Alaska fun runs
25 seasonal, themed and one-of-a-kind fun runs in Alaska.
Novelty course: 8 · Holiday and seasonal: 6 · Quirky format: 3 · Food and drink: 3 · Iconic tradition: 3 · Costume and theme: 1 · Animals: 1
- Quirky format Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Races (finale: Kincaid Costume Run) A fall series of fun runs where nobody sees the course until just before the start, ending with a costume run at Kincaid Park.
- Holiday and seasonal Frightening 4K A Halloween-morning 4K from the Hotel Captain Cook courtyard to Ship Creek, with treat stops along the course and a costume contest.
- Costume and theme Halloween Half & 5K (Scare-a-Thon) A Juneau half marathon and 5K where there are no prizes for speed, only for the best costumes.
- Holiday and seasonal Skinny Raven Turkey Trot Anchorage's Thanksgiving trot finishes indoors inside the Dena'ina Convention Center, and age-group winners take home a fresh pie.
- Holiday and seasonal Solstice Sweater Shuffle A sweater-encouraged 5K on the shortest-daylight weekend of the year, looping the old Treadwell Mine trails from Sandy Beach.
- Food and drink The First Howl: Trails & Nog A New Year's Day trail party capped by a 'Nog Mile': four 8-oz glasses of eggnog, each followed by a quarter-mile lap.
- Iconic tradition Mount Marathon Race A 3.1-mile scramble up and down the mountain over downtown Seward that has been the town's Fourth of July centerpiece since a 1915 barroom bet.
- Food and drink Alaska Salmon Runs (Copper River Salmon Jam) Every distance is named for a salmon species (King marathon, Sockeye half, Coho 10K, Humpy 5K, Smolt mile), and runners eat a salmon BBQ lunch afterward.
- Novelty course Alyeska Climbathon Ten hours of climbing Alyeska's North Face Trail and riding the aerial tram back down to count laps; 10 or more laps earns 'Denali in a Day'.
- Holiday and seasonal Anchorage Mayor's Marathon & Half Marathon Anchorage's summer-solstice race weekend, with a Coastal Trail marathon course where runners may spot beluga whales in Cook Inlet.
- Quirky format Brewery to Bathroom .5K Billed as 'the race for the rest of us', a 0.31-mile jaunt from a brewery to the park bathrooms and back, with refueling stations on the way.
- Novelty course Christopher Walden Hilltop 5K A 5K that goes up and down the slopes of Hilltop Ski Area again and again, with nearly 1,300 feet of elevation change.
- Novelty course Crow Pass Crossing A roughly 23-mile backcountry trail race over Crow Pass that includes fording the cold, fast Eagle River, with no official aid stations.
- Iconic tradition Equinox Marathon & Relay Interior Alaska's equinox-weekend trail marathon over Ester Dome, with relay and hiking divisions that make it a community rite of fall.
- Holiday and seasonal Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Midnight Sun Run A 10K that starts at 10 p.m. on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice and finishes in full daylight with a party past midnight.
- Animals Fur Rondy Running of the Reindeer Costumed runners sprint down Fourth Avenue trying to stay ahead of a herd of live reindeer, Alaska's answer to Pamplona.
- Iconic tradition Gold Discovery Run A 16.5-mile point-to-point from the Fort Knox gold mine road to Silver Gulch Brewery, commemorating the 1902 gold strike that founded Fairbanks.
- Novelty course Goldbelt Tram - Mount Roberts Trail Run Runners climb 1,800 feet from the cruise-ship waterfront to the cross on Mount Roberts, touch it, and ride the tram back down.
- Quirky format Klondike Road Relay An overnight 175 km relay that starts in Skagway at night, climbs the old White Pass gold-rush route and crosses into Canada to finish in Whitehorse.
- Novelty course Pillar Mountain Race (Kodiak Crab Festival) A run over Pillar Mountain that finishes downtown at the Harbor Master building in the middle of Kodiak's Crab Festival.
- Novelty course Run De Jump Racers climb the Karl Eid ski jump hill on a cargo net, then keep going to the top of the Hilltop chairlift.
- Novelty course Santa Claus Half Marathon A Santa-themed half marathon run in summer in the town of North Pole, Alaska.
- Holiday and seasonal Shamrock Shuffle A costumed 'Lucky the Leprechaun' starts a minute behind the field, and every runner he passes adds $1 for charity.
- Food and drink Skinny Raven Oktoberfest A lederhosen-optional 5K/10K that finishes straight into 49th State Brewing's Oktoberfest beer garden at The Rail.
- Novelty course Twilight 12K & 6K An evening race that closes the A/C Street bridge over Ship Creek for a loop of Government Hill, with bands along the course.