For this being my first marathon i really had no idea what to expect. It was very diverse. You pass through urban areas as well as through closed freeways with an awesome ending at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot with nice display of the military helicopters. Would definately run it again. The only negative was that it was a cloudy ugly day and i didn't get to run with the beautiful blue San Diego sky.

This marathon is a large, but very well organized race. There are several corrals based on your projected finishing time, making the crowd well spread out and also making it easy to settle right into your pace.

The course is well organized with plenty of aid station support.

There are no major hills on the course, making it a great PR opportunity. The only problem is that it is not a very scenic course.

I recommend running this course if you are looking for a fun, big city marathon or if you are looking to set a new PR.

I carefully selected San Diego as my 50th marathon. Before and after the race I hiked my favoured scenery: beautiful California deserts.

The course was above average and covered all faces of San Diego including downtown. I liked the fact that full and half-marathoners could run in parallel, together and separately. I did not have any problems with finding my way. The Fiesta Island was the most dramatic part of the race: I could hear and see the finish line and yet it was another 5 km to run.

Organisation was also above average with two annoying details:
1. After the finish line, the food selection was excellent; but how much can you carry with two tired hands? The free carry-on bags were given away behind the 'no return' line. Very clever.

2. The distribution of free beer (one per runner) was preceeded by strict control comparable to airport security.

Spectators were very sparse even in downtown. I liked the wild performance of school kids especially at water stations. The musical support was also excellent; my favourite one was the solo organ concert.

Thank you, San Diego!

This was my first full marathon, having run 3 HMs previously. All in all I loved it. I personally didn't find it to be hilly, but I live in Colorado. My ONLY complaint is the banking on the 163, my right IT band wasn't too happy after the marathon. I loved this marathon and would do it again in heartbeat (in fact I hope to one day!).

Found this really well organised. Easy to get to the start, drinks stations all the way around were well manned, heaps of water, gatorade and gels on hand. Spectator support was insane, and the bands just made the day for me. Had a great run and great fun, would love to do it again.

Good organization at start line, but quite confused at end. The course has some hills that would kill you if you aren't in your best shape. Not the best run to do your best time.

Came all the way from Atlanta to run a flat 'fast' course in a cool climate. I was in corral 1 so I had no problem at the start. There was a completely unused bank of port-o-potties in front of the start line that I was able to use several times during my warm up. Race started well. Didn't have any problems with crowding or half marathoners.

Confusion started around mile 8 when the clock was 40 seconds slower than the time on my watch. People around me with Garmins said the mile markers were about 0.1 miles off. My pacing was completely messed up since I was following the clock time and mile markers. Running on the sidewalks near the end was an awful experience as there were many people walking, jogging, riding bikes who were clearly not in the race. You could hear the finish line off in the distance for the last 10k of the race and that was very mentally taxing.

Finish line was mass chaos. The finish chute was completley jammed with half marathoners trying to get photos with there finisher medals. All I wanted to do was get out of there and get back to my hotel so I could cry about my terrible finish time alone. It took nearly 2 hours to get from SeaWorld back to my hotel which was about 5 miles down the road. I took the bus back to the stadium, but that didn't matter because it was gridlock all over San Diego. Probably one of my worst marathon experiences yet. I won't be back for 2013.

I ran the half, but most of my notes apply to the full as well. In a word: Ugh. The logistics totally suck, especially if you have family/spectators. Race directors guided people to park at Qualcomm Stadium and then trolley it to the SeaWorld finish line. But that proved impossible: I-5 exits and surrounding surface streets around Qualcomm were all closed for the race. Most spectators were hoofing it for several miles - which may explain why the finish area was so depopulated when I came in about 1:39. SeaWorld is a ridiculous location for a finish area, given that it's swamped with people even in the best of circumstances, with a Mission Bay location not easily accessible by multiple routes. Race directors really need to rethink this course, which for the half is an A-to-B route and should probably be a loop given all the urban demands involved. As a runner, the course itself was annoying as hell, advertised as flat (ha!) but in reality containing a quad-busting summit in the middle of Balboa Park around mile 4-5 and then some false flats in the second half that should totally screw with your PR. And don't get me started on the sponsor overkill, which is intrusive and is threatening to sink the Rock and Roll series generally.

