Run event at airport to be rescheduled
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald A sign along West Broadway advertising the Runway Run, which is being rescheduled to sometime in mid-to-late September.
MOSES LAKE — The Runway Run, a running event scheduled to be held on the main runway of Grant County International Airport in early June, has been postponed.
According to Justin Morigeau, the director of aircraft completions at Greenpoint Technologies in Moses Lake, run organizers are looking at mid- to late September to stage the races. They were originally intended to coincide with the completion of repairs on the airport’s 13,500-foot main runway.
“We’re getting input from those who have registered and from sponsors,” Morigeau said, adding he expects to have a new date for the run by next week.
The GCIA main runway is currently closed while workers from Granite Construction remove a hump that prevents aircraft on one end of the runway from seeing aircraft at the other end. As part of the $20 million project, workers are also replacing the runway’s Cold War-era lighting system.
Work on the runway is still set to be completed on June 5, while the runs — a 5-kilometer run down the length of the main runway and a 10-kilometer run down and back — were originally scheduled for Saturday, June 6.
Morigeau said this is “one of the few” runway runs west of the Mississippi River, and the fact the runners will actually be able to run on the actual runway itself is “pretty unique.”
It helps that the GCIA is primarily used for training and testing, Morigeau said, as the lack of regular, scheduled air traffic makes it easy to hold an event like this.
Right now, Morigeau said organizers are trying to find a date that doesn’t conflict with other runs, such as Bloomsday in Spokane. Organizers have rescheduled the 12-kilometer Bloomsday run, normally held in May, for Sunday, Sept. 20.
“We want to avoid having multiple events in the region within 150 miles,” he said.
Morigeau said he also hopes the Runway Run can be a regular event, possibly even paired with the Moses Lake Airshow, which was originally scheduled for Father’s Day weekend in June. It has been canceled for the year.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.