Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Friday, June 4, 2027: 12:00pm - 7:00pm
• Saturday, June 5, 2027: 9:00am - 5:00pm

• Mandatory pickup: the event site states all participants must visit the expo to pick up their race packets. No race-day pickup option is advertised anywhere on the event pages fetched.
• Photo ID required: the FAQ states you must pick up your own race packet and race number and must show a photo ID to receive your race number and timing chip. Read literally this rules out a friend or spouse collecting your bib.
• Only two windows exist and the last one closes Saturday at 5:00pm, the evening before the Sunday marathon. Fly-in-Saturday-night runners have no way to get a bib.
• The expo is at the Convention Center on the downtown waterfront, near the FINISH area, not the Balboa Park start. Convenient if you are staying downtown per the point-to-point lodging pattern.
• Saturday collides with the 5K: the 5K runs 7:00am with its finish festival until 11:00am in Balboa Park, while the expo does not open until 9:00am. Doing the 5K and then the expo means a second trip downtown.
• Gear bags are distributed at the expo: the FAQ says participants receive a large durable gear bag at the Health & Fitness Expo. Skipping the expo bag means no gear check bag on race morning.
• Expo is free and open to the public.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Dates and times are the event site's posted 2027 edition (race weekend June 5-6, 2027), checked August 2026; Rock 'n' Roll frequently revises times, reconfirm in race week. Two hard traps: the expo's last window ends 5:00pm Saturday with no race-day pickup advertised, and gear check on Sunday closes at 6:30am, 45 minutes before the wave of runners still walking up from downtown would like it to. Marathon runners must start in the first 15 corrals and clear Mile 8.3 by 9:05am or be diverted, which is roughly a 5:50/mile-to-13:20/mile envelope depending on corral, so a late corral plus a slow first 8 miles ends the marathon early. CONTRADICTION on the event's own site: the schedule page lists the Sunday start as Sixth Ave & Quince St in Balboa Park with the Finish Line Festival at Waterfront Park, while the race-week page lists start line 'S Market St at Viola Ave' and finish 'Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park' for both the 5K and the Sunday races. The Balboa Park start / Waterfront Park finish reading matches the event overview page and the gear-check locations; the S Market St reading appears to be stale or cross-event boilerplate. Verify in the final race-week email. Posted time limits: 5K one hour, half marathon four hours, marathon seven hours.

Getting there

Transit works for this race, which is unusual for a 6:15 a.m. start. MTS runs deliberately early service on race Sunday: the UC San Diego Blue Line from San Ysidro starts at 4:34 a.m. and reaches Fifth Avenue Station, 1.4 miles from the start; the Green Line leaves El Cajon as early as 4:59 a.m. for County Center/Little Italy, 1.6 miles from the start; the Orange Line begins at 5:15 a.m. but has a weekend service closure between Lemon Grove and Euclid Avenue, and MTS itself recommends the Green Line instead (MTS transit guide). Note that no trolley station puts you at the start line: every option ends with a mile-plus walk, which is fine as a warm-up but must be in your timeline. Fares are standard adult $2.50 one-way on a PRONTO card, loadable at ticket machines with cash or card, or through the app. Bus and trolley routes themselves detour on race day (official traffic page), so confirm your specific line the night before rather than trusting a stored route.

• Race morning to the start. Plan the walk, not the ride. From downtown lodging, either walk 25 to 30 minutes north up Fifth or Sixth to Sixth and Quince, or ride one stop and walk the remaining 1.4 to 1.6 miles. Because Sixth Avenue closes as early as 2 a.m., anything on wheels stops well short of the corral, so leave the hotel by about 5:00 to 5:15 a.m. to absorb bag drop and portable-toilet lines.
• Driving and parking. Assume the car is parked from Saturday evening until Sunday afternoon. Most closures and detours hold 5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the whole route goes to soft closure at 5:30, and streets reopen only progressively as runners clear (official traffic page). The same page references no-parking tow-away zones along the route but keeps the street list in a downloadable brochure, so if your hotel is on or near Sixth Avenue, verify your garage is outside the barricade line before you park. The race points people at Waze for live routing and publishes neighborhood access maps for Mission Hills, North Park/Normal Heights and Downtown.
• Getting back to your room after finishing. If you stayed downtown, you walk. That is the entire plan, and it is why downtown is the recommended base. If you stayed on the Balboa Park side, ride the trolley back out from a downtown station rather than trying to walk uphill through a course that has not fully reopened, or arrange a rideshare pickup several blocks off the route since drivers cannot cross the corridor before it clears.
• Non-runner logistics. Spectators are well served here: MTS notes multiple viewing points close to trolley stations along both the marathon and half courses, so a partner can leapfrog the course by rail instead of driving into a closed grid.
• A date discrepancy worth checking. The race's own traffic-impact page was still showing the prior edition when read, listing the Sunday marathon and half as June 1 and the Saturday 5K as May 31, while 2026 news coverage of the closures gives race Sunday as May 31, 2026 with a 6:15 a.m. start. Both readings are recorded here; treat the closure windows (5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) as the durable part and confirm the calendar date against your own confirmation email.
• Dinner the night before. Buona Forchetta in South Park for Neapolitan pizza, or Filippi's Pizza Grotto on India Street in Little Italy if you want the old-school red-sauce version within walking distance of downtown lodging. Stated plainly: this pick is general knowledge, not from any page fetched for this dossier, so check current hours and book ahead.

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.

• Best Western Plus Bayside Inn Parking3 minute modeled walk to finish
• Civic Center Plaza Parking Garage4 minute modeled walk to finish
• Little Italy Parking Garage5 minute modeled walk to finish
• U.S. Grant Hotel Parking7 minute modeled walk to finish
• Ace Parking10 minute modeled walk to finish
• Park It On Market14 minute modeled walk to finish

Published entry tiers

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