High Bridge Half Marathon & 5K

Runners will start the race in downtown Farmville at the plaza of High Bridge Trail State Park, a roughly 1,100-acre park just over an hour’s drive west from Richmond that is home to the 2,400-ft.-long High Bridge, which looks down onto the Appomattox River flowing below from about 125 feet above. The race will take runners over the bridge and along the wide, flat crushed limestone trail for an out-and-back course with gorgeous natural beauty. From the starting line near Green Front Furniture downtown, near the intersection of North Main Street and Depot Street, the race starts runners off by heading northeast along the trail. They’ll wind northeast, east and southeast with the trail for the first few miles, and by the time they reach the stretch between mile markers 4 and 5, that’s when they hit the High Bridge itself, about 4 1/2 miles from the starting line. Famous for being the longest recreational bridge of its kind anywhere in Virginia — this former railroad bed, which dates back to the mid-1800s, is open to bikers, walkers, runners and hikers only, not motorized vehicles — and among the longest in the country, the High Bridge offers beautiful views of the river below as runners pass over it, as well as views that go on for miles of the forests and rural countryside that surround Farmville. The half-way point of the half marathon lies roughly a quarter of a mile before the course would reach Highway 601; once runners make the turn, they retrace their steps along the High Bridge Trail all the way back to downtown Farmville, crossing over the High Bridge once again and heading back to the High Bridge Trail State Park Plaza for the race finish.