Expo:
The Expo was held at Fort Mason. There weren't any signs (at least that I saw) that pointed to where the expo was actually being held. I knew it was at the Festival Pavilion, but not being from the area and the Fort Mason being so big, I had no clue where it was. I had to ask someone that I saw carrying a San Fran Marathon bag where they got it from. There were a ton of vendors at the expo. It was smart on the races part (for the vendors) to put the bib pickup at the very end of the expo. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't get a chance to stop at any of the vendors. I did stop and speak to the pacers, and I hate to say it, but they weren't very helpful. I asked about their pacing (negative, positive, or even splits) and the pacer said they didn't know, they were just going to run by feel.

Swag:
You get a long sleeve tech tee which fits true to size. It is really cute and I'm excited for cooler weather so I can wear it. You didn't get any swag in the bag they give you, but there were a lot of free samples at the expo and a lot (and I mean a lot) of free samples and food at the race finish. You also get a medal at the finish.

Race:
At the start of the race, whoever was on the microphone, was not very exciting. I think they should have chosen someone with a little more energy to get us pumped up, but that is a small and insignificant detail. the race was well organized. There were plenty of porta potties at the beginning, during, and end of the race.

The course:
The course was a good mix of hills and flats. The first 3.5ish miles are uphill, the next 5ish miles are small rolling (with some big downhills) hills, and the final 4 are super flat. According to my watch (and other results I saw posted on Strava) the course was long. My watch showed 13.37 miles, and I ran all the tangents. Because the course was long, I was hitting the water stops later than I had planned, but I was still taking gels on the scheduled mileage. This meant, I didn't always have water available when taking a gel. There was also quite a bit of uneven roads and fulled in (but still kind of holey) pot holes along the course. I spent much of the race looking down to avoid this holes.
There were some areas of bottle necking in the first few miles, but it was still pretty easy to get around runners by going up in the grass. The spectators were awesome with great signs (some were handing out bananas and watermelon, others were handing out tequila shots).

Final thoughts:

I would definitely recommend this race to someone. I think the 2nd half if great for someone looking to PR, just know some of those downhills can really get you and if your not careful, you could end up with Jello-O legs for the rest of the race. The course was actually hillier than I thought it was going to be. After you exit Golden Gate Park, there are a lot of downhill and gentle rolling hills.
http://www.runlove.net/2016/08/the-san-francisco-2nd-half-marathon.html

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