Mesa Marathon Half Marathon & 10K

While the starting line for the full marathon lies in Usery Mountain Regional Park — a roughly 3,600-acre park here in the lower Sonoran Desert on the eastern side of what is known as the East Valley, near both the Goldfield Mountains and the Tonto Regional Forest — the starting line for the half marathon lies at the mid-point of the 26.2-mile route, on East McDowell Road near Falcon Field airport and Boeing. From there, runners make their way through residential neighborhoods and through parts of the Escobedo historic district, where they’ll run past the Arizona Museum of Natural History and the Fitch baseball fields. Overall, the course unfolds along a mostly gentle downhill descent throughout the race’s 13.1 miles, dropping about 350 feet in elevation from the starting line to the finish line, which lies at the Riverview Shopping Center on Bass Pro Drive. At the 2016 race, more than 7,500 runners crossed the finish line in all races combined, including just over 4,100 finishers in the half marathon.