The West Coast celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Edge-to Edge running event this weekend.
On Sunday morning, over 400 runners will lace up for a shotgun start at Ucluelet’s Village Green in either the 10-kilometre race or half-marathon route that winds through sections of the glorious Wild Pacific Trail.
“[Edge to Edge] showcases our community as well as the top trail on Vancouver Island and one of the top ten trails in B.C.: the Wild Pacific Trail, which also, recently just celebrated their 20th anniversary,” said race director Lara Kemps of the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce.
“Our town is always known as being very friendly and outgoing and welcoming. Everyone is very pumped to welcome everybody and, this year, we’re looking forward to the change of season and hoping for a great forecast and a lot of runners,” she said, adding that this is the first year that Edge-to-Edge has moved from June to October.
“June was very busy and we wanted to move the race to more in the shoulder season where there is more availability in our accommodations. So, hopefully, we will fill our shoulder season and our volunteers won’t be so stretched time-wise,” said Kemps. “A big thank you to all the volunteers. We couldn’t do it without you.”
Sunday’s race event will be plastic-free thanks to a partnership with the Surfrider Foundation’s Pacific Rim Chapter.
“Our town is looking at going plastic-free and, I think, it’s really important, not just as a community but as the world, to look at our plastic consumption,” Kemps said.
Denise Stys-Norman, executive director of Tourism Ucluelet, said this is also the first year the Edge-to-Edge has garnered Tourism Event Program Sponsorship and Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding.
“The Ucluelet Chamber’s Edge to Edge Marathon has always provided a fun and exciting authentic Ucluelet experience. It’s scenic, rugged, challenging, pristine, and showcases our supportive and friendly community. They have truly made this a legacy event for our town; congratulations for the last 20 years,” said Stys-Norman.
In addition to the usual swag bag, participants are getting cool running socks this year to commemorate the double decade milestone.
