Seattle Cherry Blossom Run
Seattle, WA
- Half Marathon, 10K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Be part of the ‘Legion of Bloom’! Come run, walk, stroll, or crawl through Seward Park and along South Lake Washington Boulevard, surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of cherry blossoms. Seward Park is where Seattle’s cherry blossom story began. Back in 1929, it became home to the city’s first cherry … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Apr 18):
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |
| H (°F) | 69 | 73 | 63 | 47 | 52 |
| L (°F) | 44 | 41 | 39 | 39 | 43 |
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Organizers do not know how to organize
I've done this race twice, once in 2024 and once in 2026. Both times there were easily preventable issues that clearly came from poor organization. The first year I did … MORE
I’ve done this race twice, once in 2024 and once in 2026. Both times there were easily preventable issues that clearly came from poor organization.
The first year I did it, we ordered our packets to be mailed to us, only to have them send us the wrong packets in a giant mix up that seemed to have impacted everybody who got their packets mailed. The only way to sort it out was to wait forever on race day to get your packet picked up then. They also did not refund the (overpriced) cost of shipping, despite this disatorous mixup.
Both years there was an issue of not being able to tell where to line up, and not having enough speakers for people to clearly hear where to go. This leads to the wave starts being very jumbled and confusing, with waves blending together before you even begin due to the issues ahead, so from the start you’ll be weaving quite a lot more than necessary.
The course itself is poorly thought out, with an accidental mud pit from the course organizers planning a run through recently watered grass. But then you have 1000 people running through it and it’s just a mud pit, that is not marked on the course maps. There was also a ~1 mile gravel section that was also not marked on the map, that you do twice since the course loops. I’d also recommend the race organizers extend the distance a bit of the first half, so that you can skip having a decent sized hill in the literal last mile of a half marathon. It was sad seeing a lot of people who had been running the whole time just hit a wall on the hill and start walking right at the end.
Race photographers did not capture photos of me or the two other people I knew who ran. The best shot we got was one of us in the background of somebody else’s photo, completely out of focus. I looked the one photographer they had at the finish line right in the eye and watched them not take my photo or anybody else’s photo around me. We scrolled the entire photo gallery to see if maybe we had photos of ourselves that they did not tag. We did not, except for the blurry background shot mentioned above.
The finish line becomes a bottleneck due to poor planning. It’s a narrow finish, and then the medal hand out areas aren’t going fast enough to prevent this. There’s also no clear signage to delineate where to go at this point (the half marathon had a different area than the 5k/10k to go to), which also adds to the bottleneck since people get confused.
There was only one water/banana station at the end so if you wanted, you could wait 20+ minutes to get water. Neat.
At mile 10, a random volunteer stopped me to ask if I was running in the half marathon. I have genuinely no idea why this happened because my bib was clearly visible and I was running normally? She did not apologize for stopping me either, and was fairly rude. If this lady reads this, you should not volunteer for these types of events anymore. Stopping somebody that far in is just awful.
Overall at this point, I like the idea of this race, but get the impression that the organizers must not run much themselves, and do not care to improve the race, since they consistently have the same issue every year (based on my experience and reading other reviews) that are not common in other races by other organizations.
As far as the cherry blossoms go, they planned this race too late in the season this year so the trees were all past peak cherry blossom viewing.
Also the shirts are always hideous.
Disorganized.
Ran this as a fun run with no performance goal. The race has been moved to Seward park and the course is scenic. Two mild hills, the second half is … MORE
Ran this as a fun run with no performance goal. The race has been moved to Seward park and the course is scenic. Two mild hills, the second half is flat so you can easily negative split. If I was going for time it would have been a fun race.
Both the start and finish were very disorganized. On the second loop of the 10k we smacked into the 5k walkers who were blocking the entire trail. Had to do a lot of weaving.
There wasn’t a backup at the finishers chute when I finished but while waiting for friends I watched it back up so much that people couldn’t get across the timing mats. This was due to a very narrow finisher chute and a really slow medal station that was too close to the finish. Experienced race directors should know better.
Start was equally disorganized. It felt like have the runners were not aware when to sequence for their waves. To be fair, it seemed like a very casual crowd.
Nice way to see a pretty college campus
I was disappointed to find out from the race directors just a few weeks before the event that they would be unable to hold the inaugural marathon race in 2024 … MORE
I was disappointed to find out from the race directors just a few weeks before the event that they would be unable to hold the inaugural marathon race in 2024 as permits weren’t approved. The organizers offered a full refund or a drop to a shorter distance. As my airfare and lodging were already booked by this point I still went through with the trip and race, but stepped down to the 5K on Saturday. I read lots of complaining reviews about how bad packet pickup had been, but for me it was just a 10-min visit inside a local running store. Perhaps they got their act together by the time I came. Since I got in the first wave for the 5K race and ran relatively fast, I experienced no bottlenecking from hundreds of slow runners/walkers on a narrow bike path. I was surprised that for a race as big as it was no awards were given aside from a finisher medal.
