Registration Open for 195-Mile Wild West Relay

November 11, 2008 -- Registration is now open for the sixth annual Wild West Relay, a 195-mile team running relay race in northern Colorado. Also known in the running community as "Get Your Ass Over the Pass," the event will take place on Friday and Saturday Aug. 7 - 8, 2009. According to Timberline Events, the event sponsor, the relay will start in Fort Collins at the Budweiser Tour Center, and wind through rural and isolated sections of northern Colorado and Wyoming, passing through several small mountain and ranching communities.

Teams will cross over Sand Creek Pass (10,269 feet) and Rabbit Ears Pass (9,426 feet). Sixty-seven miles of the relay route traverse Roosevelt, Medicine Bow, and Routt National Forests; 59 miles of the route are on dirt roads. The last leg of the relay is primarily on bike paths and trails through Steamboat Springs, with the finish line at the Steamboat Springs Middle School.

Teams of twelve can compete in men's, women's, mixed, open, masters’, House Hash Harriers’, flatlanders’ (all team members must live below 2,500 feet) categories, or High School categories. Each runner will run three legs averaging 5.25 miles. Longer-distance runners can form a six-person “ultra” team in which each runner averages 32.5 miles. There is a limit of 135 teams.

Each team must provide three volunteers who will help staff the relay, working at the runner exchanges or as course marshals. As an option, teams may make a donation to a program called Volunteers With A Purpose, where local community non-profit organizations supply volunteers to work during the relay as a fund-raising opportunity. Working with the Wild West Relay to help raise funds, these non-profit groups will be coordinated by United Way 2-1-1. Based in Fort Collins, United Way 2-1-1, a part of the United Way of Larimer County, provides timely and accurate community resource information and referral to community members and non-profit organizations throughout Colorado. Since 2005, the Wild West Relay raised and distributed over $64,000 to participating local organizations. Stacey Greathouse, a member of the Johnstown Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA), an international women’s service organization with numerous charitable outlets, perhaps most notably, St. Jude’s Cancer Research for Children, explained that it can be difficult for her group to find quality events and they benefited more from Wild West Relay with “far less work and people than other fundraisers”. In fact, it was one of their “best overall fundraising event[s] for the year”.

“In most relay events, teams must ask friends and/or family members to volunteer as race marshals or to staff the runner exchanges,” says race organizer Paul Vanderheiden. “With Volunteers With A Purpose, we have an opportunity to support the local communities while making it easier for teams to participate.”

Early registration is in effect until January 31st.

Larimer, Albany, Jackson, Routt, and Moffat County non-profit organizations interested in more information about being involved with Volunteers With A Purpose should contact Julie Phillips at the United Way of Larimer County at (970) 407-7054.

For more information, go to www.wildwestrelay.com, or contact the race director at paul@timberlineevents.com

Timberline Events LLC also stages the Green Mountain Relay in Vermont (www.GreenMountainRelay.com)