Reading Hospital Road Run Half Marathon

The half leaves the clock tower on South Sixth Avenue and loops through the park and residential streets south of the hospital campus. Nothing is steep, but the rolling terrain is close to constant, and runners who bank time on the early descents tend to give it back later. The distance is chip-timed with a three and a half hour cutoff.

The Friends of Reading Hospital put this one on, and the hospital campus is the whole organizing idea. Runners start and finish under the clock tower, work outward into Berks County parkland and residential streets, and the money goes back into the hospital. Pacers cover the half, which matters more than usual on a route with no long flat stretch to settle into.