After reading all the negative comments from past races, I was of course anxious about running SF. Man, am I glad I did. The course really is terrific -- running along the bay and the ocean, through lovely parks, past awesome bridges, in and out of nifty neighborhoods. Not even particularly hilly. Cool weather, overcast skies. Perfect.

As for the organization, I expected a horrorshow but was very, very pleasantly surprised. Plenty of water stops, the Gu energy drink was okay (better than the garbage at a lot of marathons these days -- why can't everyone just use good old Gatorade?), the start was nice and clean.

Nonetheless, a couple of problems could be worked on: The website is not particularly user-friendly; maybe I'm just dumb, but I had a heck of time figuring out exactly when the race was supposed to start. And don't bother looking in the Chronicle for that information -- I didn't see a word printed on Saturday concerning the marathon that they were sponsoring. (Imagine!)

Okay, the real problems: (1) The port-a-johns were lined up at the edge of a grassy field, and we were all waiting in line on the field. Fine, except that the super-turbo sprinkler system kicked into action at 5:45, absolutely drenching us just before the race. (2) Thank you to the volunteers, but could someone please inform them that runners should be allowed to take more than one cup of water as they're running by, and that it's bad form to sneer at the runners for asking for more? It was weird how often that happened. (3) The bottleneck just beyond the finish line was ridiculous. There was only one egress, through a small opening in the barricades, presumably because the organizers wanted to make sure no one escaped without surrendering their timing chips. There's got to be a better way.

Anyway, these are of course minor problems. This was a beautiful marathon on a beautiful day, and I heartily recommend it.

Please spare us ALL the excuses for the organizers. This has been going on for 25 years now, well, 26 if you include the year they cancelled it in 1988.

This marathon IS never going to become a world class event, and Runner's World certainly isn't gonna save it. San Franciscans are as unsupportive of this marathon as they EVER have been. Some of the best parts of the course have been eliminated--GG Bridge, Chinatown, Financial District, City Hall. After the first 5 miles of the current course, the rest of the course can't get any more boring, and running through neighborhoods at 6AM on a Sunday morning gaurantees ZERO spectators out there.

Let's face it--the SF Marathon as we know it is at 'good' as it gets. And each year the organizers surprise us every year with how much worse it gets.

I didnt run this year (have run 4 different editions of the marathon) but was out on the course volunteering today and have already heard the traditional complaints begin, the least of which was having runners led off course!!!

The organizers should stop relying on the aesthetics of San Francisco to sell the marathon and actually 'organize' an event that wont embarass the city, b/c as the runners will tell you, looks aren't everything.

I had been reading the negative comments about this marathon for months, and had previously decided that I was not going to run it. But, I love S.F., and the comments posted by Dave Deigan made me reconsider. And I'm so glad I did. Everything about the race, from the expo to the finish, seemed to be well organized. I didn't notice anything terribly wrong, and I suppose that no news is good news as far as that is concerned. The race itself was very well organized, and I personally enjoyed the early start. And with the realization that this is a mostly volunteer organized run, I just have to congratulate them on a job well done. I've been to other races that have big time corporate sponsorships that don't do half as well as this one did. Sure, there could be improvements, and if this race grows in participation they will be needed in a hurry. But on this day, they did it right. Thank you. I had a great time.

I'm a runner, marathoner, and coach of the San Francisco Road Runners Club and feel passionately about this magnificent City and our marathon. I suspect that because this is the great City that it is, many runners come here expecting to experience the kind of event staged in New York, Chicago, Boston or Los Angeles. Those races are well supported and well-funded. This event currently has no major sponsorship or funding from any direction. It is being staged by a cadre of local runners and event organizations (West End Management and Race Central), who are donating their time and services so this event can be kept going long enough to turn the corner. To stage a marathon through a major city without sponsor support is one tough assignment. That's exactly what's going on here.

There are a number of lights at the end of the tunnel, so I hope you will read on.

While I appreciate the frustration and even anger represented by some of the reviews posted here at this site, I can only hope that anyone checking in on this race for the first time (or to follow up on where it's headed), will give this a bit of time. The good news is that Race Director, Peter Nantell, is deeply concerned about your reaction and your input. There is no way to correct all of the concerns expressed here, but many of them are being changed this year, and as Runners World Magazine adopts this race for 2003, as a part of it's Race Series, we look for improvements to continue. Here some reasons to give this another shot:

1. The start/finish have been moved from lush, but often dreary, Golden Gate Park, to the foot of Market Street, at Justin Herman Plaza, across from the Ferry Building's Clock Tower. The Health & Fitness Expo will be staged in the plaza (outdoors) this year, on both Friday and Saturday. Easier to get to using BART, Muni trains or buses, CalTrans, or car. Closer to major hotels, Fisherman's Wharf, South of Market and the heart of the City.

