Project Elevate

changing the narrative around SF via the SF marathon

I had a conversation lately with someone (a rep for a brand we don’t carry) and, mentioning an event I was co-hosting asked what I had hoped to get out of it. In response to my blank look she prompted : more foot traffic to the store, increased sales…? I considered her question, which hasn’t been the first time I’d considered an ROI on an event but the first time anyone ever outright asked me.

After thinking for a moment, I replied ‘to have a good time’ because honestly, that’s always been the goal.¹ The event she mentioned I had back doored my way into co-hosting simply because when I looked at photos last year I had absolutely no FOMO². The goal with any event I put on is never attendance numbers or increased sales³ but rather FOMO. SF is a city with an allergy to commitment and I want to put on events that are so fun, everyone who didn’t attend wishes that they had.

Perhaps that’s why I have so much beef with the SF Marathon. It’s a race that has happened for 49 years, and of the 11 I’ve lived through, never once have I thought ‘I wish I had signed up’. Ask any runner in the city their thoughts and very few have positive things to say about it. I know because I crowdsourced their feedback. Pros : the scenery // cons : everything else.

Last year, Zach Litoff wrote a fantastic essay about everything that’s wrong with the SF marathon and I have nothing to add. The start time is the biggest offender, followed by the marathon’s lack of community engagement and by ‘community’ I mean the city, the businesses, the non-runners. The marathon engages with run clubs via their ambassador program, but even that has missed the mark lately⁴.

While the SF marathon is not a major (a miss, IMO), there is no reason why it can’t have majors energy. LA isn’t a major, however it is treated as such, same as CIM⁵. It’s the only summer marathon in the US where it isn’t 90 degrees and so it attracts a wide range of runners from outside of the city + state (appx. ⅓ to be exact). From a marketing angle alone this would be such low hanging fruit : make Karl the official SF Marathon mascot, put him on the t-shirts + show heat maps of the US at the end of July. I spent the entire weekend last year⁶ apologizing for the terrible summer weather to which everyone replied w/ enthusiasm how delightful it was.

My list of complaints with the race itself (start time!) is long and before I fully digress, the marathon will not change until the organizers decide it should. As a for-profit event, this is unlikely to occur anytime soon.⁷ What I can change, or attempt to drastically shift, is the race experience and what happens along the course.

Welcome to Project Elevate.

if we don’t document it with a mirror selfie did it really happen?

I’m not the only person who feels this way about what should (+ could) be an iconic race, meet the team who wants to shift the narrative. And by ‘shift the narrative’ I mean bring the party because if it’s not a good time, it’s not worth doing. megha + Katherine Britt along with myself + Kimberlee Howley are going to create the change we want to see. Our goals are lofty, but luckily for us we’re a very determined group of ladies.

the roadmap to marathon domination. jkjk katherine loves a pitch deck + assembled something v. professional

If I’m being honest, we have larger goals outside of the marathon but we’re going to start one race at a time, attempting first to change the marathon experience one cheer station at a time. I remember when I was at Lululemon, what got me running consistently was the Seawheeze, a half marathon⁸ started by Lululemon with the goal of showcasing the city of Vancouver in all its glory. The race was set for August, the month Vancouver statistically has the nicest weather (except the one year it rained), and every mile of the course was meticulously planned. Organizers didn’t leave it up to the community to take initiative, they sought out specific cheer stations along the course based on what each neighborhood was known for. First Nation drummers in Kits, drag queens off Davie street. All 13.1 miles an absolute party.

Post run was the Sunset Festival, a party in Stanley Park featuring food trucks, a beer garden + live music. They would usually secure a relevant, of-the-moment band for the performance (remember Fun?) + the entire festival was for runners (+ their families) only.

I signed up for the inaugural event, only to drop out due to lack of training + traveling so often my hip flexors were so tight I couldn’t stand up straight.⁹ I had so much FOMO I decided to fix my hips + start training for next year. I ran it every year after + even paced it the year I left Lulu. In my head it’s still one of the greatest + most fun races I’ve ever had the chance to run.¹⁰

Since the SF Marathon does no favors to engage the community, we’re taking it on ourselves to do just that. To map out the course + identify key areas where cheering is needed due to hills (Sausalito), the early start (Chrissy Field) or lack of residential buildings bringing people to the streets (the Mission). To bring the party we wish would happen. What if we could make all 1.5 miles of Haight street one giant cheer tunnel? What if we could get the Warriors cheerleaders out at Chase Center in Dogpatch? What if we could insert iconic moments throughout the race that shifts the narrative that SF is just a pretty face amongst a humanless .AI driven tech boom?

1. sometimes i wonder if i should have started a event company instead

2. no shade, i’m just not a track girl. running a 5000 around a track is my worst nightmare - i feel the same feeling of dread stepping out on a track i got when i was 15 doing speed work sessions during cross country practices. that said if the vibes were vibing i might be tempted to reconsider my feelings.

3. i’ve always had an ‘if you build it they will come’ mentality with the store. like if i put into the community they’ll give back. the goal has never been profits, despite it being a necessary output to sustain the store (+ my contributions to our household expenses)

4. many of the incentives given to ambassadors have been stripped away, the biggest being free race entries for run club members. each ambassador gets a free entry, however in the past they were gifted additional entries based on community engagement (ie how many sign ups used their discount codes). at nearly $500, the race entry is no small chunk of change, even if you’re local.

5. CIM primarily because of it’s Boston qualifier status. Appx 25-30% of runners achieve their qualifying goal.

6. weather : fog raining and a high of 63

7. what’s the saying? the only person you can change is yourself?

8. because 15 years ago half marathons were the pinnacle distance for most people pre-running boom, pre-everyone running fulls

9. fact : we weren’t allowed to fly business class + i spent so many hours curled up in an economy seat trying to sleep on long haul flights it caused my hip flexors to get so tight it was painful to stand. Luckily our insurance covered deep tissue massages because it took several before the problem resolved itself

10. they’ve revived it this year