Trail Running Blog

Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon, 10K, & 5K Race Report

Disclaimer: I received free entry to the San Francisco Half Marathon, 10K & 5K race as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

The first time I ran the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco 5K was in 2015. I had a client meeting scheduled in San Francisco and decided to make a weekend trip out of it. A few weeks before the trip, I checked to see if there were any races happening that weekend and found this one. I hadn’t been running too much so I didn’t want to run the 10K or half marathon, but the 5K sounded fun. The only thing I remember about the race was that it was not as hilly as I expected it to be, it was pretty foggy just before the race started, and I won my age group, which I was pleasantly surprised to find out. I ran the 10K this year but did not win my age group, unfortunately. Here are the results: 6.2 mi, 51:01 (8:13 min/mi), AG 36 of 135, Gender 200 of 786, and Overall 301 of 1,981.

One thing I noticed when running the race was how many people were on the course! It felt like one of the bigger races I’ve run in a while, but I think it was more because there were no corrals and all runners essentially started at the same time. The first quarter mile or so was fairly congested and I had to zig-zag to avoid slower runners. The course was a point to point route, which meant that the start line was different from the finish line. I actually prefer those types of races since we don’t have to run the same part of the course twice, it helps to keep things fresh. Most of the race took place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which is one of my favorite parks to visit. It is so big and there are so many different things you can do there. I included pictures of the view from the observation deck of the de Young museum (free to visit by the way). There was enough hydration and support throughout the course. There were at least two points in the course where I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way. There were volunteers that helped separate runners of the different race distances as well as signs along the way. But there were points where the cones seemed to lead us in a different direction, but there usually was a volunteer around that point that I assume would have said something if I started going the wrong way. The finish line had crowds cheering us on and the post-race snacks were a welcome treat. The other thing I liked about the San Francisco Half Marathon, 10K, & 5K is that they will mail you the race bib weeks before the race so you don’t have to worry about coming the day before the race just to pick up your race bib. If you registered too late, they did give you the option to pick up the race bib the morning of the race for a $10 fee, which isn’t too bad. Overall, I think this was a well-organized race and a great place to PR and run fast. Register for next year’s race here.