Runners will find the half marathon to be an exceptionally fast and mostly flat course.  A small section of the full marathon course contains some rolling hills but 90% of it is also flat terrain so fast paces can be expected. 

The marathon and half marathon will start at the corner of State and Wyman in downtown Rockford.  The route will proceed north on Wyman to Park Avenue where it will jog over to Main Street and proceed north on Main Street.  

The race will continue north on Main St to Bauer Parkway where the course will turn east and cross the river.  The runners will then be in the community of Machesney Park.  After crossing the river they will turn north on Victory Lane to approximately Pershing Avenue and then return south to Harlem Road where they will proceed east to Second Street (IL Rt. 251).  

The runners will turn south on Second Street and run down Second Street through Loves Park and back into Rockford to Y Blvd.  At Y Blvd, they will turn and come over to Madison Street and then continue South on Madison Street.  At Chestnut (Walnut) the half marathon participants will turn right to complete their race at the finish line at the west end of the Chestnut Street Bridge.

This year the second half of the race has been modified to keep our runners on more neighborhood streets and park district bike paths that provide more shade and a much flatter race course than last year.  Only two hills of any consequence are part of this year’s course.

At approximately the 12.6 mile mark, the marathon runners will turn left onto La Fayette Street and proceed one block to First Street where they will turn right.  These two blocks are uphill to climb to the Jefferson Street Bridge.  At Jefferson runners will turn right, cross over Madison and the Rock River just north of downtown Rockford and then continue west to Court Street where they will turn north. 

At John Street runners will turn west for two blocks for a moderate uphill climb to North Avenue.  At that point runners will once again turn north and proceed up North Avenue running downhill to Auburn Street.  Crossing Auburn the race course continues north on Huffman Blvd., traveling northbound through Rockford’s neighborhood communities and taking a loop that will eventually bring runners out to Halsted Road.  Once on Halsted, runners will continue west to Kilbourn Avenue (IL Rt 70) where the course turns south for roughly .5 miles to Safford Road where the course again heads west.  This is the 20 mile mark.

Runners will continue west on Safford Road until reaching the west entrance of Searle Park.  Entering the park the runners will loop around some of the park roads and eventually turn onto the Mel Anderson Bike Path.  The paved bike path will start the runners on their way back toward the finish line along a creek that will take them back to Kilbourn Avenue less than two miles from the finish line.  Once on Kilbourn, runners will head south to Jefferson where they will eastbound on Jefferson, once again crossing the Rock River and returning to Madison Street via First Street and Market Street.  The final leg of the race brings our runners up Madison Street to Chestnut where they will turn west to the finish line on the Chestnut Street Bridge.