2021 Tiger Mountain Trail Run

05/15/2021

5k, 12k, Half Marathon, 50k

May 15, 2021 7:00am-2:00pm individual starts

Tiger Mountain State Forest, Issaquah, WA

Tiger Mountain is the crown jewel of the Issaquah Alps, and the Tiger Mountain Trail Run will offer an excellent tour of this vast and magnificent State Forest. This event offers a quintessential Pacific Northwest trail running experience at what may be Seattle-area trail runners’ favorite playground, with fantastic and well-marked loop courses at a variety of distances and ample support.

This event is part of the Half Marathon Trail Series, and runners in the Half Marathon distance will earn points toward their series standing. You can read more below or on the Half Marathon Trail Series page.

Thank you to Oiselle for sponsoring an aid station and helping promote the Tiger Mountain Trail Run! Bring in your bib number post race or proof of race registration and get 15% off any item at the Seattle Flagship store in University Village!

Results & Photos
Registration
COVID-19 Safety Measures
Course Description
Schedule
Directions & Parking
Apparel
Safety, Etiquette, Dogs

Results & Photos

2021 Results & photos courtesy of Taryn Graham

2019 Results & photos courtesy of Taryn Graham

2018 Results & photos courtesy of Yutaka Suzue

2017 Results & photos courtesy of Pronounce Photography

2016 Results

Registration

	Open (through 4/13)	Early (through 4/28)	Regular (through 5/13)
5k	25.00	29.00	33.00
12k	31.00	36.00	41.00
Half Marathon	41.00	46.00	51.00
50k	49.00	54.00	61.00

View the registration confirmation list to see who is registered, or to check your start time.

Please note that the guidelines from the permitting agency do not allow for day-of registration.

We are using individual and small wave starts to facilitate physical distancing for COVID-19 safety. Picking a start wave is part of the registration process. Walkers are welcome to participate, as long as the course closing and aid station cutoff times are observed. Please select your start time accordingly.

Use the red registration button on the right to register for multiple Half Marathon Trail Series events at once. Register for two races to get a 5% discount on your entry fees, three races to get a 10% discount, and four or more races to get a 15% entry fee discount. The green button on the left links to registration just for this race.

Online registration closes at the end of the day on Thursday, May 13, 2021. Event-day registration will be available if space is available, with payment by credit card (preferred), or by check or cash in exact amount.

Runners in elementary, middle, or high school are eligible to receive a $10 discount on online pre-registration prices for all Northwest Trail Runs events. The discount will be auto generated based on the date of birth.

COVID-19 Safety Measures

Part of our duty as event organizers is to plan carefully for safety. We take this responsibility seriously, and we appreciate the trust you place in us by coming to our events. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a more than four month pause for our events, as well as a lot of extra work over the intervening months adapting our events to mitigate the risks of the pandemic.

Because confusing and often conflicting or politicized information has created doubt and uncertainty about safety and relative risk, we want to briefly address the basic safety of trail running: The consensus opinion of the infectious disease experts is that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is far less likely to transmit from person to person outdoors, primarily due to the movement of air dispersing virus-bearing droplets to a low concentration that is unlikely to result in infection. Outdoor transmission is still possible, but studies of the origin of cases seem to suggest that it is roughly 100 times less likely that any given case will have resulted from outdoor transmission.

It is also the case that brief contact with a contagious person is far less likely to result in viral transmission than sustained close proximity. Taken together with the relative safety of being outdoors, this means that if you briefly pass close by an infected person on the trail, there is only a vanishingly small chance of you catching the virus from them and getting infected. Of course we still want to take precautions to mitigate small risks, but with reasonable modifications, we believe that trail running events can be one of the safest and most health-promoting things you can do during the pandemic.

Our staff has been looking toward expert guidance—including from health and labor departments at the State of Washington (via the guidance from the Governor’s office) and numerous email bulletins and web resources from the Centers for Disease Control—as we implement extensive safety protocols to eliminate unnecessary risks. The list of steps we are taking is long and detailed, so we won’t include it here, but the general areas we are emphasizing are physical distancing, PPE/masks/hygiene, sanitizing, screening, staffing for safety, communications & training.

