The Redmond High cross-country team will take a run through the country to prepare for the season — a 47-mile run.

The team will make its third annual relay from the school to Lake Billy Chinook, west of Culver, on Saturday. coach Melissa Conley said they will run in groups of two to five for three to five miles at a time, with some running three different times for up to 10 total miles per runner.

“We carry one baton, and we carry it the whole 47 miles,” she said.

The run goes through backcountry roads, Forest Service roads and trails before runners reach the lake, where they celebrate with a jump into the water, Conley said.

The 30 runners follow along in a car with their parents when they aren’t running. They all get out at a baton pass and cheer for their teammates.

Conley and her husband, Redmond assistant cross-country and head track coach Tim Conley based the idea on the popular Hood to Coast Relay.

“The relays out there are so expensive, so we thought, let’s make our own,” Melissa Conley said.

Last year’s team ran the event in about six hours, taking about six minutes off their time from 2015, Melissa Conley said.

Incoming senior Trey Conley, the son of the coach, ran the relay as a sophomore, but rode along the route on a bicycle last year because of an injury. He will run one of the more challenging legs this year — through a waist-deep river crossing.

“It’s just fun to get to know your teammates,” he said. “You’re in a little group and you get to know your group really well.”

The run provides a challenge in preparation for the season, which starts Aug. 26 with a meet in Prineville, said sophomore Stephen Saucedo, who ran the relay for the first time in 2016.

“It gets hot and it’s dry, too, on some of the roads, so it gets dusty,” he said.

While the race is a challenge, sophomore Chase Anspach said the cheers from teammates and family makes it easier.

“I’ll probably go a little faster this year and try to encourage people more,” he said.

The team will wear fluorescent uniforms that were purchased in part from a $200 donation by local 7-Eleven owners Kurt Miller and his wife Claudia Bisso-Fetzer. They took over the store at 1209 SW Highland Ave. on June 29.

The shirts feature the 7-Eleven logo and a quote from legendary University of Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine — “Don’t let fatigue make a coward out of you.”

The store will also provide water for runners.

“We’re glad to be here as part of the community,” Miller said.

The cross-country team became familiar with the 7-Eleven owners when they would stop in at the end of practice to buy Slurpees, Bisso-Fetzer said.

The new owners say the sponsorship goes along with the store’s health kick. They have been pushing healthier fare since taking over, with a section of the store featuring fruit, yogurt and organic juice.

“I like to support kids with healthy lifestyles,” Bisso-Fetzer said.

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com