Nanaimo will be the launch pad for the 2016 5K Foam Fest Canada cross country tour.
The 5K Foam Fest is a fun run where participants cover a five-kilometre obstacle course that features walls, cargo rope climbs, water lily pad crossings, giant inflatable slides, mud and a foam start, foamy middle parts and a big foamy finish.
Think of it like a Tough Mudder run, but with lots of foam, no times to beat and no rush to be first to finish. The whole idea is to keep the focus on fun whether participants walk, charge or run the course.
The event, which happens June 11, was lured to town by Tourism Nanaimo.
"It's supposed to be team-building, family-friendly," said Kara Walsh, Tourism Nanaimo destination development specialist. "You can dress up and do costumes and, yeah, it's just going to be an absolute blast."
Nanaimo is the only West Coast city scheduled for the event and one of just 15 cities chosen across Canada for the 2016 tour. Sun Peaks will the only other B.C. community to host the run.
The event, announced Oct. 15, limits participation to 5,000 entries and is well on its way to being booked up.
"We're already 75 per cent sold out and the only promotion that they've done is Facebook. That's it," Walsh said. "It's all been social media and Nanaimo has been the fastest selling city of all time, ever. [Jesse Fulton, president of parent company 365 Sports Inc.] is absolutely blown away from this response."
Chelsea Barr, Tourism Nanaimo destination marketing officer, said attracting events like these brings money into the community and helps promote Nanaimo as a sport-oriented community.
"It's going to be great in that we can put this on the list when we go to other groups and we can say, 'Look what we've done," Barr said.
For more information about the 5K Foam Fest or to register, please visit the event website at www.5kfoamfest.ca.