The Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race held in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Established in 1998, it is the original race in the

Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is a collection of road running events owned and operated by the IRONMAN Group's Competitor Group, part of Advance Publications. The series is known for lining race routes with live bands, cheerleaders and themed ...

. The event includes a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

.Cruz, Dan (2010-06-07)
Limo, Gromova take San Diego wins
IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-06-08.

History

It was established in 1998. The 2006 marathon had 21,159 participants—17,339 of whom successfully finished the race. A

race over was added to supplement the established full marathon race from the 2010 edition onwards. In 2013,

Bernard Koech Bernard Kiprop Koech (born 31 January 1988) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who specialises in road running events. He has a personal best of 2:04:53 hours for the marathon and 59:10 minutes for the half marathon. He represented Kenya at the 2013 ...

set the half marathon course record of 58:41. This was the fourth-fastest time ever for the event at the time, although the time did not meet official IAAF requirements as the course contained an excessive downhill. The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

Course

The marathon originally commenced at 6th Avenue at Palm and concluded on Broadway Avenue downtown San Diego. The following year, the finish moved to the Naval Training Center, and three years later moved to the Parade Deck in Marine Corps Recruit Depot. In 2010 a new course was defined which ended at

SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outside aquarium and marine mammal park, in San Diego, California, United States, inside Mission Bay Park. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. SeaWorld San Diego ...

. In 2013, the course was again re-routed with a new finish line at Petco Park. There is also a half-marathon over portions of the same course and a four-person relay option. Runners have seven hours in which to complete the marathon. The four-person relay option has a four-hour time limit.

Foundation controversy

Since its inception, the marathon claims to have raised in excess of $100 million for charities. In 2008 the Competitor Group took over Elite Racing, the company that had been organizing the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. The following year, 2009, an internal audit revealed that the charity in whose name the race had been run, Elite Racing Foundation for Children, Education & Medical Research, had been improperly commingling funds with the for-profit Elite Racing. It further found that the foundation was being operated "in many instances for the benefit of the for-profit," and that the charity's role in hosting the races had been overstated. As a result, the race had benefited improperly from hundreds of thousands of dollars in public subsidies and grants. In announcing the results of the audit, Competitor said it would return $190,500 to

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

and $152,544 to the city of

, spend the remaining foundation funds on health and wellness causes, file amended tax returns, and dissolve the foundation. Competitor Group made the final payments in October 2009. Altogether the company returned $344,176 to the city and county.

Records

In 2015, Harriette Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina, completed the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon at the age of 92 years, 65 days, thus becoming the oldest woman to complete a marathon. In 2017, at the same event, she became the oldest woman to finish a half marathon, at age 94.

Winners

Marathon

Key: Course record (in bold)

Half marathon

Notes

References

External links

San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon & Half Marathon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rock 'N' Roll San Diego Marathon Recurring events established in 1998 Marathons in the United States Sports in San Diego Foot races in California Dalian Wanda Group