Worst race I've ever run in
Not enough porta potties at the starting line (for some reason they have a ton at the finish line though where no one needed them) so had to wait an … MORE
Not enough porta potties at the starting line (for some reason they have a ton at the finish line though where no one needed them) so had to wait an hour in line to use them and obviously missed our wave start because of that. By the looks of the results, 1/3 of the top 50 finishers had to miss their wave start for probably the same reason. It was miserable running this course from the wave that we were forced to run in due to their awfully planned toilet situation. The path was far too narrow and we were essentially being blocked in claustrophobically by slower people the entire course except for maybe the final stretch. No photos were taken of me or my partner at any point during the race it seems. Packet pickup took 2 hours. And the course distance was slightly short of 10k so Garmin/Strava won’t count it as a 10k time. Overall I would not want to ever run this again as it didn’t feel like a real race but more of a unorganized chaotic fun run but if I did, just pee in the bushes at the start line.
Not as good as it used to be
This is a fun and easy race but race operations/logistics are always challenging and have been so for some time. We’ve come to joke about what aspect of the race … MORE
This is a fun and easy race but race operations/logistics are always challenging and have been so for some time. We’ve come to joke about what aspect of the race will be a cluster each year. Volunteers are great and always so kind/supportive of runners. Since this is a big local race, 99% of runners don’t know/practice running etiquette so they create a lot of obstacles which could be mitigated if the race provided more info about it in emails/announcements.
Nice location run
Good comfortable route. Beautiful area. Be prepared to run with a bunch of college kids 😀 Disappointed with races that don’t provide medals with dates and place engraved. Oh well… … MORE
Good comfortable route. Beautiful area. Be prepared to run with a bunch of college kids 😀 Disappointed with races that don’t provide medals with dates and place engraved. Oh well… gotta write it in myself
do not give these people your money
This was the worst racing experience I have ever had. Packet pickup took over two hours, no one could hear anything the start line, and the half marathon hit throngs … MORE
This was the worst racing experience I have ever had. Packet pickup took over two hours, no one could hear anything the start line, and the half marathon hit throngs of people walking the 5k in the last mile, so the last mile was running uphill through a crowd of walkers. They also messed up the timing and asked participants to submit their own strava recordings. There are also no cherry blossoms on the course. There are lots of great local races in the area, and I would do one of those instead!
Would sign up again
What I love most about this race was ending with the cherry blossom tree's in full bloom at the UW. The finisher medal was beautiful, and totally worth the miles, … MORE
What I love most about this race was ending with the cherry blossom tree’s in full bloom at the UW. The finisher medal was beautiful, and totally worth the miles, and the t-shirt was fantastic quality and a beautiful design. There was a lot of elevation, but that is excepted because the run was located in Seattle. The Cherry Blossom flavored doughnuts was definitely the highlight of this race. I would sign up again, but I would make the race a half marathon next time. This was my first racing event.
Race was fun, packet pick up needs work
I enjoy the course and race day was pretty organized for a local race, markers were clear the finish line leads you to the beautiful cherry blossoms at the Quad. … MORE
I enjoy the course and race day was pretty organized for a local race, markers were clear the finish line leads you to the beautiful cherry blossoms at the Quad.
I personally do not enjoy long stretch of straight route so the course wasn’t very exciting when you exited UW to Burke Gilman Trail, however that is just a personal preference, overall the course is flat so it was easy.
Packet pick up on the other hand needs major improvement. The pack up location was at a large parking lot by UW but there were so few volunteers and it was overall disorganized that it created tons of traffic going into the parking lot. Once you were inside, there was another long line for packet pick up. Folks said that they waited for at least 2.5 hours before they even got their packets (some even longer from waiting in traffic to get into the lot). I ended up leaving because I didnt have an extra 3 hours to spare and had to run without a bib and the complimentary shirt.
What’s going on? Nobody knows
This race was a shit show before it even started. Paid $15 PER person for shipping, however didn’t receive one of the runners shirts and was told we had to … MORE
This race was a shit show before it even started. Paid $15 PER person for shipping, however didn’t receive one of the runners shirts and was told we had to pick it up hours after the run ended. People had to sit in line for more than 2 hours to do the in person pickup. The event ended up handing out packets the morning of, but again what did I pay $15 for. They had the 5K broken up into several waves, but there was nobody controlling the staging at the start line. Nothing started on time. Many people from later waves were at the front by the start line. Walkers blocked the already narrow path and it took over 1/2 mile to get around them. Very chaotic. At the end of the run, it was stated there would be signs for how to get back to the parking area, but there was not. There were several groups including myself wandering around the campus with gps trying to get back to our cars. From start to finish very disappointing.