Mystic - The Hartford Marathon Foundation is seeking to hold a half marathon here on June 28 that could attract between 1,000 and 2,000 runners.

Marathon officials met with Stonington Police Chief J. Darren Stewart and Capt. Todd Olsen on Tuesday to discuss the route and other details. They are scheduled to appear today at 5 p.m. at the police station before the Stonington Board of Police Commissioners to outline their plans.

The 13.1-mile race would also need approval from the Town of Groton and the state of Connecticut, as the course would traverse River Road in Groton and sections of state roads such as Route 27, Route 1 and Pequot Trail.

Stewart and Olsen said the marathon officials they met with were "professional" and "well organized."

"They want to move quick on this," Stewart said. "This is a big race and a big undertaking. There's a lot of moving parts to it."

Stewart said plans call for the race to begin at 7 a.m. in the Olde Mistick Village parking lot then head down Route 27 to the downtown and across the drawbridge onto the Groton side of the village. The race will then head down scenic River Road, which hosts a large field of runners each November for the annual Tarzan Brown road race.

Stewart said the early start would mean runners would be clear of the southern sections of Route 27 by 7:30 a.m. or so.

After River Road, preliminary plans call for the runners to turn onto the northern section of Route 27 and then on to Jerry Browne Road, Mistuxet Avenue Extension, Pequot Trail, Flanders Road, Deans Mill Road and back to Mystic Aquarium.

Stewart said the race would require the marathon foundation to pay between $3,500 and $5,000 for Stonington police coverage.

Hartford Marathon Executive Director Beth Shluger said Wednesday that she has long wanted to stage a race in Mystic.

"It could be a great destination race and bring people in from all over," she said, adding that the majority of half marathon competitors are now women who often use races as a girls' weekend, something for which she said Mystic is perfect.

"It would be a wonderful boost to the community," she said. "It's something we are working on and hoping for."

But Shluger said the race first needs approval from the Stonington Board of Police Commissioners.

"We hope to have our approvals by Christmas and then we can publicly announce the date and course," she said.

She said her organization often caps the number of runners in the inaugural year of a race to ensure the roads, parking and community can handle the event. She said the Mystic Rotary Club would provide volunteers and receive a charitable contribution.

In addition to the Hartford Marathon each October, the marathon foundation stages about 30 events each year and has put on 500 races since its inception.

Among those annual events are the O'Niantic 5K in March, the Niantic Bay Triathlon in August, the Norwich Winterfest 5K in November and the Surftown Half Marathon and 5K in Misquamicut each September.

The very popular Surftown race began in 2011 with slightly more than 800 runners and last year it boasted a field of more than 2,000 runners.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas