Running relay tours Alaska, Canada: course follows gold seekers' course from Skagway to Whitehorse.

• Author: Pounds, Nancy
• Position: Alaska This Month

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A runner strides swiftly on the highway pavement, shrouded in darkness and the chill of fall in northern Canada. A RV follows, its headlights marking a path through the midnight run of the Klondike Trail of '98 International Road Relay.

This 110-mile relay begins in Skagway, tours briefly through British Columbia and finishes in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Racers follow in the footsteps of the Klondike Gold Rush stampeders who trekked over the White Pass to the gold fields of the Yukon. The relay is divided into 10 legs with distances varying from 5.6 miles to 16 miles. Teams consist of six to 10 racers, who travel from Alaska and Canada to participate. Organizers start the race at 7 p.m. Friday in Skagway, and the finish is at 3 p.m. Saturday. The event concludes with an awards ceremony and dance on Saturday night.

This year's Klondike Road Relay is Sept. 5-6.

Alaskan Andrew Richie, who has run the Klondike Road Relay three times, is signed up to run for Anchorage sports store Skinny Raven's corporate team. He has run leg 5 for 13.9 miles, leg 6 for 16 miles and leg 7 at 8.8 miles. His favorite: the 16-mile run through the middle of the night when he was in top condition. Last year he took first place in leg 7 out of 38 men, and his 2007 team, "Skinny Raven: Take No Prisoners," won the open category. He enjoys running at unusual hours, especially the nighttime runs for the Klondike.

High gas prices have influenced his team to make changes for this year's event, but it has not dissuaded the competitors, he said. "I still think it's such a unique event," Richie said. "The people who have gone have done it for a lot of years so that it's a tradition now."

Longtime volunteers staff the Klondike Road Relay and make the event feels "like a big family," said Megan Freese, program coordinator for event organizer Sport Yukon.

The Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon started the Klondike Road Relay in 1982 to attract...