There’s still a few weeks left to get on the trails and get a feel for the mountain before this year’s King of the Mountain trail race on August 25.
Last year’s footrace saw a surge of participants after new organizers breathed new life into the annual event – and this year’s race is expected to be even bigger.
“We were really happy with the response last year and are expecting that this year will be even better,” said organizer Nadene Butler. “We have heard a lot of newcomers are becoming interested.”
The 10 kilometre route is the same as last year – racers start at the Terrace Sportsplex, continue past the pool entrance onto Park Avenue, travel up the Park hill road until they hit the Johnstone Street trail head and then it’s up the mountain all the way around the bike loop, 7.9 kilometres, until they end up back at the start of the trail head and head down to the Sportsplex for the finish.
There’s no minimum age – last year’s race saw runners as young as seven, with the oldest participant at 65. And organizers are anticipating a fair amount of out-of-towners for the event – last year’s race had runners from Prince Rupert, Smithers, Prince George, and Kelowna.
Butler says the Fall Run taking a year off has the potential to push up participant numbers as well.
“We are very sad to see [the Fall Run] not happening this year as it is a real family friendly event,” she said.
But athletes used to road running could use this as a reason to try something new.
“For those people accustomed to road running we cant express enough how much more enjoyable trail running can be,” she said. “Road running is a fairly repetitive motion on a very hard surface whereas trail running adds variation on softer terrain and is more of an allover body workout not to mention the beautiful scenery on the way.”
And if you ran the Salmon Run, this might be a good next step, she said.
Same day registration is no problem, but Butler says the more people who pre-register, the better. “We can’t stress enough how helpful it is to preregister so that we can be better prepared with our food and beverages, volunteers,” she said.
Pre-registration is at All Seasons Source for Sports. Race starts at 10 a.m. at the Terrace Sportsplex. A map of the route has been posted at the Johnstone St. trailhead and at the Sportsplex Hidber entrance.