2. THE COURSE - The course has been reversed this year, easing the difficulty considerably. Our SFRRC training program has run the course in the last few weeks. It's considerably easier, and the second half, in particular, is F-A-S-T. The long hill up into the Haight is now the long hill DOWN from the Haight and into the Mission. The final miles are 'dead-flat'. No more hill to the finish.

It's much more spectator friendly because the Full Marathon, the Half-Marathon (which will start from the Zoo at the Great Highway, at the South end of Ocean Beach), and the brand new, lightening fast 5K, all start and finish along the Embarcadero at Market Street.

3. PACE TEAMS/GROUPS - For the first time, the SFRRC will offer pacing teams at 30 minute intervals (next year, we hope to add more choices, but this is our first effort at this). We'll cover 3:30, 4:00, 4:30 and 5:00 for the marathon, and 1:45, 2:00, 2:15, and 2:30 for the half-marathon this first year. Sign up at the sFRRC booth at the EXPO.

4. A GREATLY IMPROVED SPEAKER/CLINIC PROGRAM - Free to anyone in the City who is interested. The SFRRC, working closely with West End Management, has put together an excellent series of speakers in a far better location than the noisy, uncomfortable Ft. Mason Center location. We'll be in the Hyatt Embarcadero. Just follow the foot-steps on the sidewalk to the speaker location.

5. BETTER WATER STOPS - We've been trying very hard to recruit running clubs here in the Bay Area to help by taking responsibility for some of the water-stops on the course. That's still a work-in-process because of a conflict with the Wharf-to-Wharf event in Santa Cruz the same weekend, but we will do better next year.

6. TIME TO FINISH: This one is the toughest one. The event will use the Chip for timing, so runners needing extra time to finish will be permitted to start an hour early (at 5 a.m.). Because San Francisco is the most popular tourist destination in the U.S., an event of this magnitude (covering 26.2 miles of the City's streets), is disruptive to traffic and to the City's vital tourist trade, we've got to deal with a time-limit. The Dodgers are also in town at PacBell Stadium at 1:15 pm on marathon day. We have to open the streets by 11 a.m.

OUR SUGGESTION: If you cannot finish this marathon in 6 hours, or deal with traffic signals and other interference if you come in later on your own, enter the Half-Marathon and choose a marathon somewhere that is able to offer you sufficient time to complete the course.

This is not arbitrary by the race organizers. It's a condition of putting on the race.

THE FUTURE: Look for some changes in the 2003 race, and some possible surprises with the course itself. No promises yet...just stay tuned.

To everyone who has been disappointed in the past, do your homework before you enter a marathon or half-marathon. Consider what you are able to do and select an event that is able to give you the challenge, the support, or the time you need to take part. Don't be angry with the event because you entered it with unrealistic expectations.

I cannot promise perfection this year, but I think the SFRRC, Race Central and the event organizers, West End Management, are dedicated to improve this marathon. Please give this one another chance.

DAVE DEIGAN/SFRRC Chronicle Marathon Chair - Head Coach

I live in SF, and have run the SF marathon years ago and would never run it again because of the extreme poor organization. I do volunteer most years at the water stations and/or get on the course somewhere to cheer on the runners because I believe in giving back to the sport. However, it really is a shame that we cannot put on a better event. I have yet to be able to figure out why, is it because the organizers care only about the elite runners and making money or are there some real hardships that they face that other cities do not. Maybe they will respond here. One more note, it is a shame that they took out the GG bridge portion of the race. It would be so nice for out-of-towners to experience running across our beautiful bridge.

I'm so happy to read these comments. You must warn all runners and walkers about this terrible marathon. I ran it 3 times in the 80's, and it was passable. With great excitement, I returned in l999. (Would have logged in then, but just found this web site-I did yell at the race director for a good 15 minutes at the Chicago expo). Here's my story: I was a walker in 99,so my story concerns walkers and slow runners. We were promised police on the course for 6 or 7 hours, 2 hours into the marathon the cops started to leave, then some at aid stations began to leave. Spectators?????? Were there 49??(As in the 49ers) As we were going up Haight St. we literally got lost. Saw few runners-lots of tourists. We actually had to find a map, and a cellphone to find our way. The cops were useless. It was my slowest and longest marathon (at least 27 miles). I never felt sure where I was until I saw the finish line. The total shame of it all is that the marathon is just as bad as ever. The organizers obviously didn't care about the participants. The only reason I can possibly discern for continuing this disgraceful race is that someone is making a nice profit. Please warn anyone and everyone to avoid it,like the plague!!!!

