Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival

01/10/2026

5-mi, 10-mi, 15-mi, 50-k Solo, 50-k Pair, 50-k Relay

Saturday, January 10, 2026 – 8:00am

Bridle Trails State Park, Kirkland, WA

For the first time in 30 years, Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival will be a day-time event. This has been a request of Washington State Parks for a number of years regarding staff shortages and disruption of nocturnal wildlife found through multiple urban wildlife studies. Don’t worry, we will still keep the festival part alive and well!

Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival is produced by Northwest Trail Runs and Seattle Running Club, and SRC hosts the official event page.

Registration
Results & Photos
Course Description
The Relays
Schedule
Driving & Parking
Safety - Dogs, Horses, Etiquette

Registration

Northwest Trail Runs produces Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival with Seattle Running Club, who manages the registration for this annual favorite.

You can follow Northwest Trail Runs or Seattle Running Club on Facebook, Instagram, and Northwest Trail Runs Strava Club for all the latest news.

For more information, visit the Seattle Running Club’s EVENT PAGE.

Results & Photos

2026 Results & photos (coming soon)

2025 Results & photos by Takao Suzuki

2024 Results & photos by Takao Suzuki

2023 Results & photos by Takao Suzuki

2022 Results & photos by Takao Suzuki

(2021 event canceled)

2020 Results & 2020 photos by Takao Suzuki

2019 Results & 2019 photos by Takao Suzuki

2018 Results & 2018 photos by Takao Suzuki

2017 Results & photos by Takao Suzuki

See past year’s results here

Course Description

All runners will use the same 5.2-mile loop of trails, mostly going clockwise around the perimeter of the park. The route will be marked with orange and white streamers, as well as yellow glow sticks after dark. Some sections of the trail are rough, rutted, or muddy, and it is Winter, so please watch your footing, and expect to get wet and dirty. Course closes at 4:30 pm and sunset will be at 4:40pm, and it will get dark under the forest canopy pretty quickly after that. If there is a good chance you’ll be on the course after that time, please bring a headlamp with enough battery life to get you to the finish!

Please be aware that this event is cupless and runners are responsible for providing their own container to use before, during, and after the race.

The Relays

There are two 50K relay events: The Pairs event is for a team of two, and the Relay is for a team of three to six runners. Teams can split up the six laps any way you choose, as long as each runner completes at least one lap.

Schedule

EVENT-DAY SCHEDULE

7:00-9:45 a.m. – Event-day registration and bib pick up opens
8:00 a.m. – 50k solo, pairs, and teams start
9:00 a.m. – 15-mi & 10-mi runners start
10:00 a.m. – 5-mi runners start
Noon – Winner of the carpool raffle will be announced!
3:00 p.m. – cut-off for runners to start their last lap
4:30 p.m. – Course closes

*Awards announced throughout the day

Driving & Parking

A Discover Pass is required to park inside Bridle Trails State Park. For your convenience, the park staff will be selling Discover Passes on-site. A single-day pass is $11.50, and a 12-month pass is $50.

For directions to Bridle Trails State Park, click here to find directions on Google Maps, or use the following….

Northbound: Take exit #17 off of I-405. At end of off-ramp, turn right and head south on 116th Ave. NE. At four-way stop, continue straight ahead. The park entrance is located at the first opening in the trees on the left.

Southbound: Take exit #17 off of I-405. At end of off-ramp, turn right and cross over freeway. At the first light, turn right again. Head south on 116th Ave. NE. At the four-way stop, continue straight ahead. The park entrance is located at the first opening in the trees on your left.

Parking inside the park is limited. If it fills, please park across 116th Ave NE and just south of the park entrance at Lake East Christian Church. We always appreciate carpooling, when that is possible. Please make to leave no trace in either the church parking lot or in the park – thank you!

Remember that you must have or purchase from the park staff a Discover Pass to park inside Bridle Trails State Park.

Safety - Dogs, Horses, Etiquette

GENERAL SAFETY
The trails will be open to other users during the event, including pedestrians with pets, and cyclists. 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.

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

HORSES

Signs are posted weeks ahead of time in order to notify other park users of this event, however the park is open to others during the run. Please be courteous and share the trail with any other users you encounter. In particular, please know what to do in the event that you encounter a horseback rider: stop, step to the side of the trail (the lower side if on a slope), and yield the trail to the horse. Also, talk to the rider to help put the horse at ease; say hello and ask whether it is okay to walk past or whether you need to stand still. Please follow this rule of the trail to keep yourself and others safe and so that we will be welcome to have this event in future years.

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.