Putting the ‘run’ in runway
Runners jog down the taxiway at the Grant County International Airport early Saturday, during the Runway 5K/10K, which allowed participants to run down the airport’s 13,500-foot-long main runway.
MOSES LAKE — It’s not something anyone gets to do very often. At least not on purpose.
“I’m excited to run down the runway,” said Katherine Cruz, as she was stretching in preparation for a long run down the Grant County International Airport’s main runway.
“I’m an occasional runner,” Cruz added. “My dog does a lot of running. I do a lot of watching her, mainly.”
Cruz, a test engineer for Stoke Space Technologies, which is building a facility to test rocket engines at the Port of Moses Lake, was one of roughly 265 people gathered at the airport early Saturday morning to help raise money for the Moses Lake High School cross country team.
The Runway 5K/10K @MWH, scheduled in conjunction with the Moses Lake Airshow, but not a formal part of that event, was, like nearly everything last year, canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re finally getting to do it,” said Casey Cooper, a track coach at MLHS. “It’s going to be great weather.”
Justin Morigeau, an employee of aircraft customizer Greenpoint Technologies and prime organizer of the event, said one of the main advantages of running on a long airport runway is the route is straight and hard to deviate from.
“You can’t get lost,” he said.
The route started out the same for both 5K and 10K runners — go west down the taxiway, turn right and follow the taxiway line to the airport’s second runway, Runway 4, then follow that to where it crosses the main runway.
From there, 5K runners turned right and ran back to the tarmac in front of the main terminal, while 10K runners turned left, ran all the way to the end of Runway 32 — the airport’s 13,500-foot-long main runway — turned around and came back.
“It’s a long way down there,” Morigeau said.
Morigeau said it’s taken a lot of coordination to have the race this year, especially with all of the uncertainty earlier in the year surrounding the pandemic, and he thanked the racers for sticking it out.
And, he looked at the crowd gathering to run amidst the sagebrush and around the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
“This is a lot for a first-year race,” he said.