⚠ NEW FOR 2026 — THE RACE DOES NOT START DOWNTOWN. The Half and 3-Amigos Relay start at Romero’s Park in Agua Fría at 7:30 AM and finish at Reunity Resources Farm. The 5K starts at 8:00 AM at Reunity Resources Farm. Friday and Saturday packet pickup and the Kids 1K Dash are still downtown at the Railyard. Roads into the start close at 7:00 AM. See the new course →

Your Race Weekend Guide: Everything You Need for September 18–20

Runners setting off beneath the inflatable start arch, one carrying a race tote bag
Expo hours, packet pickup, parking, bag drop, and race-morning timing — the whole Santa Fe race weekend in one place.
Updated 21 August — the course changed. This guide first went up in July, when the race still started in the Eldorado foothills and finished at Railyard Park. It now starts at Romero’s Park in Agua Fría and finishes at Reunity Resources Farm, for all three Sunday distances. If you bookmarked this post back then, read the race-day section below again — the old locations are no longer right. See the new course →

Thirty days out, here is the one page to bookmark. Everything below links to the full details, but this is the shape of your weekend.

Friday & Saturday, September 18–19 — Expo and packet pickup

The Capitol Ford Health & Wellness Expo runs both days at the Railyard, and this part of the weekend has not moved. Come grab your packet — bib, chip, shirt — browse the vendors, and soak up some pre-race energy. Picking up Friday or Saturday means one less thing on race morning, and we cannot recommend that enough — doubly so this year, when race morning means driving somewhere new.

Sunday, September 20 — Race day

The gun goes at 7:30 AM sharp. Build your morning backwards from that:

  • Getting there: check parking details the night before, not in the car. The start is Romero’s Park in Agua Fría — a drive from downtown, not a walk from your hotel — and roads into the start close at 7:00 AM. Be parked before then, not aiming to be.
  • Race-morning pickup: yes, it exists for the truly last-minute — details here — but lines happen. Friday you, or Saturday you, will be kinder to Sunday you.
  • Bag drop: bring a warm layer for the start and drop your bag at Romero’s Park between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. It gets trucked to the finish and will be waiting for you at Reunity Resources.

The races

Sunday morning, three starts in two places: the flagship 13.1 and the 3-Amigos Relay set off at 7:30 AM from Romero’s Park in Agua Fría. The 5K Fitness starts at 8:00 AM at Reunity Resources Farm. The free Kids 1K Dash gets Saturday all to itself — 3 to 4 PM at the Railyard, right after expo day winds down, so the kids get their own crowd and their own medals. Every distance finishes to the same cheers at Reunity Resources Farm.

After you cross

Your time posts to the live leaderboard as you finish — type in your bib and there it is. Photos from the course land on the same page. Then stay a while: the finish-line festival is half the point.

Still need a place to stay?

Our lodging page has host hotels and Railyard-area options — ideal for the expo and packet pickup, with the start line a short drive away on Sunday morning. September is high season in Santa Fe — book sooner, thank yourself later.

Full hour-by-hour details live on the schedule page. Questions we did not answer? Email us — a real person reads every one.

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