San Juan Island is a great place to run. The scenery is spectacular. Every year I have participants come up and tell me that they haven’t run in a more scenic place than here on San Juan Island. Not only will the scenery amaze you, but our course will offer you sights of mountains, water, grassy fields and spring time flowers. You will run through woods, along side the Lavender Farm, across grass lands. Marathoners will run along Haro Stright, which is a popular spot for orca whales.
Besides the possibility of seeing orcas; runners can also see foxes, deer, eagles and in 2011 a marathoner told me that he identified over 60 species of birds. Who knew? Who knew that the island offered so many cool things to see and experience. Well, we knew, that’s why we developed this event.
Our marathon course is challenging. We are not going to find that fact. For a place that had, at one time, over a mile thick of ice on top of it, you think we be flat as a pancake. Truth is, we hardly have any flat places on the island, meaning you are going to be running up and down hills. Some really steep and others not so bad.
Ten years ago, when we developed this course, we were trying to find a course that showed off the natural beauty, but wouldn’t be so hard that people wouldn’t enjoy the challenge. Find courses with natural beauty was not a problem, finding a course with limited hills was more of a challenge. Our first year we had a really big hill about seven miles into the race and now we just have a big hill about mile 5. You can check out a map with elevation by clicking Marathon Course or Half Marathon Course.
In 2011 we added a 10K as an option. We had a mild interest, but positive results. Finishers totally enjoyed the course. We will be bringing it back again in 2011.
Registration will be open by January 7th. Keep an eye on this site.
