Jim Winter (left) and Mike Cater are organizing an inaugural 5 km road race in Osoyoos for Sunday, Aug. 6. (Contributed photo)
Two good friends who have been organizing and competing in competitive road racing for much of their adult lives are organizing the inaugural Osoyoos 5000 road race on Sunday, Aug. 6 beginning and ending at Legion Beach.
Mike Cater and Jim Winter are partners in the company FreeStyle Fitness, which organizes road races all across British Columbia.
The race will be modeled after the Carlsbad 5000 (5,000 metres is roughly five kilometres), which is the most popular short-distance road race in North America.
“They call their event the most popular road race in North America and it is because they get the largest turnout of any five-kilometre event in the United States,” said Cater. “We want our event to be recognized as the hottest road race in Canada because Osoyoos obviously gets the best and hottest weather.”
Cater said he and Winter only agreed to organize the event less than two weeks ago, but they have received permission from the Town of Osoyoos and have acquired insurance, which is required for any event like this.
“We’re doing this on very short notice, but the plan is to start small and hopefully get a decent turnout this year and then plan things much better and make this a really huge event starting next year,” said Cater, who has competed in the Oliver Half Marathon on 12 occasions and completed the Penticton Ironman Triathlon seven times.
Winter has competed in more than 100 marathons and he’s also competed in dozens of events ranging from short road races to ultramarathons and they both felt Osoyoos would be the perfect place to host a short road race every summer, said Cater.
The race will take participants from Legion Beach, up to the end of 89th Street approaching Main Street. They will turn in a loop and head back down towards Legion Beach and proceed along Oleander Drive and then turn around and head towards the finish line, once again at Legion Beach.
Winter and Cater are both confident this race can become a hugely successful and popular event, as soon as next year.
“Both Jim and I have a special passion for the Okanagan and we were talking a couple of weeks ago about bringing a road race back to the Okanagan,” said Cater. “I got involved heavily just last week and I like to think I’m pretty good at putting events like this together and things have gone pretty well so far.
“Because of the short notice, we’re asking anyone interested in participating to show up on race day because we don’t have a website or online registration.”
Starting in 2018, FreeStyle Fitness will heavily promote this event and Cater is confident so many people will want to come to Osoyoos that it could quickly become one of the most popular short distance road race events of its kind anywhere in B.C.
“The plan is to make this a huge event,” he said. “Jim and I are very knowledgeable about organizing events like this and we both realize we had to get back to the Okanagan as quickly as possible. Osoyoos is the perfect spot.”
Osoyoos hasn’t hosted a competitive road race since the Osoyoos Desert Half Ironman race in 2013. The 2014 event was cancelled a week before it was scheduled to take place as organizers cited low registration figures.
The cost to enter the Osoyoos 5000 will be $20 and this includes participating in the race and an event T-shirt.
Registration will begin at 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 6 with the race set to begin at 8:30 sharp.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
