Sunday, September 17, 2023 • Blacksburg, VA • Course Map
Note: A virtual option is available for this event. Registration details are included below.
What’s a Hokie? The short answer is that it’s the mascot for Virginia Tech, where you’ll get to soak up the atmosphere of this beautiful college town near the Alleghenies and the Shenandoah Valley at the Hokie Half Marathon & 5K, which makes its 11th annual running this fall.
The race, which is set to unfold along a combination of roads just outside the Virginia Tech campus and paved biking and running paths, follows an out-and-back course that starts and finishes near the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center on Kraft Drive.
From there, the course makes roughly a figure-eight-shaped clockwise loop through Blacksburg and nearby Merrimac, spending about half of the race on the Huckleberry and CRC Trails.
Runners can expect some very gradual downhill stretches, especially in the early and middle miles of the race, which unfold beginning around the mile 4 marker on the Huckleberry Trail.
This 5.7-mile-long trail is a paved trail built on the old railroad between Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and was used by the Virginia Anthracite Coal and Rail Company to transport coal between the Merrimac Mine and the Cambria Depot in Christiansburg.
The flattest stretches of the race unfold along the trails — after runners exit the Huckleberry Trail, they spend a couple of miles running along city streets in and around downtown Blacksburg before heading onto the CRC Trail in the last couple of miles of the race.
They finish back where they started, at the Corporate Research Center just south of the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport.
Runners will have a course time limit of 4 hours, which means they’ll need to keep a pace of 18 minutes, 20 seconds per mile or better in order to finish within the time limit.
Race Weather & Climate
Nestled just south of the Shenandoah Valley region of southwestern Virginia, about 217 miles west of Richmond, Blacksburg typically sees mild to cool temperatures in October, when temperatures typically range from the low 40s to the low 70s, with about 2.6 inches of rainfall on average for the month.
On race day (Sep. 17), the average low is 51ºF and the average high is 69ºF.
Past Results
- 2022 Results
- 2020 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2019 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2018 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2017 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2016 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2015 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2014 Hokie Half Marathon Results
- 2013 Hokie Half Marathon Results
Course Map
See the race route map for the Hokie Half Marathon here.
Starting Time
- 7:30 AM – half marathon
- 8:00 AM – 5K
Fees
- $68 – $93 for the half marathon
- $27 – $50 for the 5K
- $55 and up for the virtual half marathon
Registration
To reserve your spot in the 2023 running of Blacksburg’s Hokie Half Marathon or 5K race, register online at ItsYourRace.com here.
Official Race Website
Facebook Conversations
Ever run in the Hokie Half Marathon? Share your impressions here, or post your review in the Comments below.
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