This is my HOMETOWN race. It's an epic experience to run through my city, to experience it with crowds … MORE
Look. I love this race. I want to love this race. This is my HOMETOWN race. It’s an epic experience to run through my city, to experience it with crowds of people and crowds of supporters. But what the heck happened today, it needs addressing. The 2nd half was 0.50-0.60 short right after Mile 1, and continued that way throughout the rest of the race… every mile marker was that much ahead. We all finished with around 12.6-12.7 miles…how does that even happen in a race that has been going on for 47 years and has had roughly the same two courses (and full course)?
I had started off energized and ready to run, was consistently running faster than my average pace for the first 4 miles, but once I realized the mile markers were significantly off and we not correcting themselves I gave up… why haul ass at a race that wouldn’t really be a half marathon?
I will run it again, I am sure, but wow am I disappointed with them today…
Plusses:
-STUNNING MEDALS this year (above and beyond)
-Great swag (nice towels)
-Awesome fan support
-Crowds of happy people throughout (although I kind of feel like people got quiet pretty quickly once they realized the course was off)
I dunno… they gotta address this.
Beautiful Course, Poor Execution
For the amount of money they charge for this race, expectations are high. The expo was ok - was a bit crowded as there wasnt a good flow in moving … MORE
For the amount of money they charge for this race, expectations are high. The expo was ok – was a bit crowded as there wasnt a good flow in moving people from the different stations. On race day, there are multiple races going on the marathon course, which makes it a bit confusing, but its unacceptable to be short or long for the distances. Mile markers were slightly off. The bridge was not as congested as I thought, but it might have been due to the time I was crossing. Finish line was a bit of a mess post medal – towels and bags were given/thrown from a truck, and jackets were a distance away with no signs.
Run across the Golden Gate Bridge!
This is a challenging race with the hills you would expect in San Francisco! The hills start right before the Golden Gate Bridge and are off and on until about … MORE
This is a challenging race with the hills you would expect in San Francisco! The hills start right before the Golden Gate Bridge and are off and on until about mile 23. I keep coming back to this race and will do it again next year. Not a PR race for me for sure.
A Excellent Scenic Run
The aid stations were excellent. The most unique aspect about the race was the scenery in the course. The race could be improved with more nutrition in the marathon (second … MORE
The aid stations were excellent. The most unique aspect about the race was the scenery in the course. The race could be improved with more nutrition in the marathon (second lap).