Beer City Half

Beer City Half takes you to great places in California for great racing, beer, and more. Each race includes half-marathon, 10k, 5k distances as well as The Beer Stroll for less-active family and friends. There's also the Beat the Beast Beer Mile, which challenges you to drink 4 beers while staying ahead of a different Beer City Mascot with each race.

Beer City is a series of races that take place in Northern California, in the East Bay, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and San Jose. Each one is a celebration of regional brewing. Each one is also a kickass competition for competitive runners.

You earn points for each Beer City race you run. The more you race, the more points you earn. The more points you have, the more likely you are to win something.

The scoring goes like this:

• The half marathons earn you 10% more points than the 5k and 10k which are weighted the same. 
• The top 25 by gender earn extra points from 50 for 1st place to 25 for the 25th place runner.
• The top 5 by age group earn extra points from 5 for 1st place to 1 for 5th.
• Everyone earns at least 1 point for each race.

The leaderboard tracks all of this and we present overall, gender, and age group standings. The men's and women's champions earn The Golden Growler presented by Almanac Brewing. 2nd and 3rd place finishers receive special awards as well, including gift certificates to visit the Almanac Tasting Room. 

Watch for announcements on Age Group and other Awards!

Beer City practices radical acceptance of deferrals and transfers. You can defer or transfer at any time up until race day (but not after the race has taken place.) This includes gifting your registration to a friend.

Here are your options. You can:

• Defer until next year's race. We sign you up automatically after registration opens for next year's race.
• Transfer your race to a friend. They can come and enjoy a good time.
• Transfer to any other Beer City between now and a year from now. You join us in the future!

All of these options are available to you by selecting Manage Registration in your profile. Here is a little tutorial on how to manage your registration.  It's all free of charge. 

As to refunds, we don't offer cash refunds under any circumstance. Please consider purchasing race insurance. This is exactly what it's here for.

At each Beer City, you receive a comfy Beer City t-shirt, a unique Key to Beer City for each city, a custom bib, Beer City tasting glass, custom bib  and free race photos. If you're a Slammer, you'll receive a custom lanyard to hold all your keys as well as pins you may earn along the way. 

Podium trophies are given to the top 3 in each race by gender. Age group awards are given 3-deep in each race. Racing the whole Series puts you in contention for the Golden Growler Award. 

Beer City takes you to places all over Northern California. Each place and each Beer City is unique because we introduce you to local brewers, food vendors, and artisans you might not meet otherwise. Great brewing is local, as you'll find in Beer City, and we go out of our way to give you a sense of the place we are gathering.

Often you'll find that a Beer City has a special wrinkle just for you. Maybe there is Hot Chocolate, Ice Cream, or Donuts. Or maybe there's a costume contest. Who knows?

Every Beer City Half is designed to be a great race and is brought to you by Scena Performance, a leader in endurance running. These courses are generally flat and a mix of road, bike path, and gravel or packed dirt fire road. These races are meant to be fun and challenging so that the race is as memorable as the after party. Visit each race to download the Athlete Guide which will give you the overview of the course, the terrain, the location of aid stations.

Each Beer City also has a fun run of just a few miles. And that's exactly what these are - FUN - for folks that aren't super-interested in racing. These are a little different in each event, ranging from the Jedi Run at Beer City West Sac, to the Beer Stroll, to Questicorn.