The City is fantastic and I give the course 5 stars for beauty, not for ease, because the hills are tough, especially leaving Golden Gate Park. The best thing that happened to the race was the relatively low number of participants (2,000-3,000); the race organization was so poor that a larger group would have been a disaster.

The pre-race expo was a joke. They had waited until packet pick up to assign a chip to your bib. This resulted in a long line of people waiting for something that should have been done in advance. The post race event was even worse. They were not at all prepared for the crowd. I left without anything to eat or drink after waiting in line for 30 minutes. The post race wireless internet connection to check the results was a nice thought, to bad the technology failed. Another planning breakdown.

The Half Marathon started at the half point for the Marathon, but started 1:45 later. This resulted in the fast runners in the Marathon contending with the other runners and with more congestion at the finish. Apparantly the organizers didn't learn from last year because 2002 is designed the same way. Finally, the fan support was non-existant excecpt for the support group for the purple shirts (Leukemia runners?). I guess there is no law that says people should turn out, but given the other pitifull aspects of the organization I would guess that the publicity was nonexistant. I see Delloite and Touche dropped their sponsorship for 2002---no wonder. All that said, I did finish 10 minutes faster than I expected and only one minute slower than my personal best, so I likely will give them one more chance to see if they can get their act togather.

San Francisco is a good to OK marathon if you're local, or if you're interested in running the city. But with nearly 1000' of climbing, it isn't a great race for a fast time. And while the course is reasonably scenic (as one would expect in San Francisco), it isn't nearly as nice as it was a few years ago, when it crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, went through Chinatown, and finished in Kezar Stadium.

Traffic is an issue in some areas, where they have a trick of diverting runners along one of two parallel route sections, in order to allow cross-traffic to get through; not an issue if you're in a 'fun run' state of mind, but it can be disconcerting if you're really focused on maintaining a pace.

Another gripe is that water/Ultima is only available about every 2 miles.

I thought the crowds were fine, maybe lacking in quantity, but making up for it in quality; several good bands, a street person with shopping cart cheering runners on, and even a guy giving out beer.

San Francisco is a beautiful city, but its marathon is a shame. I have run 43 marathons and I must say even a marathon I ran in Amarillo, TX was better organized than the Chronicle Marathon in 2001.
Enough is said by others, I only wish to add one thing: water please. We all paid $60 or $70 to be in the race, why can't we get a water station per mile? I drank as much as I could every two miles but still became terribly dehydrated.
I ran this marathon back in 1993, when the opening mile was on the Golden Gate Bridge. I guess they are trying to cut costs so we got to run through a bunch of parking lots instead.
It's time for you groovy San Franciscans to make some changes to your not-so-groovy marathon!

First of all, the good things (It'll be brief, trust me). The few fans out there were great, but there were only about five of them. Most people looked at us with sheepish eyes like they wanted to know what the ruckus was about. And the volunteers tried to help us out, I have to give them props. And whoever had the idea to give out watermelon at mile 20 deserves a thanks.

That's it for the good. I would type all the negative things that happened at this marathon, but my fingers would fall off from the typing. This was a pathetic attempt at a marathon, but ironically enough it was stereotypical San Francisco: you pay twice as much for half the quality. The expo was a disorganized mess (how could they run out of shirts so quickly?). The day of the marathon they had so many types of runs (marathons, half marathons, two person relay, four person relay...) that they couldn't concentrate on any one of them being enjoyable! The half marathoners running the second half of the course just lead to confusion all around. Plus, by the time the buses got us out to the half marathon starting point, there was only about 10 minutes before we had to take off! Needless to say, I found a bush to use rather than the porta potties.

My suggestions: forget the stupid relays (this is the bay area, and there are shorter runs every weekend if people want to run them). Keep the marathon and half marathon, and have the half marathon just be a shorter course! That way no confusion at the finish line, no muss, no fuss. Also, why do they have the run start and finish in Golden Gate Park? There's no parking, it's freezing cold, and it's always a convoluted mess! How about have the event start and finish at Pac Bell Park? Tons of parking, warm weather at the finish... makes perfect sense, which is probably why they didn't do it, eh?

One final note, I found it extremely ironic that this marathon had NO coverage and NO promotion seeing as how the main sponsor is San Francisco's major newspaper! Are you kidding? They had a map of the course in the newspaper a couple days before the marathon, and featured an outdated map! This was a pathetic marathon. I may run it again, but you can forget about me paying for it.