Race Condition Running

7:50AM Saturday, May 20th, 2023

Join us for 110 laps around Drumheller Fountain. Stick around after for food and music at the U-District Street Fair.

Results Order Shirt

Course

The course begins with a short segment down the upper vista, followed by 110 laps around Drumheller Fountain. Runners will enter first loop from the east of the finish line and begin by running counterclockwise. The direction will flip every 20 minutes, and runners must change directions only by rounding the marker placed at the north end of the finish line. Failure to follow these instructions will prevent us from giving you an official finish time.

While campus foot traffic is reduced on weekends, expect to navigate around fountain-admirers, passers-by and cyclists. The fountain—and the race—will start at 8:00.

A map of the course showing the start line 120.50m north of the fountain, followed by 110 laps of the 190.70m fountain loop.

USATF Certificate

WA23019RMB

Effective: 4/15/23
Through: 12/31/33

Race Day

FAQ

Anyone in the CSE community.

Bring a water bottle. As of 10:00PM on 5/18 the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and temperatures approaching 65°F by the end of the run. Please prepare appropriately as the course is essentially without shade.

Count your laps. Use a running watch, if you're wearing one. Or we'll have a couple tally counters available if you want mechanical assistance. Last year we ran as a group and counted laps out loud. GPS will clip the curve, so don't rely on it for more than a couple laps at a time.

There is plenty of space. We are expecting around 20 participants, and only half plan to complete 13.1 miles. That being said, here is the course etiquette:
  • Step to the outside of the course before stopping
  • Groups: Do not run more than 3 abreast and yield the innermost lane around the fountain to faster runners
  • Faster runners: Pass on the outside if you need to

The race will begin counterclockwise and alternate directions every 20 minutes to help balance the strain across your legs. Having the field run a single direction at a time will help us manage course congestion. Change directions only at the end of a lap and only by rounding the finish line marker.

No. You're welcome to come join for any number of laps. They don't have to be consecutive either! Here are some unofficial lap counts for common distances. Add a lap if not starting at the official start line.
Distance Laps
5k 26
10k 52
10mi 84

Yes. You can hang out at the aid station or any of the benches surrounding the course. You must continue running the lap in the same direction as when you stopped or the lap will not count. We recommend you start and stop only at the finish line so you can begin the next lap without this risk.

You should be able to complete your chosen distance in under 2.5 hours.

Run from the start line and join us! You must enter the course from "behind" the finish line in the direction that the field is running at the time you join. So, if we're running counterclockwise, start your first loop by crossing over the finish line from the east, and otherwise from the west. Note that this event is gun time only.

Results

Official

Unofficial

Rainier Vista, partly framed by Johnson and Mary Gates halls, is the most sacred space on campus. The vista was first conceived as a centerpiece of the campus plan by the Olmsted Brothers in 1906, when the elusive mountain revealed itself during the firm's visit to Seattle to develop a plan for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. Rainier Vista is the most dramatic borrowing from nature on any campus in the United States, with Mount Rainier as its climax, and with both architecture and landscape reinforcing its thrust past a minor view of the city toward the mountain beyond. As Edmond Meany put it, “No campus in all the world can equal Rainier Vista. In those rare moments when Mother Nature in kindly mood pulls aside the vaporous curtains we may gaze upon Mt. Rainier, a three-mile…flow…of rock and ice. A spectacle of unending fascination!”
Norman J. Johnston, The Fountain and the Mountain