UW Medicine Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon
Seattle, WA
- Marathon, Half Marathon
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The UW Medicine Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon, Seattle’s original hometown marathon and the oldest marathon in the Pacific Northwest, is set on a beautiful course with rolling hills and scenic views of Seattle’s iconic bridges, waterways and architecture. Take part in this iconic Thanksgiving weekend tradition and see why … MORE
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Very nice race!
Age group awards are given for the top 10, in the form of a ribbon mailed two weeks after the race. Race starts in the Seattle Center so it is … MORE
Age group awards are given for the top 10, in the form of a ribbon mailed two weeks after the race. Race starts in the Seattle Center so it is very accommodating for pre-race and spectators to hang out during the race. Paid parking is not necessary as there are plenty of street parking in the vicinity. Expo was easy to do downtown. Post-race there wasn’t much offered. We were blessed with great weather and the scenery was great! Course had some rolling hills, but nothing too steep or too long.
Hilly course that needs optimization
The 2024 Seattle marathon left a lot of room for improvement in my opinion. - First, a lot of the course is ran on highways. After starting in Downtown, runners … MORE
The 2024 Seattle marathon left a lot of room for improvement in my opinion.
– First, a lot of the course is ran on highways. After starting in Downtown, runners go through a tunnel to I-5 until mile 5-6, leaving not a lot of sight lines for the beautiful PNW scenery. The back half also has a large road so a fair amount of the course is loaded up on freeways.
-Second, on the back half of the course the full and half marathon runners converge on a very steep hill, creating a section with a lot of people with different paces. This can be difficult to navigate as the width of the path is also constricted. In addition, going around green lake can be difficult as the route is not blocked off to the public. Beware of walkers and bikers.
-Third, There wasn’t a ton of communication at the starting line, making it hard to tell where bag drop is and when to line up.
-Finally, there were a few stretches where runners had to stop for cars to pass. That is a big negative in my books.
On a positive note I found the support on the course to be very good and the volunteers to be excellent! But overall, there are a lot of things that could be improved moving forward.
Runners Stopped! No PR in Seattle
Besides running 10 plus miles on a highway, this race was deplorable for making runners STOP for traffic, all but guaranteeing a non PR or qualifying time. Not too mention … MORE
Besides running 10 plus miles on a highway, this race was deplorable for making runners STOP for traffic, all but guaranteeing a non PR or qualifying time. Not too mention the multiple times the marathon and half marathon converged on to a narrow trail, resulting in dodging walkers and stride alteration. Definitely a poorly designed and executed marathon.
Traffic over runners? Unacceptable
A lot of the race is near heavy active traffic. Fumes. Some Runners were stopped by spd to let traffic proceed midway through race...unacceptable for a bq qualifier. Portion is … MORE
A lot of the race is near heavy active traffic. Fumes. Some Runners were stopped by spd to let traffic proceed midway through race…unacceptable for a bq qualifier. Portion is on active crowded pedestrian walking path. Most don’t move. Not recommend, last time running it.
hills, great spectators, beautiful views
If you despise hills, this is not for you :S I have run this race for many years, both half and full marathons and I feel like the courses have … MORE
If you despise hills, this is not for you :S
I have run this race for many years, both half and full marathons and I feel like the courses have changed quite a bit throughout the years. Last year we ran on 520, and I think one year up to Queen Anne to Kerry park area.
One thing that is constant is that whatever route is the current one, there are always hills. However with uphills, there are also downhills which made it more enjoyable.
I have enjoyed this race for many years, if you don’t mind hills and a fun challenge, I would highly recommend this race.
