Buckeye Trail Blue Blaze Festival - Half Marathon, 10K, 5K Run, Hike and Backpack
About this race
The Blue Blaze Festival - Run, Hike & Backpack on the Buckeye Trail
The Blue Blaze Festival is a celebration of Ohio's Buckeye Trail in conjunction with National Public Lands Day. Whether you are a trail runner, hiker, or would like to learn more about backpacking you are welcome to be a part of our celebration of the Buckeye Trail (BT). Join us for the 2026 Blue Blaze Festival and explore the diversity and beauty of the outdoors. This year we will be joining forces with Destination Shawnee, the Tecumseh Theater and outdoor recreational organizations to bring together runners, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts to the Village of Shawnee. This section of the Buckeye Trail, in the Wayne National Forest, is mostly single-track trail and provides some very challenging terrain. The Blue Blaze Festival will be highlighting the BT as an outdoor destination for running, hiking and backpacking, plus all of the excitement happening in the historic Village of Shawnee.
There is a trail experience and distance right for you: Half Marathon (13.1 miles), 10K, 5K run/walk, 10 Mile Hike and an overnight Backpacking trek. All events are on the Buckeye Trail in the Wayne National Forest.
Running Events - Half Marathon, 10K and 5K9:00am Half Marathon and 10K, 9:15am 5K start.
Hiking the Buckeye TrailThe 10-Mile Hike will start at 8:00am (1 hour before the running events) in Shawnee. All hikers will be given a race bib/number with a timing chip used to monitor when hikers start and finish the hike. The hike is designed and lead by the Little Cities of the Forest Chapter of the BTA, with a number of historical points following the Blue Blazes of the Buckeye Trail. A guide with historical points of interest and the route map will be provided to participants.
Pick your distance
Running
Half Marathon
10K
5K Run/Walk
Trail running
10 Mile Hike
This will be an out and back hike, using a looped section of the Buckeye Trail, with the start and finish in Shawnee, OH.
Typical race-day weather
Based on 10 years of Open-Meteo archive data for this event's race dates in Shawnee, plus the 3 days either side.
The sun rises at 7:19 AM and sets at 7:21 PM local time (EDT) in Shawnee on September 25, 2026 — 12h 01m of daylight.
Course
No course map published yet.
The organizer hasn't released a route for this event, and we don't publish guesses. If you're the organizer, send us a GPX file and we'll draw the profile.
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2026 results — Buckeye Trail Blue Blaze Festival - Half Marathon, 10K, 5K Run, Hike and Backpack
31 finishers across 3 distances · leading places in the Half Marathon
| Place | Name | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Traven Wood | 2:18:23 | 10:34 /mi |
| 2 | Moreh Longhenry | 2:30:13 | 11:28 /mi |
| 3 | Mark Anstaett | 2:45:23 | 12:38 /mi |
| 4 | Jeff Longhenry | 4:03:39 | 18:36 /mi |
Every finisher is on the results page, filterable by distance, gender and age group.
All results by year
Other races near Shawnee
Different organizers, within 40 miles, in the next three months
740 Games 5k
Bobcat
Thanksgiving "Run to Remember" 5k Run/Walk
Athens Turkey Trot on November ,
Where this page comes from. Race details were last updated on . We re-check listings regularly and again in the week before race day.
- Entries, prices, waves and inclusions — the event's official registration page
- Temperature and humidity — Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0)
- Elevation and terrain relief — Copernicus DEM GLO-90, ESA (CC BY 4.0)
- Comparisons and counts — Race Discovery calendar, 1 Shawnee event
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