By Jon Chown
The Wharf to Wharf will have a new starting point this year due to the Murray Street Bridge closure.
The scenic six-mile race will now begin on Portola Drive, between 26th Avenue and 38th Avenue. The new course will then track southward through the east side of Santa Cruz, past Twins Lakes Church and through the Harbor neighborhoods of 7th Avenue. The third mile wraps around the harbor onto Lake Avenue and then back onto the traditional course along the ocean. The finish line is still at the corner of Cliff and Wharf Road by the Capitola Wharf.
2013 Wharf to Wharf race.
The Wharf to Wharf is run each year on the fourth Sunday in July (July 26 this year). The event was first run in 1973 and grew each year until the race had to be limited to 16,000 runners.
Participants come from all over the world to take part in it and registration sells out almost instantly. The race is produced by Wharf to Wharf Inc., a nonprofit charted to promote running, health and fitness. Since its inception.
Scott McConville, race director for Wharf to Wharf, has been planning the event for 15 years and said this year has been the most difficult. It’s a year-round job putting the event together and this year, about 20 different routes were considered and it took months of negotiations with all the different principalities involved before a final route was settled on.
“There’s so many things to consider, starting with safety and then to the general impact on the residential community,” McConville said. “We also have to consider the participant experience and the infrastructure needs: parking lots, restrooms — so it’s a lot. The process has been arduous.”
But McConville said also he loves it. There could hardly be a more scenic site for such a race and the Wharf to Wharf Race Inc., a nonprofit, has contributed more than $6 million dollars to Santa Cruz County youth sports programs in general and the running community in particular.
“I get a lot of joy out of being involved with this organization, in general,” he said. “I was around Wharf to Wharf my whole life growing up, so it’s definitely an honor.”
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For more information on the Wharf to Wharf, go online at wharftowharf.com.
TOP PHOTO: The 2018 Wharf to Wharf race start at the corner of Beach St. and Cliff St. in front of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.