8th Annual Oakland Running Festival Marathon ~ 2017

                        

The 8th Annual Oakland Running Festival Marathon takes runners along some of the city’s most notable sights through a combination of downtown areas and residential neighborhoods, and nearly all the way around the waters of Lake Merritt just east of downtown, past the campus of Laney College and through Lake Merritt Channel Park. Those running the half marathon share the same starting line as those running the full marathon, on 19th in downtown Oakland near Lake Merritt.

 

runners along Lake Merritt on
Bellevue Ave., Oakland

iPhone photo by Styrous®

From there, those running the half follow an out-and-back loop course that follows a roughly clockwise direction around the city, first north along Broadway for a run past the Paramount Theatre and then left onto Grand Avenue. The course then turns left onto Martin Luther King Jr. Way and then follows southward past Lafayette Park to 8th Street, where runners turn left again and heads east toward Chinatown, and then turns left again on Harrison Street. 

The next stretch of the race follows turns on 14th Street, Madison Street and 10th Street, as runners make their way to the race’s first significant downhill stretch around the mile 3 marker.  

The course then drops in elevation between miles 3 and 4 as runners make their way around Laney College and the Frank Youell Athletic Field, turning right on 5th Street and then again on 7th Street, toward the stretch of the race through miles 5 and 6 along the Oakland Waterfront, taking runners past the Oakland Inner Harbor.  

As runners make their way past the waterfront, they next start the stretch of the race that takes them along the northernmost part of the half marathon route, northward along Cypress Street up to 26th Street, where they turn right and head east toward 27th Street.  

Between miles 8 and 9 runners hit what is the biggest uphill stretch of the half route, and then keep heading eastward to the stretch that takes them through Lakeside Park and around Lake Merritt. After the run around the lake, runners head back into downtown for the finish back on Broadway.

Lake Merritt segment of the run

Styrous® ~ Sunday, April 2, 2017

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