Mixed feelings. Got off to a rough start but made amends. I signed up for bib mailing in advance, didn’t get it, and called the organizer during race week. It took me three emails and two phone calls before I could get ahold of him. I said hey something happened I just want to make sure I have a bib. He was defensive and insistent I had done something wrong when I had not, and even quizzed me on my own address which I had entered correctly. I went to the expo (not planned) and got a replacement bib and mailing refund. Guess what? No time for either bib. I was super sad and called again. He was able to get me my time and even made amends by offering me a discounted entry for next year. He admitted I got put through the ringer and apologized and said it was atypical. I’m glad he was nice and happy in the end. Mixed feelings. Decent race.

This race was a part of the Golden State series, where if you ran the Livermore half, the Oakland half, and the San Francisco Golden gate half, you would get a special medal and such. I picked up the promotional marketing materials for it in January. As the year wore on, without notice, they took away the Oakland half which no longer exists (“the Town”), then added and required the Santa Barbara half, and then did away with the series entirely. Throughout the year, their promotion, for which I had several different copies of marketing materials, kept changing. I emailed them politely with each change, and with each change had a hard time with their company. By the end of the year when I ran the final race, they gave me a really hard time when I tried to have them honor the series. Eventually they gave me a medal from a previous year so that I would go away. But this was really disappointing. The whole reason I signed up for these races was to complete the series, because I have a goal to complete a series every year. This company should’ve handled it differently from the outset of the year and not promoted something that they didn’t do.

These were some of the nicest volunteers I’ve ever seen at a race, and the whole community really rallied behind the purpose of being there for Asian and Pacific Islander youths. I ran the San Francisco race. I live outside of the city, so it was really nice that they offered same-day bib pickup and free parking on the premises. They gave a lot of Hawaiian food, the shirt was quality with a cute design and teal color, and they even started the race with a conch shell. They brought out a lot of high school volunteers to cheer at several designated spots wearing leis and with noisemakers, and it appeared that the elders handing out spam sushi had handmade them. A nice older lady joked with me over Hawaiian sweet rolls. The whole experience was just very charming, and you could tell the people had put in a lot of thought and effort, and they were super nice! I would run this again and highly recommend it San Francisco for a smaller but quality community race.

This race is a little on the pricier side, but you really get what you pay for! The expo is in the stadium, there are a ton of vendors, and there are even activities that you can do while there. The shirts are always cute, and the medals were very intricate and well-designed both years. One year, it was the Giants’ sea lion mascot riding in a cable car surrounded by palm trees, and the next year it was an old-school official looking jersey. How cute is that? Not only that, but the course is nice as well. It’s just a straight and flat run from the front of the stadium down the Embarcadero and back, and you get to end on the field under a huge finish line with your video and face on the Jumbotron. Family and friends can come cheer you on by sitting in the stands! And when you finish on the field, you get to stay there and wander around and even even go into the dugout. They also had a lot of stuff to eat and drink at the finish line, and some people went to the concession stands instead for their baseball related cravings - I was surprised this were even open. The whole thing is just so well done. I’m not big for repeating races, but I will probably run this a third time and maybe even others. I do have one small criticism: with as much as the race costs, I wish they wouldn’t charge for parking at all, and even if they do on race day, they should drop it or make it less expensive for the expo.

Hot chocolate runs are famous for their swag, and they do not disappoint! There was so much, everywhere! To me, the most memorable part was taking pictures with giant inflatable marshmallows - who named Marshall the marshmallow? Hysterical and cute. I liked how this race had a unique distance that you could choose to run (15k), and the course was very scenic through Golden Gate Park. The only thing is, this race is in January in San Francisco and it starts really early in the morning, so it’s really cold outside and you have to get there very early and wait around for a period of time. There were about 100+ of us who were sitting inside a nearby parking structure to keep warm. I think the racetried to have a little bit of heat in a big tent where you could buy stuff, but there was nowhere to sit and you couldn’t really hang around and it was cold nevertheless. So, it would be nice if they had somewhere for the runners to go, since you get bussed to the race site so early and sit around for over an hour. But, no race is perfect and I wouldn’t discount things because of that part; instead I would highly recommend bringing warm clothes and doing a gear check (live and learn). With this race, you got what you paid for, which was a lot, and I had an enjoyable experience!