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“For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.” — George Sheehan
Photo by Ashley Knedler on Unsplash.
“Virtues are acquired through endeavor, which rests wholly upon yourself.”
— Sidney Lanier
1) Callaway Gardens Half Marathon
Pine Mountain, Ga. • Saturday, January 29, 2022
Known for its golf courses, award-winning gardens and Cecil B. Day butterfly center, Georgia’s Callaway Gardens resort stages this small race each year in mid-winter — this year, just shy of 400 runners completed the 5K, half marathon and full marathon combined. You’ll run a loop route through the 13,000-acre resort’s neatly manicured gardens, bicycle trails and woodlands, and you’ll find few spectators out along the course — though this is what many past participants also find appealing about it, because what it lacks in energy it makes up for in providing a quiet, refreshing escape.
$75 and up • Sign up here
Runners on the streets of Philadelphia, Pa., at the Philadelphia Distance Run.
“Run in places you love with people you like. Enjoying your surroundings and training partners will strengthen your commitment to running and bring out the best in you.” — Deena Kastor
Courtesy WineShine Half Marathon
We’re always adding new races — and races that are new to us — here on Half Marathon Guide, and I think you’ll love these events, which take place this spring and summer across the U.S.:
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“Crossing the starting line may be an act of courage, but crossing the finish line is an act of faith. Faith is what keeps us going when nothing else will. Faith is the emotion that will give you victory over your past, the demons in your soul, and all of those voices that tell you what you can and cannot do, and can and cannot be.” — John Bingham
“Why do they not teach you that time is a finger snap and an eye blink, and that you should not allow a moment to pass you by without taking joyous, ecstatic note of it, not wasting a single moment of its swift, breakneck circuit?” — Pat Conroy
Runners on the course at the Monterey Bay Half Marathon. (Courtesy Big Sur International Marathon)
Glencoe Marathon Gathering
Glencoe, Scotland • Sunday, September 4, 2022
You might feel like you’re William Wallace of Braveheart fame tromping through the meadows and mountains of Glencoe Valley in the Scottish Highlands, which the race organizers say is a true endurance test. “Make no mistake this is a serious challenge in a remote but spectacular location that will test your fitness, robustness and resilience to the limit,” they add, as it takes you over mountain ridges with names like the Devil’s Staircase and Aonach Eagach Ridge, where they add you’ll be “rewarded at every turn with views of some of the most stunning and dramatic mountains in the Scottish Highlands.”
£50 and up • Sign up here
A runner makes her way along the trail route at Texas’s Headwaters of the Frio Half Marathon.
“My positive self-talk is usually me flashing back to the training I’ve done — the workouts that went well and showed me that I’m ready to accomplish whatever the day’s task is. If I’ve got a tough 2-mile stretch in a race, I’ll think back to a great 2-mile repeat at Buffalo Park in Flagstaff and I’ll remind myself, ‘I’ve done this in practice, so just do it again out here on race day.’”
— Janet Cherobon-Bawcom
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“If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.” — John Bingham
