RUN Wenatchee

WENATCHEE — The upcoming May 9 Horse Lake Trail Runs in the Wenatchee Foothills have been postponed until Sept. 19 due to the coronavirus crisis, RunWenatchee announced today.

RunWenatchee is offering two options for people who have already signed up for the Horse Lake Trail Runs:

• Stay in the race and participate Sept. 19. Entries will automatically be pulled forward to the new date in the event’s registration system. If a participant ordered a shirt, that shirt will be waiting for them on Sept. 19.

• Rollover an entry and shirt order to the 2021 Horse Lake Trail Runs. To take advantage of this option, participants need to email runwenatchee@gmail.com, type ‘Rollover” in the subject head, and add their name and race distance in the body of the email.

All other questions should be directed to runwenatchee@gmail.com.

The annual trail running event is held at the Horse Lake Reserve, owned and managed by the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust about three miles northwest of the city of Wenatchee. Funds from the event help build and maintain trails in the Wenatchee Foothills.

“With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and with things projected to get worse over the next few weeks, we had no choice but to take this step,” said race director Joel Rhyner. “The health and safety of our runners, volunteers and our entire community are very important to us here at RunWenatchee. As runners ourselves, we understand the impact this will have on participants, as well as to our beneficiaries, sponsors and overall community. We have looked ahead at the running calendar and we feel the new date on Sept. 19 is best for minimal conflict with other running races in the region and state. That date also gives us a month before our Oktoberfest Trail Runs take place on Oct. 17 in Leavenworth.”

Rhyner said the Red Devil Trail Runs, scheduled for June 6 south of Cashmere in the Wenatchee National Forest, are still on at this moment.

“But this is an evolving and fluid situation and we are monitoring it closely,” Rhyner said. “We will keep everyone updated as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect our region and country.”

RunWenatchee has been holding trail races in the region since 2011 when the first Red Devil event was held. The Horse Lake Trail Runs began in 2013 and the Oktoberfest Trail Runs were added in 2015. Together, the races are known as the Wenatchee Valley Trail Run Series. Besides the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, other main beneficiaries include Chelan County Mountain Rescue and Leavenworth Winter Sports Club.

RunWenatchee continues to hold its weekly Run Club on Thursdays but has turned to a virtual format. Instead of in-person sign-ins at Pybus Market each Thursday, Run Club participants can go for a run or a walk by themselves at their own preferred location and time that day, and then check in and get credit at https://www.runwenatchee.com/club/. The electronic check-in is only available on Thursdays.