The race that starts in Lytton Square and ends at Stinson Beach was born over lunch.
In 1904, a small group of hikers from San Francisco's Olympic Club wandered through the Marin meadows past Mount Tamalpais and found a lonely stretch of beach marked by a weathered building called the Dipsea Inn. Over food and drink, two of them, Charlie Boas and Al Coney, argued about who could run the route faster. They organized themselves into a hiking club, the Dipsea Indians, staged the bet as a race, and Boas won. Then they decided to make it annual and open it to everyone.
Seventy-one runners finished the first Dipsea on November 19, 1905, according to race historian Barry Spitz. Organizers had expected 40 or 50. The course ran all the way to the water through soft sand, which proved the race's one early problem. For the participants' sake, organizers shortened the finish to a hardpack area known as Willow Camp. In 1916, according to Marin Magazine, Willow Camp was renamed Stinson Beach after local landowners Rose and Nathan Stinson.
Participants line up in downtown Mill Valley for the start of the fourth Women's Dipsea Hike in May 1921. The event could not be called a race due to a ban on women running long-distance races at the time. The photograph, along with the trophy awarded to that year's winner, is on display at a Dipsea Race exhibit mounted by the Mill Valley Historical Society.
The race 50 years ago, in 1976, nearly ended itself. Taking place in late August, the 66th running drew 1,891 finishers, the largest field in race history at the time, according to the Mill Valley Record. Heat and choking dust kept the Marin Emergency Disaster First Aid Corps busy all morning. By noon, 30 runners had checked into the Red Cross first aid station. Three others had been carried off the course on stretchers.
Homer Latimer, 37, a stocky, bearded junior college track coach appointed head coach at Gavilan Junior College in Gilroy the previous Friday, won in 50:03 with a five-minute handicap. He fell on Highway 1 while dodging a car in the final stretch and crossed the line with blood streaming from a cut above his right eye. He beat second-place John Finch by 21 seconds. "I thought for a moment it might cost me the win," Latimer told the Record after the race. "But I had a feeling before the race I'd win this year."
Behind the leaders, the field had ground to a halt. More than 500 runners were backed up 200 yards from the finish line and out onto Highway 1. When the 1,500 survivor's medals ran out, tempers flared. "I couldn't even run in some spots," one runner told the paper. "I had to jog in place." Harold Graves of the Mill Valley Jaycees race committee acknowledged the delays were "unprecedented."
County Supervisor Gary Giacomini was blunter. According to Spitz, he warned that "there will never be another Dipsea if the numbers are not worked out." Race officials responded by setting the first official route restrictions in 1977, ending more than seven decades of history as a completely open course. Entries were capped. The finish line moved to its present location near the south Stinson Beach parking lot, where it remains today.
Today’s race starts at 8am sharp from downtown Mill Valley with the Invitational age groups of boys age 6, men age 74 and older, girls age 6-7 and women age 66 and over. The last wave of runners leaves Lytton Square at 8:52am.
Sources: Barry Spitz, "The Dipsea Race" (Potrero Meadow Publishing); Mill Valley Record, September 1, 1976; Marin Magazine, July 21, 2017; historical program materials and display boards photographed at the 115th Dipsea Race, Mill Valley, June 12, 2026.
