Sequim Gazette staff
After a decade away, the Big Hurt is back.
The multi-sport relay race — or for the truly adventurous, a single-person challenge in the so-called “Iron Division” — returns to Port Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 26.
Peninsula residents Scott Tucker, Tim Tucker and Lorrie Mittmann, along with title sponsor Family Medicine of Port Angeles, are putting on the event 11 years after the Big Hurt had its last hurrah.
The race consists of four race legs: a 16.5-mile mountain bike leg, three-mile kayak leg, 30-mile road bike leg and finishing with a 10-kilometer run.
This year’s Big Hurt is limited to 50 relay teams and 50 individuals.
The race starts at 10 a.m. with a mountain bike course that’s a combination of dirt logging road, single-track trail and paved road. It begins about a mile from the Little River Road gate. The course is a hilly, rolling one for about six miles before connecting with the Little River Road, Black Diamond Road, Pine Street and Valley Street as it meanders back to a transition area at Hollywood Beach. Event organizers recommend at least some off-road riding experience for this leg.
The kayak leg is a three-mile, out-and-back course heading northeast away from the Port Angeles City Pier and parallel to the harbor shoreline. After about 1.5 miles competitors reach a pair of buoys, round them and head back to the transition area. Safety equipment is required on all kayaks (see bighurtpa.com/events/leg-2-kayak/ for detailed instructions).
The 30-mile road bike race takes participants from the city pier west past the Elwha River to Freshwater Bay, then south onto Dan Kelly Road and back through the west end of Port Angeles to the transition area. It features a cumulative elevation gain of 2,100 feet. Helmets are mandatory.
The culmination of the Big Hurt is the 10k, an out-and-back along a flat, mostly paved portion of the Olympic Discovery Trail that follows the Port Angeles Harbor shoreline.
The race finishes in downtown Port Angeles next to the Red Lion Hotel and Hollywood Beach, with live music and a beer garden at the Red Lion stage.
In 1997, City of Port Angeles officials asked the North Olympic Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau to put together an event that would bring people to the area. Kristi Agren and Rick Hert from the visitor bureau thought it a great idea, and after a brainstorming Port Angeles Parks & Recreation Department officials, the Big Hurt was born.
The “Hurt” grew to be a local favorite, growing 65 participants in its first year to nearly 600 participants in 2004, its most recent.
See bighurtpa.com to register or for more details. Or come to a registration/pre-event get-together from 6-8 p.m., Aug. 13, at Harbinger Winery (2358 Highway 101 West, Port Angeles); size up the competition, discuss race strategies and sign up to compete.
Event organizers are seeking sponsors and volunteers. To help out, e-mail to olympicadventuretrail@gmail.com.
