First and foremost this is just a stunning marathon. It's a real early start - gun goes off at 5:30am along the Embarcadero but it means you have the opportunity to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. This wasn't something I was terribly excited about but it was super cool. Only downside is that it means that the crowd support is a little lacking at times.

Course: It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but there's a lot of hills in this race, but honestly I thought it would be worse. The hills up to the Presidio are real steep but they come early in the race - otherwise it's mostly rolling hills. Sometimes you forget you're running hills because of the stunning views that you are treated to.

Lodging: We found an AirBnB in the Mission which worked really well for us.

Gear: The shirt was a pretty standard long sleeve running shirt but the image on it is a good one. Medal is nice.

Overall: Do this race. It is just so beautiful and you go all over the city.