La Jolla Half Marathon & La Jolla Shores 5K

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North of La Jolla at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the point-to-point race course begins. It follows paved city streets from Del Mar to La Jolla, taking runners first on a counter-clockwise circle around Jimmy Durante Boulevard and Viva de la Valle to Camino del Mar, passing by the Jimmy Scripps Bluff Preserve along the way. The course follows through the city of Del Mar for the next couple of miles, along Coast Boulevard, Ocean Avenue and Stratford Court before rejoining Camino del Mar and heading closer to the coast. The race’s next few miles, as the course follows along North Torrey Pines Road and heads into the Torrey Pines State Reserve, are some of the most scenic of any road race in America. Runners will pass by gorgeous, steep and rocky bluffs that peer over into the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing below, as the sails of hang gliders and ultralite flyers pass through the sky in the distance. The course takes runners on a long straightaway through the park and past the famed golf course, and rejoins North Torrey Pines Road as it exits the park. After heading through the reserve, runners follow the course for the next couple of miles along city streets closer to La Jolla, along La Jolla Shores Drive and El Paso Grande before heading back close along the coastline again near Kellogg Park and around the Spindrift Golf Course, a nine-hole par-3 course that’s situated within a tight circle of land just outside the city. From there, it’s just another mile or so in toward the finish line at Ellen Browning Scripps Park, which overlooks the beautiful views of La Jolla Cove.