Date: Sunday March 23rd, 2025 – 7:00am
Price: Up to $160
Recommended: No
A clear opening statement.
Should you support a grifting expensive cash grab like this?
We suggest no. For one, they support a charity ran by people who openly supported and used their stardom to promote K. Harris. We’re not even going to mention them, because they really let Oakland down doing that.
We Americans must put our money where our mouth is. Oakland went to trash under this kind of leadership.
And they have weird statements like this on their website.
It is with this spirit that we build the Oakland Marathon as a place for everyone in the community. To be one of the most diverse and inclusive events in the world. A place for people to gather and harness the positive energy of thousands of people moving together to reach their goals.
Awards are provided in three categories: Men, Women and Non-Binary+.
Is it a race or a Pride Parade?
How did we go from unlimited genders to only 3 here?
Is it two? Unlimited or a set amount of three now?
The Oakland Running Festival or Oakland Marathon takes place once a year around the beginning of Spring. It started in 2010 and is currently in it’s 15th year and has been voted the “Best marathon in the PAC West” by Reader Choice Awards. I wonder how much they were paid for that.
$160 base registration cost. Don’t expect a lot of people to fall for that.
The marathon actually consist of several races and classes to compete in, each costing quite a bit to register in. The full marathon is 26.2 miles around Oakland(the word marathon actually means a foot race of 26 miles and 385 yards). There is the half marathon, at only 13 miles and the 5k which is about 3.1 miles, the same as the distance around Lake Merritt.
The race itself spends more time going through the Port of Oakland area to the Bay Bridge out and back because if they ran through the true streets of Oakland most spectators would be robbed and assaulted. It does grace the lake, downtown to Jack London Square before banning you to the POO wastelands. POO? Port of Oakland. It’s OK, I can call it that because I used to work there and that’s what we called it. Race Map.
The Oakland Running Festival was a very much needed boost to the local economy and in the past was estimated to have brought in over 12 million in hotel, restaurant and tourism revenues for the City of Oakland as well as helping raise about a million dollars for local charities over the first 9 years.
It might be under new ownership(says a lot) but in the past, what was known about the event organizers, there is said to be only one. Only one person reaping in the profits and commissions as everyone else volunteers. There has been shady practice in the past where you are forced to register through a service that pops an unsuspecting free trial that suddenly charges you a $59 membership fee. While now they use Active Endurance it seems to be the same as Active Advantage. So be aware of that while signing up.
And they are shady with all that pure profit.
The “awards” are laughable. A keychain for a handful of people. Big stuff here.
Have a good run Oakland!
Route Map
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