So much potential :(
As a local, I have ran the half on the Husky Stadium 520 bridge route and the usual (2023) Aurora I5 express lanes route. The 2023 route I thought was … MORE
As a local, I have ran the half on the Husky Stadium 520 bridge route and the usual (2023) Aurora I5 express lanes route. The 2023 route I thought was beautiful with awesome views of the city especially if you’re from out of town. I guess in 2022 they weren’t able to secure permits with SPD to close the roads down, changed the race date, and changed the course like 3 months out if I recall. Last year’s (2023) race was better produced though I know other folks who have complained of the chronic problems our hometown race has. CIM is a great location for a December race, Seattle though is just a bit too chilly even for racing, especially if it’s drizzly which it usually is. 2023 was a beautiful, very cold clear morning. I do like the course because it’s cool to run on Aurora and I5 highways that you obviously can’t train on otherwise. My review is harsh but there really are so many other races with a better experience out there. Seattle and SF seem to have the same production problems and similar complaints. I’d love to run both of them for the full as someone who works in schools their dates work for my schedule. No need to complain about the hills bc that’s part of the Seattle running experience. However, the merch and free shirt is atrocious (at least the past few years). I hope they get a better manufacturer with modern materials and designer for 2024. For a winter full, I’d much rather just run CIM or Eugene in the Spring. If running the full, I wish they had more frequent hydration stations too. Some positives are good crowd support, especially downtown, Gas Works, and the finish at Memorial Stadium. They also offer Huma for on course nutrition! Not a big fan of Gu. We have so much potential to make this a better race: move to Nov 1st, design overall of shirt and medal, more aid stations, and thus hopefully making this more a centerpiece race instead of a hometown, optional “i guess i’ll do it” vibe.
Will not come back
It was my first half marathon, I am not a fan of Seattle, but was excited to see the city views while running. The course starts under the highway, there … MORE
It was my first half marathon, I am not a fan of Seattle, but was excited to see the city views while running.
The course starts under the highway, there is a tunnel and nothing to see. The weather was good for running, but we couldn’t see any views on the highway because of the mist. The course is quite tough, the flatest part is on a shared path, so you are passing bikers, people walking their dogs etc.
There was only 1 aid station with gels (for half marathoners)! There were no gels left when I ran to this station. So even if you had planned how to approach the course, well, you could be disappointed.
Great medal and long sleeve.
Not Much to See in Seattle
The course to race on was less than scenic for the marathon. Instead of running through neighborhoods, the course pretty much stayed on highways. I find it hard to believe … MORE
The course to race on was less than scenic for the marathon. Instead of running through neighborhoods, the course pretty much stayed on highways. I find it hard to believe that that the race director ran this route and thought folks would enjoy running 3 to 4 miles on cement roads under a major highway with nothing to see !
The race started well with excellent weather and the first mile running through the downtown area. Then it turned to highways until you reached the hills of the college area. Eventually the route went around a lake which was flat. The downside was the route was on a bicycle path and at times you shared that path with walkers/dogs/bicycles. Also, there was no entertainment on the course and few spectators. They gave out the smallest heat shield at the end of the race that I have ever seen!
On the positive side, the expo was good. The medal and shirt were excellent and the finish area was inside with seating. Food options were limited at the end. Very friendly volunteers and plenty of water stops on the course.
Although I was disappointed with the course, I did enjoy visiting Seattle and hope they can improve the route for next year.
Well run marathon on a tough course
First time I've run the local marathon. I tacked it on to the end of my fall season after finally breaking 3hrs in October. The organization was good. Easy packet … MORE
First time I’ve run the local marathon. I tacked it on to the end of my fall season after finally breaking 3hrs in October.
The organization was good. Easy packet pickup at the Westin. There was a pre-staging area in the Expo center that was heated and had real bathrooms before the start of the race. Plenty of aid stations on course.
The course for this marathon has been changing every year. They are trying to take some of the elevation out of it while still hitting a lot of the city highlights and keeping the impact on the holiday weekend traffic to a minimum.
This year the weather was good but cold. The start was around freezing, which lead to slick pavement in a couple of spots on the course. The first 5 miles loop through downtown and the express lanes of the freeway. It isn’t the most scenic part of the route but seems to be staple every time they try a new one. You hit the UW campus and Arboretum but stick to the roads, not the most beautiful or scenic parts.
