Several changes are coming to the 34th annual Only Fools Run at Midnight on Saturday night.
Most notably, the race won’t start at midnight like it has for most of the past 33 years. The 5-kilometer fun run and the 1-mile walk begin an hour earlier than normal, at 11 p.m., across Egan Drive from the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.
Tanna Peters, the development specialist at KTOO and race organizer, said not everyone was crazy about running at midnight.
“Someone said, ‘The racing at midnight is awesome on one hand, and just a little too late on the other,’” Peters said. “So I said, what if we just tried for 11? So the idea is, ‘Don’t be the fool left out after midnight.’”
The 5K and 1-mile courses start near the JACC and take the Seawalk to Mayor Bill Overstreet Park. The 1-mile participants turn around at the whale statue while the 5K runners continue north and turn around on Glacier Highway near Norway Point. Both races finish outside the JACC.
The walk and run follow a spruced-up costume contest complete with a “full-fledged runway show” inside the JACC. Starting at 10 p.m., costumed participants will be judged in at least five different categories, including Best Costume, Best Duo, Best Family, Best Group and Best Spirit. The awards will be handed out at the end run.
“We always have a few groups that come every year and they’ve already told me they’re in again,” Peters said. “So I’m pretty excited to see what kind of goofiness this town comes up with.”
Pre-registration closes at 5 p.m. on Friday night on eventbrite.com. Race night registration will start at 9 p.m. Adult registration includes one complementary Devil’s Club Brewing Co. beer that will be served in a “cheer garden” set up near the finish line outside the JACC.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
