We have a slightly revised course for 2010, with 10% less hills and an exciting downtown finish. Yes, this year the Great Bay Half Marathon sponsored by Exeter Hospital, gets the high-profile finish it deserves.

Downtown Main Street will be completely closed to traffic and finishers will be greeted by hundreds of cheering spectators in a professional-level finish corral.

If you have never experienced the "big race finish" before, you're not going to want to miss out on this one.

See further down the page for a detailed course description.

Our course starts in a small picturesque New England mill town, Newmarket New Hampshire, and takes a winding course through  rustic rural roads that follow the Great Bay Coastline. This is a loop course with the first and last mile run on the same roads. From the start to approximately Mile 3.5 you will experience some small rolling hills and then the road turns into a nicely graded gravel road (in Durham, NH) for another 3 miles. This dirt road has very few houses on it, so you will have to be content running by century old stone walls, large hay fields, beaver ponds and mature maple, oak and pine forests.

At almost Mile 6 you go back to tar onto a “designated scenic road” that follows the Great Bay Coastline. The next 3.5 miles are the most challenging with two good sized steep, but short hills. After each hill you will have a chance to recuperate on very gradual rolling downhills. On this road you will see dramatic overlooks of the Great Bay Estuary where you might even glimpse great birds of prey like a Bald Eagle or Osprey.

Mile 9 will be the end of any major hills as you enter the Moody Point area, also called Lubberland. This flat and easy section is about 2.5 miles long and runs through a classy Cape Cod style neighborhood with grand views of the Bay again bringing you just past Mile 12.

The last mile brings you back into Newmarket and a dramatic downtown finish with cheering fans, right in the center of town. The race has great traffic control throughout the course and is a favorite course for many runners.