How This Race Shot Itself In The Foot.
A case study of an almost perfect event that just can’t get it right... The San Francisco Marathon
“You don’t get to hate San Francisco. You don’t get to hate it unless you love it”
- a quote from one the best movies about San Francisco, The last Black man in San Francisco.
Im just putting this out there: I love this city. I love our Running community. I have MANY friends that worked really hard to make this race a success. And the SF marathon is truly one of the greatest marathons in the world. It just gets ONE thing wrong every time.
I also want to make a disclaimer. I was traveling this year during the marathon so I didn’t actually get to watch it live. That being said I’ve watched it in the past and im very tapped into this race through social media and SO many friends who partook.
What sets up the SF marathon for success
we live in the one of the only major cities In the northern hemisphere that can host a marathon in late July
(its just too hot everywhere else)
this is the biggest advantage ever we have NO competition for who wants to run a marathon this time of year
like act
Our city is god damn gorgeous
The Rapid City marathon in South Dakota is also the same day… maybe I’m wrong but I feel like most people would rather run through the streets of S.F. than Rapid City S.D.
Film Photo of Tracksmith 5000 San Francisco 2024 Our running community is quite massive
I’m not just talking SF… the SF marathon is the biggest Marathon in the Bay Area… and the Bay Area is almost as big as NYC in population.
The money is here
Love it or hate it, money makes the world go round. And it makes it a lot easier to put on races. and the bay is the economic engine of California if not the whole USA, if not the world.
What this race did right
Local activation’s
Shout out to Running WYLDER
Katie Douglas the founder of running WYLDER hosted this Amazing street race the day before before the actual race. Then hosted an after party after the race. Where she brought in local Tattoo artistsThere were tons of other activations from other running stores and major brands of all kinds, But Katie is killing it and I really just wanted to highlight her
-Run Club Integration
There were so so many of these, but to highlight one I’ll highlight the PUMA X Unseen Run Club shakeout the day before and cheer zone day of.
Relying on the community
SF marathon has a gem of a human in Damaris Gutierrez who manages all community. Without her this city’s running would be much worse off and this race would have MUCH less connection to the actual community
Honestly decent merch designs
I offered to help with the designs for this race, for very cheap, but rumor has it the OWNER’s son? Daughter? Nephew? Niece? designed it. And let me say… not bad. You’re going places kid (or not kid idk).PHENOMANAL course.
critique it how you want its a great course.
What this race did wrong
One thing: 5am start time.
It makes me sad. Like honestly sad. SF has this GEM of an opportunity and the race is blowing it because they likely can’t afford the pay for permits to close the streets all day.
If there’s another reason please let me know but I honestly can’t think of any other reason.
33,000 people ran the SF marathon. About the same ran Boston. And the entire Boston course is lined with fans 26miles of fans.
why is this?
I bealive 50% of the reason is Boston starts at 9:30
I’ll give the other 50% to Bostons history… but hey, how do you build history. You start Right now.
Imagine waking up at 5am to cheer on your freinds. Thats a hard ask.
imagine waking up at 5:00 am to cheer on strangers. That’s a harder ask
SF marathon I understand you may not have the money to do this. But fuck it why not try…
Ask the new mayor Daniel Lurie to cut you an exception
Ask fucking Salesforce or apple or google or meta, or open AI, or any of the BILLION dollar companies here to sponsor your race…
PUMA is your lead sponsor? PUMA is a great sponsor, but puma should be the lead apparel or lead shoe sponsor not the lead sponsor.
Taiwan, the country’s tourism board, is your #2 sponsor followed by China airlines
WTF? Why??
the money is here. We live in the economic center of the whole fucking world.
If we had a 8am start time like the NYC Marathon this race would explode. I am willing to bet in 5 years time the SF marathon would be consideration for a world Major.
ok thats a hot take, but our streets would be lined. The business’s would be booming. Our city would be Bustling on SF’s marathon weekend.
Anyway I made a fun shirt for this race…
thanks Puma for trusting me with that.
Maybe the city of SF will trust me next and listen to my advice:
MAKE THIS RACE START AT A NORMAL FUCKING TIME FOR THE LOVE OF WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE IN, YOU’RE SHOOTING OUR GEM OF A BILLION DOLLAR RACE OPPORTUNITY, AND OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THE MOST FUN EVENT EVER IN THE HEAD. EVERY. FUCKING. YEAR.
going to close this one off with a huge congratulations to everyone who ran this race! and a huge thank you to everyone who helped make this race happen this year.
REALLY Hoping to be in town for it next year,
Zach Litoff
July 30 2025
Yessssss keep the hot takes coming! I reallyyyy like your start time point about Boston. Seems so obvious now and glad you spelled it out!
no hot takes here only facts. i totally agree that with the right positioning the SF marathon could be as big as NYC. name another race (besides new york) where you run through all the highlights of a city?
what the SF marathon needs is some bay to breakers energy. it takes itself too seriously, too may events, feels too traditional. it needs to loosen up, let its hair down and encourage ppl to come out and support. work on getting the non-running community engaged. fine we can’t start later for whatever reason (eye roll) then offer like free pancakes and a bounce house for kiddos out in chrissy field. offer a prize for the most enthusiastic cheer station + let the runners vote.
thanks for the shout out, i really appreciate it. the weekend was wild and general feedback was that the community here is craving some out of the box events. can’t wait to do it all again next year! (no trips to europe this time, ha)