Every September, the Klondike Road Relay sends runners on an unforgettable 110-mile overnight journey from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon. The sold-out race brings together 200 teams of 10 runners for a night of mountains, unpredictable weather, wildlife, outrageous costumes and extraordinary cross-border sportsmanship.
A Route Through Traditional Territories
The Klondike Road Relay travels through a landscape with thousands of years of human history, long predating today's international borders and the Klondike Gold Rush.
The route takes participants through the traditional territories of the Chilkoot Tlingit people, the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.
These lands have connected people, cultures and communities for generations. Today's relay follows a corridor between Skagway and the Yukon that continues to bring people together.
A Personal Journey
I've only been Skagway's Tourism Director for 5 years, but I ran my first Klondike Road Relay in 2004.
It was Leg 3—affectionately known as the “Princess Leg” because, of all the sections of this notoriously difficult race, it has a reputation for being the easiest.
But anyone who has run the Klondike knows the truth: it’s all hard.
More than two decades later, this race remains one of my favorite events of the year.
The Klondike Road Relay Starts in Skagway
Explore Skagway is proud to sponsor the Klondike Road Relay and works with Sport Yukon to set up the start of the race at Broadway and 2nd Avenue in Skagway’s Historic District.
September weather in Southeast Alaska can make the starting line an adventure of its own. It can be chilly, rainy and windy. Some years bring sleet or even snow. This year, it was beautiful with highs at 68 degrees. A heat wave!
Even when the weather is downright miserable, the energy on Broadway is electric. DJ Swasey mixes dance tunes and counts down to each start time, every 15 minutes from 7 pm until midnight. The White Pass & Yukon Route donates a locomotive and staff to sound a train whistle to start each new group of runners. Fans line the street and the rooftops on Broadway, cheering each time the police car leads the racers through town and leaves them just beyond the Skagway River Bridge to tackle the mountains ahead.
With participation limited to 200 teams, roughly 2,000 runners set out to cover 110 miles through Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon—all through the night.
Running Under the Northern Lights
There is no single way to describe running the Klondike Road Relay.
I've run through wind, rain, darkness, sleet and snow. I've run beneath the northern lights, the Milky Way, a Harvest Moon and shooting stars.
I've watched the mountains glow with brilliant fall colors before disappearing into darkness, only to reappear hours later as the sky turns pink with sunrise.
I’ve run with injuries. I’ve pushed through fatigue, running without sleep. You keep moving forward despite cramps, dehydration and occasionally a nasty bout of runner’s gut.
There are moments when you feel completely alone out there. Suddenly a support vehicle rounds the bend shedding light on the uphill battle ahead. You see a competitor within your grasp and your thoughts shift from the pain to your desire to catch up with the runner in front of you.
Wildlife is part of traveling through this country too. This year's sightings included a moose, a mouse, the ever-watchful Raven and a large brown bear near the end of Leg 6. Vehicles honking their horns to warn others. And race volunteers keep a watchful eye helping runners maneuver past this magnificent and potentially dangerous wild animal. She’s looking after her cubs in the bushes just behind her.
Then there are the less majestic creatures. They survived the light frost of last night and now the flies and mosquitoes are out for blood.
110 Miles of Sportsmanship
One of the things I love most about the Klondike Road Relay is the spirit that develops along the highway.
Whatever your sex, nationality, race, sponsor; we are teammates, competitors, volunteers and friends working toward the same finish line. People cheer for strangers. We help one another. Volunteers staff checkpoints throughout the night, often standing for hours in cold, wet weather to keep runners safe and accounted for. Political discourse seems remarkably unimportant when you're standing beside a dark highway at 3 a.m. handing water to a human being who has given it everything they have.
Gold Diggers, Hot Tubs and High Heels
The race may take endurance seriously, but its participants don't always take themselves seriously.
Funny team names, costumes and traditions are part of the Klondike Road Relay experience.
There's The Gold Diggers, an all-female team dressed in gold. The unforgettable Tight Butts and Sweaty Nuts. And how about those racers called Takhini Houdini drinking a Martini in a Bikini. Then there's Hot Tub Time Machine, which literally tows a hot tub on a trailer behind their RV so its runners can soak after completing their trek.
The year I ran Leg 2, I remember sweating up the steepest portion of the highway in the dark when I heard a strange “clickity clack” approaching. It was a tall man, made even taller by the ladies high-heeled shoes he was wearing. If memory serves, the team name was “Run a Mile in Her Shoes”, an all-male team running for breast cancer awareness. If Leg 2 doesn’t take your breath completely away, the idea of these men subjecting themselves to exceptional suffering for an admirable cause will leave you breathless.
Team SNAFU, has been part of my Klondike Road Relay story from the beginning. If you’re not familiar, it’s inspired by the military acronym, “Situation Normal: All F----ed Up”, A sarcastic acknowledgment that chaos, disorder, and severe errors are the normal state of affairs. It’s just like family! And I treasure my teammates as such.
For me, 2026 is a milestone I've been working toward sporadically for more than two decades.
Completing All 10 Klondike Road Relay Legs
To qualify for the prestigious Senator's Cup, a runner must complete each of the Klondike Road Relay's 10 legs at least once.
This year, I finished Leg 7. It’s 14 km that starts just north of Carcross Bridge and takes you past the Carcross Desert just beyond the infamous Emerald Lake and into checkpoint 8, passing the GPS fob to my teammate.
That final missing section meant I had officially run all 10 legs of the Klondike Road Relay—more than 20 years after starting with the “Princess Leg” in 2004. My husband Cory was there to greet me at the end of this leg, just like he was on the first and I find myself euphoric from the run, but also full of gratitude for the kind of support he’s offered me all these years.
At 47 years old, I've now found myself wondering:
Can I run all 10 again before I retire from running?
The Klondike Road Relay is difficult, unpredictable, beautiful, hilarious and occasionally miserable.
And that's exactly why we keep coming back.
Gunalchéesh! Thank You!
The Klondike Road Relay couldn't happen without Skagway Visitor Department Staff & resources, Sport Yukon, race organizers, team sponsors, race sponsors, Police, Fire, EMS, Public Works, border officials, support crews, community fans, private businesses offering longer hours and special deals and an extraordinary army of volunteers staffing checkpoints throughout the night.
To every volunteer standing in the rain, every support crew waiting in the darkness, every runner questioning their life choices halfway through a leg, and our Canadian neighbors who welcome this stream of tired, sweaty and occasionally costumed chaos across the border: we thank you for another unforgettable year.
Explore Skagway is proud to host and we hope to see you all again in 2027!
Jaime Bricker, Skagway Visitor Department, Tourism Director
