INUVIK - A total of 85 local and visiting athletes raced in this year's Midnight Sun Fun Run from Sunday night to Monday morning, divided into 5-km, 10-km and half-marathon categories.

As RCMP officers patrolled the roadways on bikes and the Protective Services pace car followed along, runners of varying ages tried for their personal bests.

Half marathon runners were all smiles at the Midnight Sun Fun Run on Sunday. - photo courtesy of Josh McDonald

Eighty runners registered for the event last year.

"Every year I've been doing it, the numbers (of participants) have been increasing each year," said recreation programmer and event organizer Josh McDonald, adding he thinks this is mainly due to word of mouth.

People want the "unique experience" of running under the midnight sun, he said, whether they're from Inuvik or elsewhere.

"We do have quite a bit of people from out of town that partake," he said. "It's a tourist attraction. People like to experience a half-marathon in the middle of the night with the sun shining. There's not many places in the world where you can do that, right?"

A trio of athletes from a running group in Norman Wells agreed. After fundraising money in their community, they flew into Inuvik a day before the race to test their times in the half-marathon.

Amanda Feltham, one of the runners in the group, said their stop in Inuvik helped them work toward their goal of participating in running events across the North.

"That's what we're hoping, to do a regular thing travel to some communities in the North and take in some different events and we figured this would be a good one since it's Aboriginal Day."

McDonald completed his first 5 km run during his four years of involvement with the event. Groups of people were crossing the finish line so quickly that McDonald said wasn't able to keep track of everyone's times.

The top three fastest in the 5-km were Ted Veinot, Cameron MacDonald and Phillip Iatridis. Samuel Hearne Secondary School student Lance Gray took first place in the 10-km, followed by Dave Halpine and Corey Baete. The fastest half-marathon runners were Erik Kocho-Scholberg, Tim Ensom and Maurlcio Assumpcao respectively.