I ran my first ever half marathon at this event 2011, since then I have ran 2 full marathons (Long Beach and Houston) and 6 half. I signed up the full course for my one year anniversary and tried to use it as my Boston qualifier. It's a bad experience all around. To save the time and energy, I will just list three things I hated of them most here.

1). Parking was a nightmare.
They had a park garage close to airport, which was not close to either start or finish line. So you'll have to ride bus both before and after marathon, and that's not fun as mentioned by other runners.

Last year I had my friend dropped me right on exit of I-5 since traffic won't move and I walked about 20 minutes uphill to the start line. This year I brought a $35 'VIP Fast Pass' for them so I could park at the finish line (Sea World Parking Lot). I got up at 3AM and took forever to get in the park lot. Then the 'Fast' bus took about 40 minutes to the start line, I made it barely half hour before the start time. Then...

2). Portal-Potty line is ridiculous long
I usually start to warm up half hour before the start for 15 min and then wait about 5-10 min for the Portal-Potty for the final release. When I saw the lines I figured I better settle down my business first, I ended up waiting on line for a good 40 minutes! Admittedly after about 10 minutes I realized I was on the wrong line which has only 4 Potty while other two lines have 7 to 9 Potty, but by then I was not sure it's wise to change line. What the hell were they thinking when they arranged the Potty like that?! Anyway I ended up missed my corral badly (from #2 to #18), and of course my pace team was long gone and I had to pass millions (ok thousands) of runners/walkers, which was pretty costly, not mentioned my missed warm up.

3). The course was ridiculous bad
I'll not repeat what other runners already mentioned. Just one. The half and full merged after Hwy 163, and I was really concerned that I may run the wrong route ever since. So when half and full finally separated right before 14 miles mark, I was utterly relieved. I then focused on my pace (and maybe something else like begin to enjoy it a bit :-) and that was the fatal mistake I made. Because that smart organizer decided to merge half back right away and then quickly separate again, all in a quarter mile. Before I knew it, I was running the half route and saw the finish line of half! I thought about going back but decided against it, too dangerous for everyone with so many runners, here goes my Boston.

I can't find my result anywhere, full or half, even though they have all of my splits to 14 miles (5k, 10k, 13.1 miles) on full course. I wrote to them and got no response so far.

I will never run this Suck n Roll San Diego again unless they change the course and that's a promise.

I just finished my first full marathon at this year's SD RNR. I ran the half last year.

The weather this year was ideal. At 5:30AM it wasn't cold enough to need any extra clothing yet it stayed overcast and low 60s my entire race.

The organization of the race was incredible. The FastPass parking upgrade worked flawlessly, amazing course support in terms of aid stations and medical tents, fantastic cheer groups and enthusiastic spectators. In the past there were issues with people being confused about half and full separation and merging, but I have no idea how anyone could have been confused this year. They kept ropes between us the whole time and the signage was very obvious.

The start was extremely crowded as usual. Porta pots were impossible - a line of 100 people at each one it seemed. Best bet was to run off into the park and go if you really had to.

The long hill you see in the elevation chart is just a gradual upslope. It's not bad at all, just adds +5bpm to your HR for 30mins or so. :-)

The camber on 163 is annoying but if you've done trail running it won't bother you much.

I assumed the course was flat after mile 11 but there were a couple of small hills around miles 19 and 20 that I definitely noticed.

The worst part of the course is the last 6 miles running on the Mission Bay sidewalk and around Fiesta Island, as many have said. Unfortunately I was hampered with leg cramps this entire section so the hardness of the sidewalk was the last thing I was concerned with - it didn't really bother me. Fiesta Island is completely fine when the weather is cool. I'm sure if the sun was out and baking it would not be so good.

Same thing with the finish area. When it's cool it's totally fine. Not so much fun in the heat. There was a ton of food and drink goodies available.

Overall a wonderful experience. I think this is a great first marathon because there is support everywhere, the course is relatively flat, and the weather is (usually) perfect.