The Great Race of Agoura Hills offers different course choices; Cheseboro Half Marathon (7 miles on trails), The Pacific Half Marathon (road course), a 10k, 5k and kiddie k.

Last Saturday I ran the Cheseboro Half Marathon for the first time. This race is in the Newbury Park Sole Runners backyard and usually the week after the LA Marathon, this year two weeks. Since we had so many Sole Runners training for a half marathon we chose the Great Race as one of our featured Half Marathons. The Newbury Park Sole Runners train mainly on the trails in Sycamore Canyon so we were well trained for both courses.

I love trail running and had heard some good things about the Cheseboro Half so it was time to fit it into my schedule. I am glad I did and I will be back for this one. Here’s a course description.

The Cheseboro Half Marathon starts a top a hill in a residential neighborhood. Out of the gate there is a pretty steep downhill then flattens out on the streets around Chumash Park. The first three miles are on paved streets in an around Old Agoura.

At mile 3 you hit the trail. I saw lots of horse tracks on the trail and it is only really wide enough for two runners. It gently rolls upward into the hills behind Agoura on the North side of the 101 freeway. The sycamore tree lined trail changes to more of a desert-scape in a canyon and the trail narrows to a single track and get a little more technical around mile 6.

The course starts it’s steepest climb around mile 7. By mile 8 you get downhill fire road and it’s time to open it up for two miles. Mile 10 has a short but steep climb, a downhill, then you are back on the pavement. Miles 11 to 13.1 are on streets getting you back to Chumash park and feel flat but slightly downhill.

There is one short uphill near the end of the race but it’s not that bad. Then you run into the park and cross the finish line.

All the races share the same finish line then you get into the post race festival. The Great Race of Agoura Hills if a family oriented event. It was fun watching the Kid’s Run. You also get a ticket for a pancake breakfast. To be honest the the pancake line was so long I didn’t get my breakfast.

The only bummer is no beer garden but Agoura Hills has a great option, The Lab Brewery. The Lab also has fantastic food. We ended up spending the rest of the day there eating, enjoying a couple beers and listening to Dreamer, an awesome Supertramp tribute band.

The video shows some of the trail and a few long shots of the terrain you’ll get to run. The Cheseboro Half Marathon sells out every year so you have to enter early. If you miss that opportunity or you prefer road races you can always do the Pacific Half which from what I heard is a rolling, hilly course that is pretty tough too.

I recommend the Cheseboro Half for anyone looking for a interesting half marathon. It is a great first trail half and we had Sole Runners run it as their first half marathon, so totally doable for everyone.

Below is my Garmin data so between everything in this post you can learn a lot about this race. If you are interested in training for this race check out our Newbury Park Sole Runners group.

Click “View Details” on the bottom of the Garmin frame of more in depth graphs and mile by mile elevation gains and losses.

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – Head Coach Sole Runners Full and Half Marathon Training Programs