Maryland Half Marathon & 5k

Set to run through the streets of this small Maryland town that lies just to the north of Baltimore, the Maryland Half Marathon also is run as a benefit for the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland. This out-and-back race — which in recent years moved to a course in the Maple Lawn community after being run in previous years in nearby Timonium — starts and finishes in the unincorporated community of Fulton, in Maryland’s Howard County, which lies just down the road from Columbia. From the starting line on Maple Lawn Boulevard near Fulton, runners head out on a route filled with rolling hills, and in the early miles takes them past the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which does research work for the Navy, NASA and the Department of Defense, among other government agencies. Runners make their way along Maple Lawn Boulevard to Sanner Road, Guilford Road and Great Star Drive in the first few miles, and later along Simpson Road, Pindell School Road and Johns Hopkins Road before running a final loop around Old Columbia Road and President Street. Once runners pass the half-way point, the rest of the course features mostly gentle rolling hills through suburban neighborhoods and tree-lined country roads through Maple Lawn, as the loop route brings runners back to the starting line area for the race finish.