Called the “highest race in West Virginia” by the race organizers — The Mountain Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving mountain environments around the world, which collaborates with the West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners Association to stage the event — the West Virginia Trilogy Half Marathon is part of the series of races by the same name, which also features 50K and 50-mile races over the course of the weekend.
This race series takes runners on a tour of the winding trails up and down the hills and mountains of the Monongahela National Forest just outside the small community of Circleville near the state’s northeastern corner.
Marked by the natural beauty of its mountains, forests and trees, Circleville also is the home of The Mountain Institute’s Spruce Knob Mountain Center, a 400-acre mountain preserve that serves as both an educational center for visitors — thanks to its remote location in the mountains of West Virginia, the Spruce Knob center offers some of the best viewing anywhere of starry skies at night — and as a base for TMI’s environmental preservation and research programs.
The organizers dedicate the proceeds from the event to benefit the Spruce Knob Mountain Center, to help fund its educational and research programs and continue the mission it has been dedicated to for the past three and a half decades.
