From the starting line on Main Street in downtown Falmouth, the half marathoners head out on a course that takes them first south along Walker Street past Siders Pond down toward the beach on Vineyard Sound, which looks out across the water to Martha’s Vineyard in the distance.
Next, runners head east, making a loop along tree-lined residential streets as they make their way toward the Falmouth Inner Harbor, running past the marina and the Falmouth Marine Park as they head north along Scranton Avenue to Queen Street.
After a stretch along Queen and a left turn to head south on King Street, runners then make their way back to Clinton Avenue and begin the long stretch southwest along the shoreline.
Built way back in 1876, the lighthouse today still operates as a home for the commander of the southeastern New England sector of the U.S. Coast Guard, and runners will be able to take in the view of the light and the surrounding point of land sticking out into the ocean as they head south all the way down to the end of the point.
They’ll pass right by Nobska Pond and then make the turn to head north along the eastern shore of the point, and then continue on northwest along Oyster Pond Road, taking them past the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on the way back into Falmouth.
The final couple of miles of the half marathon take runners north away from the beach and around Oyster Pond and Salt Pond, and then back toward the beach for a brief stretch along Surf Drive before heading north along Walker for the home stretch in to the race finish line, at Falmouth’s Town Hall Square.
