Standing at 3,849 feet above sea level, Mount Diablo offers one of the toughest challenges of any trail run among the many parks and mountain peaks here in the San Francisco Bay region, a steep and relentless uphill run from the start to the peak of the mountain that also offers some of the most spectacular views from the eastern edge of the Bay Area, looking out onto Northern California’s Central Valley.
The Diablo Trail races feature five race distances, the shortest of which (the four-mile trail run) offers a relatively flat course through the section of Mount Diablo State Park known as Mitchell Canyon.
The other four races — including the full marathon, half marathon, 50K and 10-mile trail runs — feature more challenging routes, with the half marathon climbing more than 3,400 feet in elevation between the starting line at the mid-way point of the race, near the peak of Mount Diablo.
Runners start the race at Mitchell Creek Park just off Mitchell Canyon Road, near the northern entrance to Mount Diablo State Park.
From there, they follow a combination of fire roads and single-track trails from the start all the way south and east toward the summit, along the Mitchell Canyon Road for the first five and a half miles or so, followed by a stretch along the Juniper Trail that leads to the mountain summit.
