Over 500 runners will hit Ucluelet’s pavement and trails this weekend as the West Coast celebrates its long-running Edge-to-Edge event on Sunday.
Local and visiting racers will take off on either a 10-kilometre or half-marathon route and the start and finish lines for both distances will be at Ucluelet’s Village Green where about 22 vendors have signed up to bring a special market to the day’s festivities.
“[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,” said Lara Kemps of the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event.“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 a great [weather] forecast and a lot of runners.”
She added this will likely be the last time the popular race is held during the summer as it is heading to October in 2019 and beyond. She explained the first Edge to Edge was struck 19 years ago to generate economic activity and the push it was designed to create is no longer needed in June.
“June is very busy,” she said. “[October] is more in the shoulder season and we all have more availability in our accommodations. So, hopefully, we’ll fill our shoulder season and our volunteers won’t be so stretched time-wise.”
She added Sunday’s 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.
She said the chamber hopes to bring the former full-marathon back to Edge to Edge’s offerings when the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s 22-kilometre, border-to-border, trail is complete.