PORT ANGELES — A full field of 200 runners is set for the first-ever Olympic Adventure Trail (OAT) on Saturday on the all-purpose trail west of Port Angeles.
Registration officially ended Tuesday for the 13.1-mile half-marathon run after the 12-kilometer run filled up a few days before that.
There are 100 runners signed up for each event.
“It’s incredible that it sold out,” race director Laurie Campbell of Port Angeles said.
Campbell started the event along with Scott Tucker, who also helps run the Northwest Cup mountain biking races on Dry Hill.
Campbell is a longtime runner who specializes in half-marathons, while Tucker is a devoted mountain biker.
Like Tucker, who doesn’t participate in the Northwest Cup at Dry Hill because he is too busy co-directing the event, Campbell too must forego the activity she loves this weekend to direct the OAT Run.
“I’ll run it next week,” she joked.
Packet pickup is today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Harbinger Winery, 2358 U.S. Highway 101 West in Port Angeles, and beginning at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday.
There is no parking at the run site. There will be free shuttles to the site from Harbinger.
Shuttles leave for the half-marathon at 8:45 a.m. and at 10 a.m. for the 12K.
The half-marathon race starts at 9:30 a.m. and the 12K, half of the half-marathon, begins at 10:30 a.m. at the halfway point of the half-marathon.
Two aid stations will have refreshment drinks and food for runners, and there will be a post-run part with free hot lunches for the participants at Harbinger.
The trail, which is open to walkers, joggers and horseback riders, will be open to the public during the races.
Campbell asks that the public use the west end of the 25-mile trail because the races will be on the east side.
The Olympic Adventure Trail goes from the Elwha River to Lake Crescent.
Campbell said she is impressed with the amount of community support she has had for the races.
“I’m excited,” she said.
Campbell is leaning toward making the OAT Run an annual event but a second run in 2014 isn’t set in stone yet.
“If the community supports it and wants it, we probably will have one next year,” she said.
Some runners who were late for signing up for this year’s event are wanting to run next year, Campbell added.
Sponsors of the 2013 event include Harbinger Winery, Adventures Through Kayaking, Air Flo Heating Co., Elwha River Casino, Dungeness Line and Sound Bikes and Kayaks and Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau.
