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Saskatoon Running Festival to kick off spring racing season

Like many Saskatchewan runners, Jonathan Huntington dreads training through the winter. It’s cold, it’s dark and the footing can be treacherous. So when he started his running event company 321 Go Running last year, one of his priorities was to organize a race that provided runners motivation during a tough season and celebrated the beginning of spring.

The inaugural Saskatoon Running Festival takes place April 12-13 and features 5km, 10km and 10 mile (16.1km) distances. All net proceeds go toward supporting Prairie Run Crew, which organizes running clinics and helps races across the province to promote healthy living.

This week, Huntington speaks to the Brainsport Times about the festival and why people should sign up.

Tell me about the inspiration for the Saskatoon Running Festival.

I’ve been a runner in the prairies for so many years and I dread December, January, and February. They are tough months in the prairies to train and you are always looking forward to what you can do when the roads get a little bit drier.

We wanted to do something in April that could celebrate the start of the road running season, but we also strategically put it where we did because we wanted to do something that could be a prep race for those running the Saskatchewan Marathon full or half marathon distances (on May 25).

The festival offers a 10-miler, which is a unique distance. Why have that as an option?

The 10-miler is hard to find in Western Canada. We thought that was a great prep race for those getting ready for the Saskatchewan Half Marathon.

I’ve had the honour and privilege of running in 32 different states in the United States on my quest to run a marathon in every American state and even there I’ve rarely come across the 10 mile distance — but I love it when I do. You can push the pace if you want, you can put the pedal down a little bit more than if you’re running a half marathon and you can really test yourself.

So many of us look at our racing calendar for the year and say: I’m going to run a fall marathon and I’m going to run a half to get ready sometime late spring. Why wouldn’t you start by trying a 10 mile early in the spring just to see how you’re doing? It might work for some people and that’s why we want to try.

We’ve seen a really good pickup so far in the 10-mile distance. It’s actually mimicking the 5-km registration so far, and I wouldn’t have predicted that. So that tells me people are itching for something new.

Why is it so important to you to support Prairie Run Crew?

If you’re in the running community, you know how absolutely important and vital the Prairie Run Crew is to the running community. But if you know nothing about the Prairie Run Crew, you’ll hopefully begin to learn that they help kids and the most vulnerable groups. They help at-risk youth when it comes to mental health, when it comes to leading a healthier, active lifestyle, and they help so many of them learn to run.

Prairie Run Crew is also the octane, the fuel, that makes so many races in this province happen. They’re there at the finish line with music, with tents, with timing equipment, with motivation, with excitement. We want to provide some financial support to them so they can get bigger and help more youth in Saskatchewan.

What are you most excited about for this festival?

The thing I love the best about the festival is it’s going to be on the west side. There are so many great running routes in our city, but I find that sometimes the west side community is not something you traditionally run through. So we’re going to start at Gordie Howe Sports Complex, we’re going to run through some of that beautiful Holiday Park area and then head down to the Meewasin trails. I’m really excited that we get to see some of those great parts of the city.

What makes this a festival as opposed to simply a race?

The festival takes place over two days.

The first day, a Saturday, has free seminars at the expo delivered by experts at Craven Sports Services. Some might be about preventing injuries or about best practices in running or about how to train for your best 5K or 10K.

There’s also going to be a shakeout run on Saturday morning for any of the participants — it doesn’t matter what your distance, you can come run with the Prairie Run Crew ambassadors and the Craven crew.

We want people to come and say: I learned something new, maybe through the seminars or: I met somebody new at the shakeout run, or I met somebody that I had seen on social media, and now I got to meet them face to face. Those are the kinds of things that build a running community.

What else do you want people to know?

If you can, register before Feb. 28, because the price will go up at the end of February. We’ve tried to keep it at a reasonable, accessible price for everybody in that first month.

And if you go to our website, you’ll see the limited edition artwork on our Saskatoon Running Festival swag. It showcases some iconic landmarks that you see when you’re running the trails in Saskatoon. (As of early February), we are already 60% sold out of our limited edition attire and we’ve been on sale for four days. A portion of those proceeds go to Prairie Run Crew.

Our plan for the first three years of the festival is to have different artwork every year that shows off different landmarks from the Saskatoon running community. We think it’s a great way to show off where you’re from and why you’re proud to be from Saskatoon.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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