LATEST July 31
The San Francisco Marathon has quietly admitted to a significant error in one of its half-marathon courses on Sunday. The marathon’s official time-keeping website updated the “City Half” event to indicate that the course was shorter than the intended 13.1-mile distance. It now lists “2nd Half Marathon (12.6 Miles)” above the results, altering all runners’ pace times. In contrast, the full marathon and the Bridge Half have no such parenthetical distance next to their race results.
The SF Marathon has not provided any information on why this change was made. SFGATE reached out to race director and general manager Lauri Abrahamsen, who confirmed the issue. “We identified the issue,” Abrahamsen stated via text message. “Our USATF course certifier validated that he measured the course incorrectly. We will be emailing the 2nd half participants today.”
July 29, 3:15 p.m.
More than 30,000 runners participated in the San Francisco Marathon over the weekend, including the full 26.2-mile marathon and two separate 13.1-mile half-marathons: the “Bridge Half” and the “City Half.”
Several runners reported discrepancies between the marked course and the actual distance of the City Half. The race was supposed to begin along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Great Highway and follow a specific route through Golden Gate Park. However, a PDF map on the SF Marathon website showed a different route, directing runners to take a shortcut on Metson Drive. This change cut about 0.6 miles from the course. The PDF also incorrectly placed Mile Marker No. 2, leading to further confusion.
Posts on Reddit confirmed the error, with one runner stating, “As I ran closer to the finish, I realized no adjustment was going to be made and that this course was going to be SHORT!!!” Commenters noted that the course should have been certified by USA Track & Field to ensure accurate measurement.
There was also discussion on the San Francisco subreddit, where users posted screenshots of their Strava routes showing the shorter course. Some runners claimed that the Bridge Half course was also short, while the main marathon was reportedly long by 0.2 miles.
Abrahamsen spoke to SFGATE on Monday, acknowledging the need for an investigation. “We really don’t know anything yet,” she said. “It will take some time to investigate what happened. The only thing I’m aware of is what we’ve heard from our runners.” She added that she first heard about the potential mistake from a runner on Sunday and discovered other complaints on Monday morning. While she couldn’t estimate when the race organizers would have answers, she suggested that findings would likely be made public.
SFGATE also interviewed Dave Blank, a City Half runner from Glen Park, who realized early in the race that something was wrong.
