For many years there has been an annual event known as the Mayo Marathon and runners for Dawson City have been pleased to participate in it. This year, for a change, there is a Yukon Energy Dempster to Dawson (or D2DC) Solstice Race, which will take place on the morning of June 18.
This has been organized by the Run Dawson group and will feature a regular marathon, a four-person marathon relay and a half marathon for runners, as well as 10 km and 5 km events for runners and walkers.
How did this happen, you may ask. Run Dawson’s Jody Beaumont says that her group got word the folks in Mayo were feeling a bit burned out and thinking they would skip the event this year.
“So we got in touch with them and said, listen, if you need a year off, we’ll make sure that this event still happens,” Beaumont says.
The Village of Mayo did attempt to rescue the local event, but eventually realized there wasn’t enough energy this year to make it work.
Beaumont says the group Run Dawson itself was revived just a few years ago after being moribund for some time and they would like to keep the annual event in the Klondike – but she also says they wouldn’t want to steal the race.
If this one works out, and Mayo is ready to go again in 2017, she’s thinking Dawson might try to find another weekend to do the same thing.
The logistics for this race are quite complicated. Everyone is running back to Dawson from the Dempster Corner – or just far enough up the Dempster to make up the 26 miles of the traditional marathon. Some of the shorter events will have different starting points, based on their distance from the finish line: 5 km, 10 km, 21.1 km and 42.2 km respectively.
They will be shuttled out to these points in several runs by Husky Bus, one of the sponsors, beginning at 7 a.m.
The first regular marathon will begin at 8 a.m., with the relay starting half an hour later. A second marathon group will begin at 9 a.m., along with the 5 km runners and walkers. The half marathon group will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the 10 km runners and walkers starting at 10 a.m.
There will be nine water and rest stations along the way. Participants will use the left hand side of the highway, which will be well marked for traffic to know what’s happening. The finish line for everyone is the Gazebo at the Waterfront Park.
As of the day of this interview, registration for the event was at 218 participants in the various categories.
There will be a dinner and live entertainment at the park at the end of the day.
Run Dawson also organizes the Midnight Dome Race during the weekend of the Dawson City Music Festival and does regular fun run events.
