Bear Paw Marathon once again draws runner from across the country

For the third year in a row, the Bear Paw Marathon will take place on the Hi-Line. This Saturday, the marathon will return with over 300 runners competing in several races starting in the Bear Paw Mountains. With so many visiting Havre for this event, Bear Paw Marathon director Jessica Fagerbakke believes it will be great for the community.

"It's a really great opportunity for Havre to show off all of the wonderful things that we have to offer and what a great community we are," Fagerbakke said. "We're looking forward to hosting our visitors again this year and it's just a really great, family friendly, healthy event for our community to participate in."

On Saturday morning, three races will make up the festivities. The Bear Paw Marathon itself will begin at 6 a.m. and will start a few miles up Sucker Creek Road up in the Bear Paw Mountains. The runners will run down the highway all the way until getting on Butte Road and taking that route all the way into town.

The Bear Paw Half Marathon will begin at 7 a.m. at Beaver Creek Reservoir. From there, the runners will run the same route as the full marathon runners. The Bear Paw 5K Fun Run/Walk will begin at 8 a.m. just outside of town.

On the runners' route, there will be several restrooms and aid stations along the way. The finish line will be the Montana State University-Northern campus. From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the finish line will have food trucks, Bear Paw Bowls serving acai bowls and Vic's Place serving drinks for those celebrating the runners.

This will be the third annual Bear Paw Marathon, and it has increased its number of runners every year. The marathon currently has 327 participants signed up. Runners will come from 18 different states, two Canadian provinces and 20 different counties in Montana.

The registered runners for the races can pick up their packets at the Holiday Village Mall today from 4 to 8 p.m. But runners can still register for the marathon all the way up until Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning, runners must be at the Armory Gymnasium south parking lot on the MSU-N campus to get picked up by the buses that will take them to the start of their races. The bus for the marathon will leave at 5:10 a.m., the bus for the half marathon will leave at 6:15 a.m. and the bus for the 5K will leave at 7:30 a.m.

With hundreds of runners registering to run in several races here in Havre, Fagerbakke and the Havre Chamber of Commerce have needed help setting it all up. They have had the help of community partners such as the local government, the Montana Department of Transportation, Beaver Creek Park, the Bear Paw Fire Department, Rudyard EMS and many others. As the Bear Paw returns for its third year, Fagerbakke wanted to acknowledge the help from everyone involved.

"It wouldn't happen without all of our sponsors and volunteers, so us at the Havre Chamber of Commerce are just really grateful and appreciative," Fagerbakke said. "We're just really grateful that these organizations continue to support the marathon in various ways year after year."

The Bear Paw Marathon will start this Saturday morning at 6 a.m.