2027 WMA Mother's Day Half

There are worse ways to spend Mother's Day morning than on the farm roads of the Connecticut River valley. The WMass Mother's Day Half runs through Whately and Hatfield, Massachusetts, in the shadow of Mt. Sugarloaf, past fields that have been worked for generations.

The course is USATF certified (#MA11002JK), and the profile is kind — this is river-bottom land, not hill country — so it suits runners chasing a fast time as much as those out for a spring morning. A 9-miler runs alongside the half, giving the day a two-distance, bring-the-family feel, and the field stays small enough that you're never lost in a crowd.

It's a race with a purpose: proceeds go to Cancer Connection, and the event has raised more than $196,000 over its fifteen-year run. About a third of the field comes back in later years, and runners travel in from roughly ten states — modest numbers that say something about the pull of a Mother's Day tradition done right.