For the first time in 52 years, the annual Wharf to Wharf Race will not begin at the traditional starting line in front of The Grove, aka the Coconut Grove, at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Instead, the 16,000 expected participants will wait for the starting pistol to go off on Portola Drive in Capitola due to ongoing construction on the Murray Street Bridge in Santa Cruz.
Wharf to Wharf Race Director Scott McConville said it was one of those situations where the entire county needed to be on the same page in order to make the longtime running event happen.
“We wanted this to be a good experience for the runners, that’s another element,” McConville said. “But at the end of the day, with 16,000 people running throughout Santa Cruz County, we had to first and foremost make sure that this wasn’t going to be a massive disruption to the entire community.”
McConville added, “Nor could we make this something where we felt the community wasn’t going to be safe because of the event we were producing.”
The race will begin on Portola Drive near 30th Avenue starting with the elite corral, followed by corrals 1-4. They will run for what should be a flat and fast mile through the East Side of Santa Cruz.
Participants will then zoom downhill past Twin Lakes Beach and onto 7th Avenue where they’ll zip through the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor neighborhoods on Eaton Street, Lago Lane and 5th Avenue before reaching the second mile marker.
After wrapping around the Harbor onto Lake Avenue, the race will make its way back onto the traditional course along the Pacific Ocean for the remaining four miles. The rest of the route features iconic surf spots such as “The Hook” and Pleasure Point, and a semi-steep downhill to the finish line at the corner of Cliff Drive and Wharf Road in Capitola.
It’s been a whirlwind of adjustments for McConville and his team of organizers, who didn’t get notification the race was still happening until about five weeks in mid-June.
In the end, some difficult choices were made.
“There’s some things that are a pretty big lift for this event that take a lot of energy and time,” he said.
At one point, McConville was tying up loose ends on operations tasks in the beginning of July that should have normally been done in May.
“Just trying to make the event very, very enjoyable for participants, but how do I also simplify it at the same time so I can make it so it’s a good experience,” he said.
Other big changes include pushing the start time back a half hour to 8am, which is another first in the event’s history. And the prize purse is vastly smaller compared to previous years.
Winners of the men’s and women’s race each will receive the Mayor’s Cup and a $1,200 cash prize, while second and third place finishers will take home $600 and $300, respectively.
“We had to make some budget cuts early on in the planning phase because we didn’t know how costly a new route would be, and didn’t want to risk not being able to make our full donations that we do every year,” McConville said.
Fresno native and defending champion Evert Silva earned a $4,000 paycheck for winning the men’s race and an extra $1,000 for being the top American finisher in 2024. Fellow American Aidan Reed and Matt Baxter of New Zealand each earned $3,000 and $2,000 for second and third, respectively.
Silva is set to return, along with fellow American long-distance runner Galen Rupp. However, a majority of the elite field for both men and women have yet to confirm whether or not they’ll show up come Sunday morning.
“A lot of people were committing under the assumption that the prize money would be the same as it’s always been,” Wharf to Wharf Race organizer Scott Smith said. “When I reached back out to a lot of people, they still said they’re gonna come okay, but I don’t really have a way to know at this point if they’ve changed their plans or not.”
The top local and wheelchair winners in this year’s race will receive distinctive plaques, and the top 100 finishers—male or female—will be awarded elite Wharf to Wharf apparel.
Also set is a drawing for the gold bib, which is randomly given to participants who have a chance to win a $1,000 cash prize. The number is drawn at the conclusion of the awards ceremony scheduled for 10:20am at the Capitola Beach Bandstand Pavilion.
“I’m looking forward to just the event starting and happening, and getting through,” McConville said. “Not having to juggle logistics anymore.”