After the Arboretum you hit one of the 4-5 big climbs but Interlaken Ave. This and one too-sharp descent were really my only complaints about the race. There are 4-5 big climbs and they are all pretty late in the race. You need to really save your legs for the back half of the marathon if you have any hope of maintaining pace. At the top of Interlaken, rather than close a main road for the runners, they shunted them to a side street that was too steep to run down. People just put on the breaks and slowly shuffled down the street. It sucked because you didn’t get any of the time lost on the climb back on the decent.
The course headed through the Burke Gillemen trail, where there was a lot of friction as the faster marathoners tried to pass the slower half-marathoners on a ~8-10′ wide path. You briefly duck into Gasworks park where the biggest crowd of the race cheered you on. Gasworks marked the end of the first half, after whichs there was a 2nd tough climb up to Highway 99 and then the longest climb of race from up Highway 99 to the top of Phinney Ridge. The half-marathoners turned and headed back down while the marathoners did two loops of Green Lake. They didn’t close Green Lake to the general public so you had walkers and regular runners on the path but I didn’t find it to be difficult to navigate. After Green Lake you climb Highway 99, descend to the bridge and do your last climb up the bridge. A couple of miles of gentle decent to the finish.
Seattle is hilly so you aren’t going to be able to get a flat marathon but it would be nice if the hills weren’t so backloaded.
New course kinda sucks, sorry.
Seattle has great running roads, this race uses none of them. This course feels like it was designed to minimize inconvenience to the city and not to benefit the runners. … MORE
Seattle has great running roads, this race uses none of them. This course feels like it was designed to minimize inconvenience to the city and not to benefit the runners. The old course was great, hilly, yes, but that’s Seattle. If you love running in concrete tunnels, simultaneously below and next to a freeway, and on narrow paths strewn with Seattleites out for their morning dog walk then this race is for you!
Not as Great as the Previous course!
Seattle Marathon 2019- time…3:57 it was my 24th marathon of 29 total marathons that year. I have learned a lot about myself since and appreciate simple logistics of marathons that … MORE
Seattle Marathon 2019- time…3:57 it was my 24th marathon of 29 total marathons that year. I have learned a lot about myself since and appreciate simple logistics of marathons that take in account the best for every runner. The new course is just not that.
Seattle Marathon 2022- 3:32, it was my 12th consecutive marathon in 12 different States, my 14th marathon of the year and my 70th marathon since 2019. From the start line, I was a bit disappointed that we couldn’t see the Space Needle and didn’t have the hype and energy of the crowd like in 2019. 6 miles in and I hit a 7:07, backed off anticipating a crash on a hilly course that never came. I felt like the old course was more hilly, but more scenic and nicely displayed the city of Seattle. This new course doesn’t do that and it really stinks to be trapped on the out and back, unable to get around half marathoners, everyone is so crammed and its impossible to weave with the railing, just felt like we were stuck in a pace unable to go as we couldn’t get around that many people on the way back. I wish they would just change it back to the original course even if it is more hills, but unfortunately I heard (not sure if rumor) but the city doesn’t want them hosting it on Sunday due to the Seahawks game. Bummer, as it truly was special to run around the iconic historical sites and get a true display of Seattle! Bring back the old course!
Would not recommend
This is one of the worst races I’ve ever ran. So many parts of the course are just out and back loops so it gets very boring. Multiple aid stations … MORE
This is one of the worst races I’ve ever ran. So many parts of the course are just out and back loops so it gets very boring. Multiple aid stations had no one present, and others ran out of supplies. The end of the race is on a trail loop, and due to the typical Seattle drizzle so many people fell in the mud. I will not be participating in this event again.
