Runners get a chance to run along the rolling hills and farmland of northwestern Connecticut at the Roxbury Half Marathon, an early wintertime running event that takes runners through this charming and historic New England town, which was first settled way back in 1713 as part of the nearby town of Woodbury.

Today, this town of just over 2,000 residents is perhaps known best for its mining operations, which over recent decades have supplied raw materials for the construction of such famous structures as New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central Station terminal.

The race — which saw 95 runners cross the finish line at its 2014 running — is run in honor of local resident Ed Sandifer, a professor at Western Connecticut State University and a prolific runner who has completed more than 30 Boston Marathons since 1973.

The out-and-back course that participants run includes hilly as well as flat stretches, some of which take runners along tree-lined residential streets while others take the field through the rolling farm country just outside town.

Though it’s a little difficult at first to see using the course map, the race route features two out-and-back stretches.

Both start and finish on Apple Lane; the first is a roughly eight-mile out-and-back that takes runners northward along South Street, North Street and Judds Bridge Road all the way to the bridge that gives the road its name, where runners then turn around and head back along the same course in reverse.

The second out-and-back takes runners up South and North Streets again, but then turns left onto Baker Road and then south onto Hemlock Road, before turning around on Rocky Mountain Road and running the course back toward the starting line. The starting time for the race is scheduled for 8:30 AM, and runners will need to bring cash for the entry fee into Everett Hurlburt Community Park for the start.

11-12-2022, 08:30 am - 02:30 pm