On 26th July 2026 I took part in the San Francisco Marathon. San Francisco Marathon was my 13th marathon of 2026, my 191st Marathon (plus) and my 141st time as an official pacer (including 78 marathons).
I love California. We came to California for a “once in a lifetime” trip in 2022. We had booked to do an Ironman in 2020, but with covid we ended up travelling for Ironman California 2022 in Sacramento. We ended that trip in San Francisco, and knew we wanted to come back to travel along the coast.
This time we booked our trip to start in San Francisco for the marathon, with onward plans to drive south, stopping off along the way, and ending in Los Angeles (after visiting all the theme parks). We set off on Thursday evening, an 11 hour flight, with 8 hour time difference, meant we arrived Thursday evening.
Friday we set off early for an Ihop breakfast, then a walk along the waterfront to the expo. I spent far to much at the expo, including entering the 5k race for my boy and I. We had wanted to do Parkrun, but there was only 1 to choose from and it was going to take a long time. The entry for the 5k was particularly expensive, but I am pleased we did it.
I decided to look if there were any sports events or anything to do, and noticed that WWE Smackdown was live locally. So we got last minute tickets to watch our first live wrestling. Such a fantastic experience and happy we made the effort. It was the week before Summer Slam, so lots of promotion content.
San Francisco 5k
Before every race we set out our kit for a flatlay. Matching father and son.
We made our way to the start line for the the 5k, which was just a short 20 minute walk from our hotel. My boy has just got back into running after a 3 year hiatus, so I jumped at the opportunity to run with him.
It was a great race and we set off together at 8 minute miles, to see if we could beat his 25:33 PB. At half way we are on for sub 25, but he started to struggle and had a walking break. A little motivation and we were off again. He held on for a 25:08, and a new PB.
We then spent the day exploring San Francisco, including a ride on a cable car, and a trip to Chinatown for food.
We have previously cycled over Golden Gate Bridge, and so spent our time around Fisherman’s Wharf to look around and keep my legs rested (relatively speaking).
San Francisco Marathon
The San Francisco Marathon has been on my bucket list for a long time, so I was over the moon to be accepted on to the pace team. I was offered to pace sub 4, but knowing that the course is difficult I wanted to have a slightly more comfortable pace for me so I could enjoy the experience. I was given the 4:20 pace and it was the perfect pace for me.
I arrived at 04:00 am to meet with the pace team and get ready for the 05:15 start. Alongside the Saturday 5k and kids races, on Sunday there was the marathon, 1st half and 2nd half marathon, 10k, 5k and ultra. The ultra started at 22:00 the day before, with the first marathon ending in race village, and they had to start with the official marathon start.
We made our way to the start line as a team at around 05:00, and we had a big group of runners ready to run with us for 4:20. Lots of first timers, and many ready for the challenge.
I love the start of the marathon, nice and flat, with energy and eagerness to get going. We spent a few miles keeping everyone at a comfortable pace, before the first short sharp climb.
The course is certainly challenging, but I would say there are 3 main challenges. The first is at around 6 miles, which is the build up to the Golden Gate Bridge, then again around 10 miles, which is the return. It isn’t the actual bridge that is difficult, but the approach. The third challenge follows around 14 miles, which is Golden Gate park. After 18 the route is mostly flat or down hill. I like challenging courses that are kind at the end, this helps runners stay motivated that they have done the hard part.
With most of the challenge front loaded, I would be confident pacing sub 4 on this course. I would not recommend it as a PB/PR course, but I have certainly run in much more challenging conditions. From 20 miles onwards it was such a great atmosphere. I had a number of runners who were with me from start to finish and this was the time I motivated them to dig deep and keep going. Knowing all the difficult hills were done really helped to keep them moving forward.
At the finish we ran past the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium before running along the waterfront to the finish. We started as 3 pacers together, and finished together. Initially 1 pacer went ahead and I didn’t see her again until the finish. Joyce was just behind me, and was running splits according to the course profile. I ran more closely to average pace, in the middle of the two. For most of the race I was approximately 1 minute ahead of schedule that allowed for tough parts. I slowed going up the challenging climbs, and the downhill sections more than made up for the climbs.
I crossed the finish line in 04:19:40, and Joyce was right behind me. We had a good group of people around us. At the finish I collected 2 medals, because you get the Double Up Challenge medal for doing an event on both days. There were many challenge medals with various combinations for streaks or combinations with other races.
After the marathon I met up with my family, and we picked up our hire car to start the next part of our adventure. We drove south along California 1 and stopped on the way, ending in Monterey.
We went to Fisherman’s Wharf Monterey and ate at the Crab House, where I had a large Crab and cocktails. The kids went to the chocolate shop where they had so many adventurous concoctions including chocolate bacon.
The trip continues… next stop Santa Barbra, via the Big Sur.