Fun City to Visit But Only An Okay Race
I choose this race for Washington since I enjoy visiting the city of Seattle and was already planning to be on the west coast the weekend of the race. I … MORE
I choose this race for Washington since I enjoy visiting the city of Seattle and was already planning to be on the west coast the weekend of the race. I had long planned to do CIM in 2022 as it fell on my birthday. I knew I wanted to take a trip to the west coast starting on Thanksgiving and decided to start at Seattle and drive down to Sacramento during the week. This race is one of those that is hard to rate due to a lot of outside factors. I will start with the weather was perfect and I got a medal so it was a lot better than my last half marathon. There were a lot of issues with the course and logistics but a lot seemed to be due to restrictions from the city and getting permits and not necessarily the race company’s fault. For instance the race was originally scheduled on Sunday and had always started in downtown Seattle where the host hotel is. But the city made them move the race to Saturday due to a Seahawks game and it sounds like the city also wouldn’t let them use downtown so the start/finish was moved to Husky Stadium at UW. I was actually happy with the date change as I was planning to go to the Seahawks game so didn’t have to rush to the game after the race and it gave me an extra rest day before the marathon. They did offer refund or deferral if you couldn’t make the new date. For the race I flew into Seattle on Thanksgiving since it is much cheaper to fly on Thanksgiving and just celebrated Thanksgiving with my family the weekend before the trip. I stayed at the host hotel the Westin in downtown Seattle which is where packet pick-up is and the race used to start. The hotel was nice and it was very cheap for race discounts but as they also charged for parking and it is more difficult to drive downtown than the UW area I would suggest looking to change host hotels to one closer to the start if they are going to continue to start at Husky stadium. The expo was kind of a pain since the area seemed too small and since it was only 1 day instead of the usual 2 day expo and it was very crowded. There were long lines to get the packet which was annoying and the lines were also pretty inefficient. You got the bib first and then went to another room for the shirt and the expo. The shirt is tech and long sleeved and pretty nice. You also got a bag with goodies. I was very grossed out beef jerky was included. I think enough people don’t eat meat especially on the west coast to not give meat to everyone. Just have it as a sample or ask if they want it. The rest of the expo was okay. I was happy they had free cans of sparkling water and energy drinks. They did not have as much race gear to purchase as most expos. For race day morning they did have a shuttle from the Westin to Husky stadium but it was only one way. I didn’t feel like driving and you also had to pay for parking at UW so I took the shuttle. It went well. I did love the start at Husky stadium. It was a good place to hang out before the race and there were real, heated bathrooms and plenty of bathrooms so no lines. The start was relatively efficient and runners lined up by pace. There was an announcer who gave clear instructions and there were multiple pace groups the slowest being 2:50 which was a bit faster than I waned to push myself today but I stuck with them the first mile or so to stop from going way too fast. While I appreciated crossing the start line quickly I do think having more spread out waves and maybe waiting 5 minutes between waves may have been a simple solution to avoid some of the issues of the course. The course was new and obviously modified due to permit issues if you compare it to the original course. It was mostly through neighborhoods or public paved trails. It was for the most part quite scenic. There was one view around the end of mile 1 that was breathtaking. The first few miles are on streets and have a few hills. There is a killer, steep hill around mile 2 but all the other hills were pretty runnable. The race was actually easier than I was expecting with about 500 feet of elevation gain which is flat for Seattle. I was taking this race easy since I had a marathon next week so did walk a lot of the hills however. Then you go through the arboretum which is pretty and fast and mostly downhill. The big issues came at 2 out and backs. The first out and back was around mile 7 or so and it was on a relatively tight path next to a busy freeway. There was a concrete wall separating runners from cars so very safe but I did not find it pleasant to run by zooming cars although the one side of the path did have beautiful views. But the real issue was the mixing of the half and full marathon. The full marathon kept taking little side tracks away from the half to make up the miles so for the out and backs us slower half marathoners were interspersed with faster marathoners which was such a mess. I especially feel for the marathoners as some may have been trying to BQ having to constantly run around half marathoners but there was not