When you come to visit Paso Robles, you’ve come to the heart of the central California wine country. It’s a place with more than 26,000 acres of vineyards and several wine trails that unfold along rolling hills filled with wine grape fields, and a semi-arid climate with plentiful sunny days and long, hot summers and short, cool and occasionally wet winters.
That’s what awaits at the annual Paso Robles Half Marathon (known as the Harvest Half Marathon until 2016), which is timed to coincide with the annual wine grape harvest here. This year’s race marks its 9th annual running, after last year’s race saw nearly 400 runners cross the finish line in all three races combined, including more than 200 in the half marathon alone.
Runners start the out-and-back loop course for the race at Downtown City Park on Spring Street, a place just north of downtown Paso Robles that’s best known for its cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese and syrah wines.
From there, runners head out on a clockwise loop route through the countryside just east of the park and Paso Robles, with short hills sprinkled throughout the course.
