Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Friday, December 4: 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
• Saturday, December 5: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

• Mandatory pickup: 'All packets must be picked up at the CIM Expo. There will be no race day pick-up.' If you land late Saturday after 5:00 p.m., you do not run.
• Bring a government-issued photo ID plus your confirmation QR code from your final instructions; without both you can be turned away.
• Proxy pickup is allowed but strict: the proxy must bring a copy of your final instructions with QR code and a copy of your photo ID.
• Relay packets cannot be split for individual pickup. One teammate collects the whole team's packets and must have every runner's QR code and know which leg each runner is assigned.
• The expo venue doubles as race-morning bus Location A (K St & 13th St), and is the only place with gear check, so scout it during the expo.
• Gear check operates only during expo hours and during bus loading at the Convention Center. There is NO gear check at the start line.
• Expo parking and expo shuttle details were still listed as TBD on the race site as of this check.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Point to point: runners stay downtown near the finish and MUST ride an official bus to the start. 'Runners may NOT drive themselves to the start' and there is no vehicle access to the start area; there are no return buses after scheduled departures. Staying downtown means Location A behind the Convention Center, where every bus leaves by 4:30 a.m. sharp, roughly 2.5 hours before the 7:00 a.m. gun. Because the expo is the only gear check, anything you want at the finish goes into the gear bag at bus loading. Site contradiction: the race homepage lists the race as December 6, 2026 (making the expo Friday Dec 4 and Saturday Dec 5), while the General Information page still reads 'promptly at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 2025' and bus times there may likewise be carried over from the prior year. Confirm times in your final instructions email.

Getting there

Treat race morning as a walking and bus problem, not a driving one. Downtown finish streets including Capitol Mall and L Street close from 4:00 a.m. and reopen only between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m., so a car parked outside the closure line is stranded from you and a car parked inside it is stranded until afternoon — park it Saturday and forget it. CIM's free buses are the only sanctioned way to the start (bib is the ticket), and there is no gear check at the start, so whatever you carry to the bus you leave behind or discard. The measured light rail platforms at 8th and Capitol and 7th and Capitol sit essentially at the finish line, which makes them useful for spectators and for Sunday afternoon, but I could not verify SacRT's Sunday first-train time and would not plan a 4:30 a.m. bus connection around them.

• Getting to the start (the non-negotiable part). Runners may not drive to the start and there is no vehicle access there. From downtown, board Location A behind the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center west lobby at K Street & 13th St; buses depart by 4:30 a.m. sharp. Point West is Location B, 1780 Tribute Road, departing by 5:00 a.m. sharp. Folsom is Location C (261 Iron Point Rd, Century Theater lot) and Location D (2475 Iron Point Rd, Sam's Club lot), running continuously 5:00-5:30 a.m. Granite Bay is Location E, 6845 Douglas Blvd at the Raley's plaza, running 5:15-6:15 a.m.
• Parking, and the towing question. CIM warns that parking is not guaranteed at the bus boarding locations and that vehicles left in restricted areas may be towed or ticketed — that is the only towing language the race publishes, and it attaches to the shuttle lots, not to a downtown enforcement hour I could source. Downtown, metered street parking, lots and garages are described as available on race morning, and spectators are told to arrive early for street or garage parking on the south side of the finish area. Because the downtown closure begins at 4:00 a.m., anything you want to drive should be parked before then.
• Can a car reach the hotels?. Yes on Saturday, largely no on Sunday morning. The finish-area hotels sit inside the 4:00 a.m. Capitol Mall / L Street closure envelope, so arriving by car Sunday morning means approaching from outside the ring and walking in. CIM has partnered with WAZE for live closure routing, and notes the closures are mandated by CHP, Sacramento PD and Folsom PD — they are not advisory. Mid-course Fair Oaks Blvd closures roll from 6:50-7:30 a.m. and reopen anywhere from 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., which matters if anyone is driving between the course and downtown mid-race. For drop-off, the race designates a rideshare drop at Roosevelt Park.
• Getting back to your room after finishing. If you are downtown, you walk — that is the whole argument for staying there. You exit the finish chute at 7th & Capitol Mall, collect gear at 9th Street & Capitol Mall next to the Sutter Club VIP area, and meet family in the Runner Reunion Zone in the Capitol Mall grass median between 8th and 9th, alphabetized A-Z. From there a Hyatt Centric or Citizen room is a 3-5 minute shuffle. If you are at a Point West or Folsom partner hotel, return buses load on N Street between 9th and 10th with continuous service from 10:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. (Point West hotels list their window as 11:00 a.m.-1:45 p.m.), so a slow finisher needs to watch that 1:45 p.m. cutoff carefully.
• Dinner the night before. Keep it inside the closure ring so nothing depends on a car. The J Street corridor between the Sheraton Grand at 1230 J Street and the finish at 7th & Capitol Mall is a flat 10-minute walk end to end and is the natural Saturday-night radius; I did not verify a specific restaurant from a source page, so pick from that stretch rather than trusting a name I have not confirmed.

Parking near the course endpoints

These are mapped garages near the course, not a promise of race-day access. Check closures and pre-booking rules with the organizer.

• Capitol Garage4 minute modeled walk to finish
• City Hall Parking Garage7 minute modeled walk to finish
• ACE Parking8 minute modeled walk to finish
• County Public Parking9 minute modeled walk to finish
• 500 R Street Garage10 minute modeled walk to finish
• Old Sacramento Garage11 minute modeled walk to finish
• Tower Bridge Garage11 minute modeled walk to finish
• East End Garage12 minute modeled walk to finish
• Memorial Garage12 minute modeled walk to finish
• R Street Parking Plaza13 minute modeled walk to finish

Published entry tiers

Checked 2026-08-27; fees and tiers can change.