The 5th annual Morgantown Marathon will take place on Sunday, September 22 and is ready to offer visiting runners 26.2 almost heavenly, challenging, and honorable
miles throughout West Virginia’s Greater Morgantown area.
The Morgantown Marathon is one of the pillar events for the area. It showcases the city and surrounding natural beauty while also raising important funds for Operation Welcome Home (OWH) a local, nonprofit organization serving veterans.
“To-date, Operation Welcome Home has placed 484 veterans back to full-time employment,” said CEO of Operation Welcome Home, Brett Simpson. “As far as talking to veterans or providing veteran services, it’s in the thousands. We speak at schools, we go to events, job fairs–anytime we can get out and be amongst the public and let them know who we are and what we do, and that we are here for any veteran.”
The Morgantown Marathon is excited to announce two new race sponsors for this year’s event: Mon Health and Mylan. Mon Health will be the title sponsor for the half marathon while Mylan will be the title sponsor for the Mountain Mama 8K.
The Morgantown Marathon, Mon Health Half Marathon and Mylan Mountain Mama 8K will take place at the WVU Coliseum on Sunday, Sept. 22, rain or shine. Runners must park at the Monongalia County Ballpark and take the complimentary shuttle beginning at 5 a.m. The first race begins at 7 a.m.
Athletes of all levels participate in the races and attempt to “conquer this course,” including the most elite runners who break record times on a country road course, such as this. This race is certainly not for the faint of heart, as one of their well-known social media hashtags is #YesItsHilly.
The full marathon course contains approximately 2,000 feet of elevation gain and leads runners through various sections of the mountainous city–both Evansdale and Downtown Campus, Down High Street, West Virginia Sports facilities–the Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium, Son-of-a-Beechurst Hill, city parks and friendly neighborhoods.
After the medal awards are distributed to champion racers, race participants are encouraged to celebrate together at the WVU Coliseum with free food, beverages and live music.
General information on visiting Morgantown is available from the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.
