This was my first marathon and it was a great experience. I don't believe the hills are accurately expressed in the topo map on the web site, though, as they were more numerous than stated. The course was varied and interesting, but be prepared to motivate yourself or enlist friends and family to cheer you, as the crowds are slim. And make hill training standard practice. The weather was fantastic and cool, and with the exception of the organizers messing up the timing chip equipment so about 10 minutes of finishers aren't listed, I felt they did a good job. It is too bad the newspaper that sponsors the event barely promotes it. However, the race preview slide show demonstrator person was a hoot to watch. His jokes were really, really funny and I recommend that all future participants see him speak next year. He should be on tour.

I felt that the organization of this marathon was outstanding! The course, while challenging, was one of the most beautiful I have run. It really took in
all aspects of the city.

Definitely worth the hills!

I have to say, this was my favorite marathon so far. It was the most difficult, but I also squeezed a PB out of it - perhaps because I ran a smarter race, but also I believe because the course has good variation with lots of undulation, which is good for using a variety of muscles, which in turn helps keep you from burning out.

Organization was excellent, wonderful t-shirt, excellent map, nice medal, and tons of food freebies. I was slightly surprised by the small # of runners, since for me the experience was my best so far; much better than San Diego, Portland, or even Vancouver (Vancouver takes a close 2nd for me). This is clearly a ?hidden gem? ? and I?m not even from California!

Only complaint is that some of the downhill sections were a bit steep, particularly the speed bumps at the Presidio (but early in the race so not so bad) and the drop out of Hait-Ashbury. Speaking of which, by the time we got to Hait, people were up and milling about and cheering us, which helped. Running by PacBell park before the game was awesome; they should have routed us through the ball park! The alternate course routings went very smoothly and didn't bother me a bit - quite a good solution for a race that runs right through the middle of the city.

Lastly, I read a comment earlier complaining about the wind direction on the portion of the race that goes along the Pacific Ocean; we had none of those problems and one of the members of the San Francisco Road Runners group confirmed that the prevailing wind direction is actually east by southeast, which works in your favor.

My splits for the two mile portions in each direction were exactly the same, and that included being ?trapped? behind a slow group of half-marathon runners who had just started before me. This in itself was a bit distracting but, as my split times bore out, it really didn?t have any effect on my outcome.

2nd time in SF Marathon, 4th marathon overall.

COURSE: Scenic but challenging. Improved over last year, a few of the irritating details & drops removed. But most of the course is significantly sloped up or down, so DO YOUR HILL WORK or PAY THE PRICE. Only four stars because there are still some irritating inconveniences which marathon-capital-of-the-world Chicago wouldn't tolerate.

FANS: THANK YOU for the few that showed up. But for most of the course, there are no spectators. It's always like this, and it will probably always be like this. Accept it, or run somewhere else. I note that during miles 25/26 there are a bunch of them, and they really cheered and encouraged us when we needed it.

ORGANIZATION: It was okay. Chip pickup went OK, the T-shirt is OK. Rest of expo seemed kind of pointless. Medal MUCH nicer than last year.

RACE SUPPORT: During the race, it was pretty good. Enough drinks & volunteers to pass it out.

ONE THING I HATED: Walking (more like near-crawling) half a mile to get my medal after the race. A marathon is 26.2, not 26.7 miles. We should get the medal ten feet past the finish. I know that the finish line is a busy place, but that medal is THE ONE THING that finishers get and nobody else does.

All in all, I'd recommend this race: decently executed, and in a nice place.

The course was beautiful and not as difficult as I'd anticipated - I ended up with a PR. But there are tons of clueless people - bikers, homeless people, etc - along the course, even a public bus at one point! As also mentioned, many locals have no idea what is going on! And a friend who runs about 5 hrs. had to move to the side before the 5 hrs was up, and the finish line had been moved to the side when she came in, so boo to that! My recommendation is to start everyone at 6:00, so that the streets can stay closed. Also: tiny expo, but overall a very nice run!

Forget the organizers comments about flattening the course for this year. The winner, a Kenyan who had trained on hills, said it was one of the toughest races he had ever run. There were no clocks on the course other than at 13 miles. I was told at the expo that Gu2O would be at the aid stations, but most had only Gatorade, and the flavor changed from station to station. And many put ice into the cups making it difficult to drink while on the run.

Fan support is nearly non-existent and can be summed up best by an incident I witnessed at about mile 22 or 23: a couple were the only spectators for blocks in either direction, and they were cheering on the runners. A resident of the neighborhood shouted from her 3rd story apartment for them to move down the street because they 'were trying to get some sleep'.

It is true that this is a beautiful marathon, and the police did hold back traffic at all intersections, a problem in years past. Nice medal too, but ugly design on t-shirts.

If you want to use this one as a training run, as one of the winners said he did, then run it. If you're looking for a fast course with good crowd support, then this isn't your marathon.

The course is beautiful, going through one of the most scenic cities in the world. The parks and neighborhoods that we went through were wonderful. It was fun just looking at the buildings! Going by PacBell Park right before a game was cool as well! Very sparse in the amount of runners considering a big-city marathon. Also, small amount of cheering spectators. With the location and weather conditions, this marathon holds great potential for the future growth! I hope it does well, as I truly enjoyed this one.

I'm from Phoenix and have run this 4 times with the exception of this year. This year I ran the second portion of the half marathon. I love the hills and the course, except for the industrial area. I wish we could run through the financial district or China town, as we did in the past. I am always disappointed in the crowd turn-out, but the ones that were there were great. I run this race because of the hills... love them... keep them!!!

Organizers deserve many compliments for an excellent marathon. The course is beautiful and easy (a few mild hills), and support services are excellent.

After the Los Angeles Marathon, I was amazed by the absence of spectators. Basically, the family and friends of runners were present and that's about it. Occasionally, there were a handful of cheering spectators. I guess SF just loses out in comparison to friendly southern California. Oh, well!

OK, it's not really THAT hilly, except for the big one in the Presidio -- and even with that, you get a view (if you look behind you for a second). Despite all the terrible comments I heard of previous runs -- wrong markings, traffic problems, uphill ending, etc. -- I did this one in 2002 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I am a local, I never tire of SF's natural beauty!

Tip for training: park at Ft. Mason and run south past Fisherman's Wharf to Pac Bell Park, turn around to come back and run past Ft. Mason, along Marina Green, Crissy Fields, to Ft. Point (base of Golden Gate Bridge). It's about a 16 mile loop, and you have just covered the first and last parts of the Marathon course (which starts and end at the Ferry Building). Enjoy!