From the start, those running the half (sponsored by UPMC Health Plan) make their way first along Liberty Avenue for the race’s first two miles, which take them through the Strip District and Lower Lawrenceville sections of the city.
After the left turn on 29th Street and then again on Penn Avenue, runners and walkers follow Penn all the way south to the 16th Street Bridge, which takes them over from Pittsburgh’s downtown and into its North Side district.
Participants spend the next few miles on their way through the North Side, which is home to much of the city’s most beautiful residential architecture as well as Heinz Field and PNC Park, the home fields of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, respectively.
This area is also considered a cultural center for the city, as it’s home to museums like the Carnegie Science Center, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Observatory and the Andy Warhol Museum.
Though most of the course is, as noted above, fast and flat like Pittsburgh itself, runners will encounter some uphill and downhill stretches, especially between mile markers 4 and 6 and then again just as the field is finishing the race, between the mile 12 and 13 markers. Neither stretch is overly challenging, however, as most of the elevation changes rise only about 50 feet at each hill.
Runners and walkers will make three bridge crossings during the race, at 16th Street, the West End Bridge and the Smithfield Bridge, which marks the home stretch along the race’s last mile into Fort Duquesne, overlooking the river.
