Truckee Running Festival Waddle Ranch Trail Half Marathon, 10K & 5K

Challenging climbs along scenic mountain trails as well as long stretches along lakeside roads just north of Lake Tahoe in Northern California await runners at this race, which marks its 8th annual running in 2024. This intimate-sized race, which saw just shy of 200 runners cross the finish line last year, takes runners on an out-and-back route that starts and finishes in historic downtown Truckee, a gorgeous mountain resort town that played a key role in one of U.S. history’s most notorious episodes. Historic ‘Party.’ The episode, of course, is the story of the Donner Party — the party of settlers from Illinois who became snowbound in these mountains on their trip across the country in 1846. Delayed by a series of mistakes and stranded in the winter snows, they ran out of food and were forced to turn to measures better told here. So you’ll be running through one of America’s most historic places when you run here, starting from the intersection of Bridge and Jibboom Streets, near Trout Creek and just north of the Truckee River.