Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Friday, July 24, 2026 (race site's expo page instead says Friday, July 23): 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
• Saturday, July 25, 2026 (race site's expo page instead says Saturday, July 24): 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and the race site flags these hours as subject to change

• There is no race-morning pickup. The race's expo page states flatly that race day pickup will not be available, so the two expo days are the entire window unless you paid for bib mailing.
• The expo is at Fort Mason on the Marina, while every start and the finish are at the Embarcadero. It is a separate trip across town from the start area and the downtown hotels, not something you swing by on the way to the corrals.
• Bring a government photo ID. It is required to collect your own packet.
• A friend or relative can collect for you, but they must present your photo ID (a copy is what the race describes as acceptable when someone else picks up) and know your bib number. Send them a photo of your ID in advance.
• Saturday's races start before the expo opens. The 5K goes off at 8:00 am and the 1K at 9:00 am, while the expo doors do not open until 9:00 am Saturday. If you are running Saturday you have to collect on Friday.
• The Ultra's first loop leaves at 10:15 pm Saturday per the race's schedule, hours after the expo has shut for the weekend, so Ultra runners also have no Saturday-evening pickup fallback.
• Shirt size is locked to what is printed on your bib at pickup. You cannot swap at the expo; exchanges happen only at the T-shirt tent at the finish on race day, subject to what is left.
• If you paid to have your bib mailed, your shirt and any other included items are not mailed with it. You collect them at the finish line festival after you run.
• If a mailed bib never turns up, the fix is to go to the expo and be reassigned a bib, which means a mailed-bib runner still needs an expo contingency plan.
• Friday is the quieter day; both the race and the venue push Friday pickup to avoid the Saturday crush.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Race weekend is Saturday July 25 and Sunday July 26, 2026, with the expo on the two preceding days. The race site labels every start time as subject to change, and its own expo page carries a set of dates one day earlier than both the venue's listing and its own race-weekend page, so re-check the expo days a week out. The second half marathon is the one outlier geographically: it starts inside Golden Gate Park rather than on the Embarcadero, so its runners need transport out and back even though the finish is downtown with everyone else.

Getting there

The single fact that decides your morning is that BART does not run early enough. BART's first Sunday trains are around 8:00 a.m. systemwide, and the race is off before dawn: SFMTA gives a 5:30 a.m. start with staggered waves from 5:15 a.m., and SF Travel's guide says 5:30 a.m. at Embarcadero and Mission (SFMTA locates the start at The Embarcadero and Howard). So Embarcadero and Montgomery Street BART stations are useless to you on the way in and only become useful after you have already finished. Overnight, the N Owl is the thing that actually runs, and it is rerouted midnight to 7:00 a.m. in both directions, so its stop is not where the map says. The practical rule: get yourself within walking distance the night before, walk to the start, and save transit for the trip back once BART wakes up and the barricades come down around 3:00 p.m. If you need a Muni line on race morning, SFMTA's own advice is to call SF 311, open 24/7, for the alternate stop rather than trusting the posted one.

• Embarcadero Station (BART and Muni Metro). Sits directly under the start and finish area, which makes it the obvious answer and the wrong one. Sunday BART service begins around 8:00 a.m., roughly two and a half hours after the gun, so it cannot get you to the line. Where it earns its keep is afterward: the finish is at Embarcadero and Folsom, the station is right there, and by the time a mid-pack marathoner is done BART is running normally. If you are staying across the bay or in the Mission, this is your ride home rather than your ride in.
• Montgomery Street Station. One stop inland and the fallback if Embarcadero's platforms are crushed after the finish. Same Sunday constraint applies, no service until roughly 8:00 a.m., so it is an exit route only. Its real advantage is that it sits behind the closure line on the Financial District side, which means the streets above it are open to cars for longer than the waterfront.
• Salesforce Transit Center. The regional bus hub, and the piece that matters if you are coming in from the East Bay or the Peninsula by coach rather than rail. It is inland of the Embarcadero closure, so buses can generally still reach it while the waterfront is sealed. Check your specific operator's Sunday first departure directly, because a regional coach schedule is not the same animal as BART's, and nothing I read gave first-bus times for race morning.
• Muni on race morning, and what is broken. SFMTA reroutes a long list of lines from roughly 5:00 a.m. to noon: 6, 7, 8, 12, 15, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 30, 33, 37, 39, 43, 44 and 55, plus the N Judah bus 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and the T Third bus 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. The F Market runs bus shuttles 5:00 to 11:00 a.m. with no service along Market Street until 11:00 a.m. The 22 Fillmore is split with a forced transfer at Mission and 18th from 5:00 a.m. to noon. Stops in affected areas are simply skipped, not moved to an obvious alternative, which is why SFMTA points people at 311 rather than at a map.
• Driving and parking. Assume the car is a liability from Saturday evening. Closures start Saturday at 9:00 p.m. by SFMTA's account and run until roughly 3:00 p.m. Sunday. If you must drive north-south across the city that morning, the race's own advisory names 19th Avenue / Park Presidio as the through route, Kezar Drive as the way around the Haight closure, and Highway 280 or 101 as the way around the Mission closures on 15th, 16th and 17th Streets. The Golden Gate Bridge itself stays open to vehicles in both directions even though the course crosses it. Park in your hotel's garage on Saturday and leave it there. I could not confirm the tow-away policy or its start time for this event, so if you are parked on a street anywhere near the course, move the car Saturday afternoon rather than gambling on it.
• Getting back to your room after you finish. This is the argument for the waterfront hotels in one sentence: you finish at Embarcadero and Folsom and you are already home. From anywhere else, walking is the reliable option, because Market Street has no F service until 11:00 a.m. and most Muni lines are still rerouted until noon. If you are heading somewhere across town, BART from Embarcadero or Montgomery is running normally by then and is the cleanest way out. Rideshare pickup near the finish will be a scrum against closed streets until the barricades lift around 3:00 p.m.; walk a few blocks inland before you order one.
• Dinner the night before. Perbacco, near the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations in the Financial District, serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m., which lines up exactly with a Saturday night before a 5:30 a.m. start. It is Piedmontese and Ligurian cooking with a serious pasta list, it is a walk of a few blocks from any of the four measured waterfront hotels, and the early seating gets you fed and back in the room before the streets start closing at 9:00 p.m. Book it, because it is a Financial District room that fills on weekends. Note that it is closed Sundays, so this only works as a night-before meal, not a celebration dinner.

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.

• Palace Garage13 minute modeled walk to start
• SFMOMA Garage14 minute modeled walk to start
• Moscone Center Garage16 minute modeled walk to start
• Sutter Stockton Garage16 minute modeled walk to start

Published entry tiers

Checked 2026-08-26; fees and tiers can change.