M Dubs's Staging Area

Pros: challenging but beautiful hilly course and beautiful summertime California weather. It’s also one of the rare summertime marathons that can be run not in 75+ weather.

Cons: Organization from the race directors is honestly not the best in my 10 years of racing, especially for the price of this race which is 2-3x as much as other races (excluding the majors). In the 2020 I know multiple runners who completed the virtual race and never received their medals or gear, but we gave this race another shot since we know that year was difficult for everyone! This year they offered incentives like extra t-shirts for signups, but my friends and I never received those either. With the caveat that I’m always grateful for race volunteers and they were all wonderful people, on the Marin side of the bridge there were almost no water stations and very few people at them, leading to runners having to wait for water which after those hills can cause some serious cramps! For the record, I do not blame any volunteers as this section looked difficult to get to, but I do think the SF marathon directors can do a better job incentivizing volunteering (race credits, swag, etc.) or emphasize that runners may want to carry their own water. Finally, at the finish line you got a water, a banana, and a medal but there was no section to meet up with other runners or family or celebrate or even get a post race photo with a cool background. These are obviously nice to haves and not need to haves for a good race, but I was surprised there were no tents of non-alcoholic brews, no music, no food vendors, no massages, or really much of anything at the finish line and really the expo the day before too. The half in February put on by a different organization has all of this and more as have all other marathons I’ve run in the past (even smaller ones), and I think it also allows runners in the area to connect and learn more about clubs or upcoming races in the area, but also let’s out of town runners catch their breath and enjoy the city! Despite the convenience of being in my hometown and a PB, I don’t think I can recommend this race or try to get friends to join me next time because for the steep price it’s not worth it.