enough space to spread out properly. Then there was a bit of the course around UW and then unfortunately another out and and back around mile 10 that was even tighter (although it was a really pretty running path). At one point I was trying to run past 2 people walking side by side when I got stampeded upon by the 4:05 marathon pace group and almost bumped into the walkers I was trying to pass. Yikes this was such a poorly set up course. I do think some of the issues were city permits but you can’t have tight out and backs with runners doing different paces. If they are limited to this course next year they really need to rethink the out and backs and maybe try to have the half marathoners not do these out and backs or have the half and full start at the same time and have the out and backs early in the course so everyone is doing the same pace. Or if neither of these is possible have a slower start line with waves so the course is less congested. I will give credit that this could have been a very hard course to follow with the marathoners constantly leaving then rejoining the half marathoners and it was very well marked and there were cleae mile markers for each race. Another issue is they seemed to only have water at aid stations even though Gu and gel was advertised. I don’t know if they ran out or if it just wasn’t there. Also the aid stations were very slow. I think there were issues getting volunteers. I am not blaming the volunteers but there were not enough. Again a slower, waved start could have fixed this. The finish line at Husky stadium though was great and I think it is always fun to finish on a football field. My finishing time was as expected. And they didn’t run out of medals. The medal is nice though not extraordinary. There was decent post race snacks but I just grabbed a mango oat bar and then went to the nearby Veggie Grill in University Village for post race lunch and then I took an uber back to the hotel. There is also public transportation. Overall I have mixed feelings about this race. The race was scenic but didn’t go through downtown Seattle at all this year. I do think a lot of the issues were outside the races control and I wish the city would embrace the race more. I do think this is probably the most convenient race for Washington as it is on a holiday weekend so you can take less or even no vacation days and it is near a major airport and does not require renting a car but I have a hard time strongly recommending this race with the current course.
Aged like cheese
Pros: reasonable price, gorgeous course, a couple gnarly hills but mostly very run-able, packet pickup was smooth, schedule went basically as planned, pacers were great, volunteers were awesome, medals were … MORE
Pros: reasonable price, gorgeous course, a couple gnarly hills but mostly very run-able, packet pickup was smooth, schedule went basically as planned, pacers were great, volunteers were awesome, medals were cool, good food after.
Cons: Had to drive to Seattle twice in a row because hotel was so far from start line it wasn’t worth staying in the city (last time we ran this, we stayed in Seattle and walked to the start line)-once for packet pick up (where I had to pay $10 to park for 60 minutes to go in the hotel to get my number) and once (where I had to pay another $10-ish) to park on race day (payment was really hard to figure out and a lot of people were getting booted from the app or otherwise having trouble so were worried about cars getting towed), expo was tiny compared to previous years, dates got shifted which messed our schedule up (shortened expo by a day, had us driving to Seattle both on black Friday AND small business Saturday, overlapped my sister’s work schedule), course was pretty crowded all the way thru and no one was moving right if you were trying to pass so slowed the times down quite a bit because everyone ran abreast and there was no passing lane, only water at hydration stops (would’ve brought my own electrolytes if I’d known that), hotel was located nowhere near the start line or we would’ve just stayed in Seattle, race shirt had this weird seam right at the chest so it mushroomed out and made everyone look chunky (especially if you were busty), post race traffic home was awful made worse by construction detours.
Upshot: it’s not as much fun as it was when we first started doing it due to crowds and unfortunate logistics so we probably won’t go again.
A Exciting Course Near Seattle's City
The aid stations were excellent because each one had water and electrolytes. The most unique aspect about the race was the course and where it went such through Seattles city, … MORE
The aid stations were excellent because each one had water and electrolytes. The most unique aspect about the race was the course and where it went such through Seattles city, and Universities. The race could be improved with more food at aid stations.
Battle of Seattle
This race had some of the best and some of the worst production I've seen out there. Race starts at 6am just outside the Husky football stadium at the University … MORE
This race had some of the best and some of the worst production I’ve seen out there.
