MARYSVILLE – Randy Edens wanted to put cross country running in the spotlight, so he decided to have a meet at night.
That was 11 years ago.
Now, the Twilight XC Invitational has grown to about 3,000 runners and 75 teams from Class 1A to 4A.
This year, for the first time, there will be squads flying up from California. There is also a team from Wyoming, Idaho and a handful from Oregon.
The event is Sept. 30. The first of the nine races Saturday starts at 2:45 p.m. at Cedarcrest Golf Course.
Marysville Getchell High School Coach Edens said it’s a spectacular spectacle that he tries to improve every year.
“The build up is a lot of stress,” he said. “Many pieces have to come together. The best part is once it’s going.”
It’s uniqueness makes it a can’t miss event. It’s like a village, with teams putting up tents on the first hole, hanging out and visiting in-between races, and eating items like chili and drinking hot chocolate, Edens said.
At the end of the race, Edens used to have a balloon archway. But now the highlight the past few years has been eight huge arches spaced out that are lit up in different colors. There is also an arch at the 1-mile and 2-mile marks of the 5K course.
Edens said it’s a good thing “the golf course had as many extension cords as you could fathom.”
There are also about 60 illuminated flags that are blue to tell runners to go straight, red to signify turn left and yellow so they will go right.
Even though it’s not even October yet, one part of the event the kids all love is the Costume Run. At the end of the night they dress up in Halloween-type costumes of all types to run a 2K. Edens said most of them just run through the final arches.
“It’s a free-for-all, chaotic,” the MG coach said. About 25 light towers are put up around the golf course, so runners in the later races can see. They are guided around the course by volunteers, along with glow sticks that stuck in the ground. “We always look for glow-in-the-dark stuff” to make the event special, the coach said, adding their glow t-shirts are hugely popular and the main money-maker for the MG fundraiser.
The event has become a family event for the Edenses. Randy said he is the “vision” guy, while his wife, Kim, is great with all the details. His mother-in-law is very involved with the t-shirts, while his dad, Jerry, helped him develop the idea from the start. His son, who competes for Lake Stevens, has helped with the event since he was young, and last year ran in it for the first time as a competitor.
Edens started the event when he coached Marysville-Pilchuck High School, before MG was even built. Maybe a dozen schools attended the first one, which was in mid-September. He said they were fortunate to have it so early that year because there were only 10 light stations. “It was magnificent, that little extra sunlight,” Edens said, adding it could have been a disaster if it was any darker, especially in some areas with tall trees.
He remembered it taking an hour just to set up one light pole.
“It was pouring” down rain, he said, adding they didn’t get done until 2:30 a.m.
But it was all worth it as the next year it doubled in size and the third year it was triple the size of the first event.
“We felt like we had something” then, Edens said. “After that it just exploded. Now, it’s taken on a life of its own.”
He said volunteers are so key to the event being a success. About 80 are needed. It also has big-name sponsors now, like Nike, Jimmy Johns and Body Armour.
Edens isn’t shy about promoting the sport. He is proud and wants to make sure people also know about the 34th Annual Hole-in-the-Wall cross country meet that always takes place at Lakewood High School. It will have 110 teams next weekend. Edens doesn’t want his event to remain static. So the next big thing he wants to try is to have fireworks at the end.
“There’s a lot of red tape on the fireworks piece,” he said. Marysville has banned fireworks in the city, except for public displays that get permits. “We hope to do that down the road.”