You have an important role to play in facilitating a safe event, and we ask that you follow #RecreateResponsibly guidelines and adhere to the guidelines below to help us keep you and our broader community safe:

Maintain Physical Distancing

Avoid gathering around others, and keep at least a six-foot interpersonal distance from anyone not in your household whenever possible
Travel to and from the event only with people in your household. Normally we encourage carpooling, but this is not the time for it.
Plan ahead so that you don’t need to make any extra stops on your way to or from the event. This is to eliminate unnecessary contact with others.
Arrive at the event site no earlier than you need to in order to comfortably check in and prepare to start, and at most one hour before your start time. If you arrive with extra time, please stay in your car or take a walk away from the event area in order to facilitate distancing for yourself and others.
Depart the event site promptly after you finish and complete your post-exercise routine
Unless you are passing, please maintain at least a 20-foot distance when following other runners going a similar speed on the course. Announce yourself when you intend to pass someone else on the trail, wait for a relatively wide spot, and allow time for the person you are passing to step to one side of the trail.

Wear a Mask & Practice Good Hygiene

Wear a mask or face covering at the event, only taking it off when you are about to start or are eating or drinking. Please put on your mask if you pass someone on the course and are not able to maintain six feet distance; at other times you may run with your mouth and nose uncovered.
Wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer frequently, plus immediately after contact with respiratory fluids or possibly contaminated objects, like portable toilet doors and other commonly-touched surfaces.
If you need to cough or sneeze please cover it with a tissue (which you should then throw away as soon as possible) or with your elbow.
Avoid touching your mouth, nose, and eyes.
When taking your bib number, drinks, snacks, or any other items, please use care to touch only the item(s) you are taking. Drinks and snacks will be served in individual portions only, and common water and snack containers are to be touched by staff only.

Stay Home if You’re Sick or Vulnerable

Do not attend the event if you have a temperature of 100.4F or greater, feel sick, or believe you may have recently been exposed to the COVID-19 virus
Consider carefully whether to attend the event if you are a member of a high-risk group, and do not attend if you are in close contact with one or more people in a high-risk group (per CDC: age 65+, immune compromised, or having another health condition that exacerbates COVID-19)
If you begin to experience the flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 while you are at the event, please immediately notify a staff person (at a safe distance) and self-quarantine away from others until you are able to safely depart the event

We will ask you to affirmatively agree to abide by this code of conduct before you participate in the event. We also ask that we be allowed to contact you after the event if we discover that someone at the event was sick and have reason to believe you may have been exposed. If you become sick soon after attending the event, we would appreciate you letting us know, so that we can track potential risk to our staff and other participants.

Course Description

The courses start and finish from the trailhead on the east side of Tiger Mountain and use a great variety of trails, covering gently-rolling to steep terrain.

Click the map above for a high-resolution PDF (2.6 MB)

GPX files for reference: 5K – 12K – Half Marathon – 50K

Due to the timber harvest closure of Iverson Railroad Trail, the new 5k course will be an out-and-back route on the West Side road.

The 12k course is also new this year, following mostly bike trails to avoid the currently-closed trails on the usual route: It follows the Half Marathon route much of the way up the mountain before cutting the loop short with a turn east along 5500 road and Fully Rigid Trail to connect back to the Half Marathon route to the finish.

The Half Marathon course starts out going east from the start, then promptly embarks on a long climb on the newly-built Master Link Trail, connecting to forest roads on the upper slopes of East Tiger Mountain and passing below the summit before a long, moderate descent on mountain biking trails. The route then returns to the finish via the trails that wrap around the eastern flank of the mountain, with gentle-to-moderate climbs and descents.

The 50k course starts out going east for a grand clockwise lollipop loop on these popular mountain biking trails, hitting two aid stations along the way, before passing through the start finish for another aid stop. 50k runners then go west for a longer loop that extends into the West Tiger Natural Resources Conservation Area and circumnavigates the three West Tiger summits with a mix of traversing, climbing, and descending, passing aid stations four more times before returning to the finish.

