The majestic redwood forests of Northern California’s Humboldt Redwoods State Park serve as the backdrop for the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon, Half Marathon & 5K, which mark their 44th annual running this year along a course that takes runners along the Avenue of the Giants highway.
Runners in both the full and half marathons share the same starting time and location, inside the park at the Dyersville Bridge, which spans the south fork of the Eel River.
From there, they’ll run in the shadow of coast redwood and Giant Sequoia trees that line the road, many of which reach more than 200 feet in the air and are more than a thousand years old.
After crossing over the river, runners in the 13.1-mile half marathon follow the course southward along the Avenue of the Giants, running all the way past Weott and the town of Burlington to the half-way turnaround point, where the field then turns around and heads back toward the finish line along the same course they’ve just run.