Mountain Maryland Marathon Cumberland, MD   DISCONTINUED

The Mountain Maryland Marathon, Marathon Relay, Half Marathon & 5K starts and finishes at the Canal Place Heritage Area, a shopping, entertainment and historic district in downtown Cumberland. From there, runners follow North Mechanic Street up through the area known as The Narrows, and then head west on the National Highway out toward the town of Corriganville. While those running the full, 26.2-mile marathon will make their way west all the way over to Slabtown and Morantown, the turnaround point for those running the 13.1-mile half marathon occurs at the brush tunnel just after Proenty Road.

After runners hit the half-marathon turnaround point, they then head all the way back along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, a rails-to-trails project that follows the path of the former Western Maryland Railway around the U-shaped Helmstetter’s Curve, until they reach the turn at the railroad tracks on Washington Street, where they turn left and head back into Cumberland for the finish line just past the Cumberland News-Times building.

This race’s mountain location means that the race route is often hilly and can be quite challenging, as the elevation climb for the half marathon is roughly 600 feet from the race start to the midway point. While those running the half won’t experience quite the degree of elevation climb of the full marathon, they’ll still need to be ready to tackle the hills and climb from the start in downtown Cumberland to the high point near the half-way turnaround, and along the Great Allegheny Passage trail back toward the finish line.