Aid Stations are many and well-stocked. The longest distance between aid stations is around 9.2k (5.7 miles, on the 50k), and in case of warm weather, runners may wish to carry a bottle or hydration bladder, especially on the longer distances. See the course map for the locations and distribution of the aid stations.

Aid station cut-offs for the 50k:

To ensure both runners and volunteer are done in a safe and timely manner, here are the aid station cut-off times:

Aid station #3 – 1:15pm
Aid station #4 – 1:45pm
Aid station #5 – 3:00pm
Aid station #6 – 4:30pm
Aid station #7 – 5:55pm
Course closes – 6:30pm

Here are the course distances, climb figures, and numbers of aid stations:

5.0k – 40 feet – 1 aid station
12.3k – 1400 feet – 1 aid station
Half Marathon (13.56 miles actual distance) – 2230 feet – 2 aid stations
50k (53.2 km actual distance) – 6270 feet – 7 aid stations

Schedule

SATURDAY, MAY 15

50k:

6:30am – Check-in opens
7:00am – Start opens for individual starts
9:00am – Start cut-off
6:30pm – Course closes

Half Marathon:

7:30am – Check-in opens
8:00am – Start opens for individual starts
11:30am – Start cut-off
6:30pm – Course closes

12k:

8:30am – Check-in opens
9:00am – Start opens for individual starts
12:00pm – Start cut-off
6:30pm – Course closes

5k:

8:30am – Check-in opens
9:00am – Start opens for individual starts
2:00pm – Start cut-off
6:30pm – Course closes

Directions & Parking

The start and finish is at the Department of Natural Resources trailhead parking area, about 0.3 miles along the gravel road from State Route 18. Parking will be at this parking area, and as needed, along the gravel road approaching the trailhead parking and at the parking area adjacent to Highway 18 (pending confirmation.) A Discover Pass is needed to park on DNR lands. Please follow any parking directions offered by event staff.

Google Map

Apparel

NEW! The Northwest Trail Runs apparel merchandise for 2021 featuring our “Run Every Trail” slogan is here! You can order our apparel when 1) registering and pick them up at the event, or 2) order at RunningBug Apparel and have them shipped. (Click to enlarge images)

$18.10 + tax – short sleeve tech shirts, in unisex, women’s cuts & youth

$22.70 + tax – long sleeve tech shirts, in unisex and women’s cut

$18.10 + tax – short sleeve cotton blend shirts, unisex; $27.20 + tax – cotton hoodie, unisex

Safety, Etiquette, Dogs

OTHER USERS
The trails will be open to other users during the event, including pedestrians, bicyclists and equestrians (horseback riders). Please be courteous. This area is more heavily used by mountain bikes than equestrians, and on some of the trails mountain bikes have the right of way. Event staff and signage will alert mountain bikers to your presence, but be prepared to yield when requested. Also, if you should encounter equestrians, be aware that horses have the right of way: Stop running and talk to the rider; you will probably need to step to the side of the trail to let the horse past, but sometimes the rider will tell you it is okay to walk past. The amount of trail traffic will depend upon the weather.

SAFETY
Participants are responsible for their own safety while participating, and the organizers are neither qualified nor equipped to render medical care in the event of a serious injury. In case of an emergency, call 9-1-1. You are encouraged to bring a cell phone with you as a safety precaution, if you wish.

PASSING ETIQUETTE
Where the trails are narrow, please let other participants pass you if they want to get by. It is a passing runner’s job to tell the person in front that they wish to pass.

HEADPHONES
If you’d like to listen to music while you’re on the course, please use headphones or earbuds, so that runners around you can’t hear it. Others may prefer a quieter event experience or may have different musical tastes. Runners playing music in the open air may be asked to leave the event.

Also, keep the volume low enough that you can hear someone talking to you in a normal voice, for example, another runner saying they would like to pass on your left.

DOGS
Our events are USATF sanctioned and subject to USATF policies, and so dogs are not allowed to accompany runners on the course.