Runners won't be running in the Canada Day Half Marathon in High River this year, as the run has switched dates to September.

The High River Half in support of Foothills Advocacy In Motion Society (FAIMS) was most commonly known as the "Canada Day Run" by locals, however, this year the race date has been moved from Monday, July 1 to Saturday, September 7.

Communications and Fundraising Coordinator with FAIMS, Lisa MacDougall, says the change in date was required for attendance purposes.

"We changed the dates because we thought that the Canada Day date was too hard to get our attendance rates up, just because everyone is going away for the long weekend, it's the first long weekend of the summer and we just didn't think that our numbers could be where we wanted them to be."

MacDougall says this is their biggest fundraiser of the year, so it's important it's successful.

"It's been a long term fundraiser for the Foothills AIM Society in the Foothills, so this will be our 17th annual year doing the runs. It's actually not just the half marathon, we have a 5K race, a 10K race and a free kids run in the park."This is probably our biggest fundraiser for the AIM Society I would say, we're hoping to raise $20,000 dollars fo rour organziation and we support adults with developmental disabilities in our community."

Last year the race on Canada Day saw 221 participants.

Early bird registration ends on Friday, May 31.

Those looking to register can do so at Highriverhalf.com

 

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