San Francisco Marathon is a serious and challenging race. The runners may choose between different marathon courses of various complexity. The full marathon loop course stretches over 42 kilometers or 26.2 miles around the entire city. It begins at the Embarcadero, then heads through Chrissy Field, runs along the Golden Gate Bridge, crosses Golden Gate Park, the Haight, covers the Mission District, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Marina, and virtually a plenty of important San Francisco’s sites.
The runners may also choose less complicated courses—either the first or the second half of the main marathon with the Golden Gate Park as a breaking point, and also a 5K race that starts south of the Ferry Building, runs through the Bay Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf and ends at the same Ferry Building, just this time north of it. Those who feel like challenging themselves might opt for Ultra Marathon which, in fact, is the double full marathon. The first loop of Ultramarathon runs in the opposite direction to the main course, and then the runners join the runners in the official full marathon. This race takes place annually at the end of July since 1977.