Race starts at 6am just outside the Husky football stadium at the University of Washington. It won’t get light for another hour in late November, and even if you are blessed with a dry day like today, the leaves around miles 8-11 will still be very slippery. We run across a bridge in darkness near mile 2 where you can see the Seattle skyline. From miles 3-7 we run on a closed down highway. Then, at mile 8, all hell breaks loose. The half marathon starts at 7am, and at mile 8 for marathon, we MERGE in with the half-ers who are at mile 2. Forget about trying to stay with a pacer. You will get stuck behind slower half marathoners repeatedly for the next 2-3 miles. Thankfully it shakes out by mile 10, but at mile 12, a new horror: you do an out-and-back for 3.5 miles each way, on a bridge over the bay. The bridge is ~12 feet wide and 7 runners could probably run side by side. But there are people coming back the other way too, so watch out! You will feel super claustrophobic and lose your pacer AGAIN since there is no room to run. Thankfully, the crowds cleared out by the time I turned around and headed the other way. But I’m sure there were 15-20 minutes of chaos as throngs of runners going out squeezed past the throngs returning.
Unfortunately, there were not enough volunteers at the aid stations (this is a recurring problem). You may have to grab your own cup from the table or bump into someone else. The aid stations had water and Nuun, but both cups tasted like water to me, and neither gave me energy, so I hit the wall at mile 23, slowed down to walk, missed my 4 hour goal, and flew back to Chicago defeated. But this race scored big production points for the ending, finishing inside Husky stadium. Although walking up the steps to the concourse was difficult after the marathon, there was SO much food including several energy bars, bananas, yerba mate, hot ramen, and hot apple cider.
Not Great in 2021
This year's production was really sub-par--not as many drink stations as should be and running for most of the time on the narrow Burke-Gilman was not a great idea. Especially … MORE
This year’s production was really sub-par–not as many drink stations as should be and running for most of the time on the narrow Burke-Gilman was not a great idea. Especially going out and back on the same path. While this is my home route, I was disappointed in just how poorly managed the entire race felt…capped off by the medals and just being told to grab one out of the box (still in a wrapper), and the medal itself being super weak. I give them a pass due to COVID but having run 4 other races post-COVID, I can say that the production of this one was by far the worst.
A Amazing Race in a Beautiful City
The aid stations were exciting because the volunteers had plenty of water and gatorade available for me to fill up my water bottle with. The most unique aspect of the … MORE
The aid stations were exciting because the volunteers had plenty of water and gatorade available for me to fill up my water bottle with. The most unique aspect of the race was that the hills were manageable through the mostly flat course. The race could be improved with more snacks on the race by the volunteers.
Its Seattle.
Parked at the Space Needle parking lot (PAID) Course started at the Space Needle. Run through downtown for the first few miles on your way to UW and then to … MORE
Parked at the Space Needle parking lot (PAID)
Course started at the Space Needle.
Run through downtown for the first few miles on your way to UW and then to the trail that you will be on for most of the run.
Expect lots of graphic graffiti. trash on the running trail
This was in 2019 so I believe the course has been changed in 2024.
Tough race but worth it!
I've done the full marathon (2008) and the half multiple times (2017, 2018, 2019). I have to say the new course in 2019 was FAR better than previous years. In … MORE
I’ve done the full marathon (2008) and the half multiple times (2017, 2018, 2019). I have to say the new course in 2019 was FAR better than previous years. In years past, the hills were absolutely BRUTAL as they went around metro-Seattle and back up, over, and around Capitol Hill where the switchbacks of constant incline made for no one’s personal best finish. The course I ran in 2019 still had hills (Seattle is hilly…), but they were better spread out and variations of gradual to steep. The race shuts down the express lanes on I5 that will run you into Fremont. I’d say the best parts of this race are the beginning streets of downtown Seattle and the Fremont section (roughly mile 5 thru 10?). You still have a few hefty hills waiting at about mile 9/10 as you climb back out of Fremont and across the aurora bridge. However then you get some free downhill miles to bring you back home to the Space Needle. Every year I’ve ran this event there have been plenty of aid stations (pre-Covid…) and the abundance of food/drink afterwards is excellent!