Just over 1,000 runners and walkers crossed the finish line last year at the annual late spring running of Kirkland’s Mother’s Day Half Marathon & 5K, both of which take participants on a tour of the boroughs of this waterfront city that lies in the northwestern part of the state, just a short drive from nearby Seattle.
The half marathon follows a point-to-point route that will start at the campus of Northwest University on 108th Avenue, and later finish at Juanita Beach Park. In between, the route will feature more than five miles along the Cross Kirkland Corridor Trail, a newly completed 5.75-mile-long trail through the city with a compacted crushed-gravel surface.
As the first half of the race unfolds, runners head north along 108th Avenue to the first-mile marker, where they’ll turn right onto their first stretch of the race on the Corridor Trail. They’ll stay on the trail for the next mile, until they turn left near Peter Kirk Elementary School and head onto 10th Avenue, toward Market Street.
Here, runners make a left and head south, beginning a downhill stretch that takes them along the shoreline of Moss Bay. They’ll run all the way down Lake Washington Boulevard and 38th Place to 108th Avenue again, where they’ll turn left to get back onto the Corridor Trail.
Once they’re on the trail this time, they’ll follow it north all the way to 112th Street, where they’ll exit the trail and begin the stretch that brings them into Juanita Beach Park.
It’s this stretch of the race that’s really the reward, as runners enjoy the breezes coming off the lake and the views of the water after the challenging hills earlier out on the course.
The final mile of the race takes runners around the curve of Juanita Bay, one of the region’s best-cared-for urban wildlife preserves, and then to the finish line at the park.
