A total of 140 teams are set to compete at this year's Klondike Road Relay, which is one of the staple annual northern running events.

The first start time in the relay will be at 7 p.m. Friday in Skagway. Sport Yukon organizes the road relay, which is a fundraiser for the non-profit organization.

"We are gearing up for the it," said Megan Freese, program co-ordinator for Sport Yukon. "Everything seems to be falling into place and we are looking forward to it tomorrow."

The road relay will conclude at Rotary Peace Park Saturday. There will also be an awards ceremony and dance held on Saturday at Mt. McIntyre in the Whitehorse Curling Club. The ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will break for awards at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $10.

There is more than 1,200 individuals that will participate in this year's road relay, which will feature 11 different categories of competition. The different divisions include an open, women's, mixed, junior, masters open, masters women, masters mixed, walkers, corporate and ultra.

The relay itself includes 10 separate legs, including Skagway, WhitePass Viewpoint, US/Canada Border, Canada Customs, Tutshi Lake, B.C./Yukon Border, Carcross, Emerald Lake, Annie Lake Road and Carcross Corner.

Last year's Road Relay, which began in the fall of 1982, saw a new category creation with the ultra division. It features the last four legs of the road relay, which is an overall distance of 72-km.

This year's competition will feature two participants in the ultra category, which includes Yukoner Keith Thaxter, who competed in the ultra category in its inaugural year. He said he hopes to better his time by at least half an hour.

In 2007, he completed the final four legs in seven hours and 33 minutes.

Thaxter has been training hard for the relay and has already competed in 10 marathon races in 2008. He said the ultra category is a good edition to the race.

"It's good to have some variety and it gives people who are coming in just something else to run," Thaxter said. "I like a challenge. It's a challenge of getting beyond that 25-km run that this event offers for most people."