By Guest Blogger Sherry Clarke

If the why is big enough, the how becomes easy. – Rizwan Aseem

My name is Sherry Clarke and I’m the Race Director and creator of the Pacific Runderland 5k & Kids Run, a charity event that was held for its first time in September 2019 in Auburn, Washington. The event benefits Washington’s National Park Fund (WNPF) and was started to honor my dad. Last year we contributed $4,400 to WNPF, and just held our second, virtual event a few weeks ago and raised $2,650!

To give you a little history of how this race came to life, I’ll give you a brief history of myself and my family. Growing up, my family and I spent many seasons at Cougar Rock Campground (or “Koo-Koo Rock” as we kids would call it) in Mount Rainier National Park, camping and hiking in the summer, and sledding and cross-country skiing in the winter. Avid outdoors people, my parents, Wayne and Julie, had been exploring the Pacific Northwest for many years before us kids started joining them for the adventures. They loved hiking, camping and backpacking at Mount Rainier, in the Olympics, and in other areas of the Cascade Mountain Range.

Not only did my family love hiking and camping, we also loved running and were introduced to the sport by my dad. He was a natural and accomplished athlete, finishing 9 marathons; the Seattle to Portland bike ride twice; and the Pole, Pedal, Paddle Pentathlon as an ironman. Whether it was 26 miles or 2 miles, he just loved being a part of the running community, even moonlighting as a Race Director himself for a brief time. My mom took up running shortly after she met my dad, and my brother, sister and I, grew up running in local races as a family. Running was always something that brought us together, and still does to this day, probably in many ways thanks to my dad.

When our dad was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease in 2007, at the age of 56, the news devastated our family and friends. How could someone so young, so active and so healthy be diagnosed with this horrible disease? He continued running in the early stages of the disease but, sadly, the day came when he got lost on one his runs, even though it was the same route he’d run for years. As is the awful reality of early-onset Alzheimer’s, it hits hard and fast, and we lost our dad, husband, brother and friend in February of 2012.

I’d often thought about organizing some sort of running event involving Mount Rainier in honor of my dad, but had no idea what that might look like. So for years it just remained a “lovely idea” in the back of my mind…until the summer of 2018.

In August of 2018, my husband and I took our two kids (then ages four and two), along with my mom, on a camping trip to Cougar Rock Campground for a few days. I probably drove my kids to boredom sharing all the memories I had of this place – showing them the double-log campsite we used to always stay at, sharing the story of how my dad helped Search & Rescue find a lost hiker in the middle of the night, taking them to Junior Ranger talks at the Amphitheater, teaching them the importance of taking the “classic 10 essentials” on hikes (especially candy) and so many more anecdotes. I realized during that trip why sharing this experience at Mount Rainier had been so special for my parents. Seeing the Park through my own children’s eyes gave me a whole new level of appreciation and love for the area. And that’s when I knew what our run could be about. I wanted to combine two things my dad loved – national parks and running – and I wanted to help preserve the beauty for future generations in hopes that maybe, one day, my children’s children would be visiting “Koo-Koo Rock” and making memories of their own.

After that trip, I came home, did a little research, found out that there were no running events supporting Washington’s national parks (which kind of surprised me) and found Washington’s National Park Fund. I contacted the Fund, told them about my idea and we took off from there.

Although I’d never done this before, and there was a part of me that was scared it wasn’t going to work, I knew, deep down, that this was a project that meant so much to me, as a runner and as a daughter, that it would do okay. Professionally, I have a background in graphic design and event marketing, and I’ve been attending races my whole life, so I rested on the faith that my experience in those areas, along with my heart, would help me make this a success. As an active member of the running community, I reached out to race directors I knew (who have become mentors to me), reached out to city and park officials asking for recommendations on where to host a race, reached out to former professional contacts and picked everyone’s brain who was willing to talk to me.

Fast forward to September 7, 2019 – the first Pacific Runderland 5k & Kids Run at Roegner Park in Auburn, Washington. The weather was perfect, we started on time, I didn’t jumble my words on the microphone (public speaking isn’t really my thing) and everyone seemed to have a good time. My goal for this first year was to have 200 participants….and we had nearly 230 participants in the 5k and almost 50 participants in the Kids Run, a 1k fun run for kids 12 and under (my dad would have loved the Kids Run and seeing the next generation of runners enjoying this sport). I was beyond thrilled with the show of support for a first-year event! Among the participants, our first-place overall female was a mom pushing a stroller (and as a stroller runner myself, I was in awe that she could race that fast). We had a gentleman visiting from Ireland who said he Googled local races before coming to Seattle and found Pacific Runderland and wanted to do it. We had a wheelchair rider and runner from Ainsley’s Angels, an organization that helps people with special needs participate in endurance events, like running. We had several first-time 5k racers as well as runners who have finished the Boston Marathon. I loved seeing all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities out there…it was truly a great reminder that running can be something everyone can enjoy. We also offered a “Virtual Run” for those who wanted to participate but might not be able to attend the race. We had 24 virtual participants from all across North America — including Washington, California, Kansas, North Carolina and Canada!

We were able to raise $4,400 for Washington’s National Park Fund at the 2019 event and were so excited to grow the event in 2020. For 2020, we added a 10k route in addition to the 5k and Kids Run and were rolling full speed ahead with registrations earlier this year. And then…COVID happened. Like so many experienced when the pandemic hit our country, it threw any and all plans of certainty out the window. I waited it out, hoping things might improve through the spring so that we could have an in-person event in September, but it became clear over the summer that I would need to make the tough decision to either cancel the event completely or take it virtual and hope we could still raise some money for WNPF. In July, after much consideration, I decided that the event meant too much to me to cancel and that I would go virtual and do the best I could in these uncertain times. In some ways, going virtual made things easier, but in some ways, so much more difficult. Logistically, it became slightly easier, but from a marketing standpoint with so many races also forced to go virtual, “virtual races” became a very saturated market. And, with so many runners and walkers missing the “in-person” race experience – the race morning jitters, the energy of the crowd around them, the adrenaline rush hearing that bullhorn go off at the start, the post-race hang outs and snacks – many runners were opting to not sign up for virtual races. And many were afraid to sign up for races just to have them cancelled completely.

But, with all that said, I tried to do what I could to still get runners out there in support of Washington’s national parks. And thankfully, we still had the support of 3 sponsors: Clarke Properties, Fleet Feet Tacoma and SafetyShirtz to help with finishers medals, prizes and t-shirts. We are so grateful to our sponsors and couldn’t have done it without them. We had 160 registrants for the 2020 Virtual Pacific Runderland from all across the country – Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, New York, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin – out supporting Washington’s national parks. We changed “race day” into “race week” and offered prizes to participants for completing their distance during the race week and shared it on our social media channels. At the end of the day, the 2020 Virtual Pacific Runderland was able to raise $2,650 for Washington’s National Park Fund. I’m grateful for the running community and their support of this event, especially in such unfortunate circumstances. And one silver lining to going virtual was that I actually got to run the 10k race myself, instead of running it, pun intended!

Next year has to be better, right? Right?? All kidding aside, we plan to host the 2021 Pacific Runderland IN-PERSON (fingers crossed) on Saturday, September 11 at Roegner Park in Auburn, WA. There will be a 10k, 5k and Kids Run and we can’t wait to be racing in person again! If you’d like more information about the event or how to become involved, please visit www.pacificrunderlandevents.com.