Belle Haven Park & Marina is one mile south of Old Town Alexandria on the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Belle Haven Park & Marina offers free parking on the river side, and you can also park free across the Parkway at the office buildings, but not at DaCosta Awards or Belle Haven Animal Medical Center, which are open on Saturdays. If you visit Belle Haven Shell, please thank the owner for his hospitality.

We only have bathrooms at the start and finish.

If you are pre-registered, before the race, go to the picnic table near the bathrooms on the river side to pick up your bib number. Go to the table with the sign "PRE-REGISTERED ATHLETES."

If you register on race day, before the race, go to the picnic table near the bathrooms on the river side to register. Go to the table with the sign "RACE-DAY REGISTRATION." Fill out and an entry form, check off "5K" or "10K" and if appropriate, "Racewalker." Then pay the fee for the instruction booklet on how to run safely and receive your bib number.

Be sure that either you or the registrars write your bib number in the bib number blank on the entry form.

After you receive your bib number, please mark "5K" or "10K" on the tear-off tag attached to your bib number so we know which race you're in.

If you are a racewalker, please mark your tag with a big "W" so we'll know to score you as a walker.

Before the race, pin your bib number securely and visibly on the front of your shirt or shorts. Please DO NOT PIN through the tear-off tag, and please LEAVE IT ATTACHED at the bottom of your bib number.

The two races start together on the grass near the bathrooms on the river side. After about 40 feet on the grass, you'll merge onto the paved Mount Vernon Trail.

From there, for the 5K, you run on the trail for 1.55 miles to the point where the Potomac River forms a bay that comes right up to the trail. There, you turn around a cone and come back.

For the 10K, you continue south to Northdown, across the Alexandria Avenue Bridge over the Parkway, south again on the west side of the Parkway past Wellington, to a point on the middle of a wooden footbridge over a valley. There, you turn around a cone and come back.

We have at least one water station, and we have course marshals at the road crossings at Alexandria Avenue and Wellington. If you need assistance, please go to one of our course marshals.

The 5K is mostly flat. The 10K has a small rise up to Alexandria Avenue on the way out, and a small dip there on the way back, but it's also mostly flat.

The finish line is back on the grass, 40 feet off the trail. Come through the finish line and watch for your time.

We remove the tear-off tag right after you finish and collect it on a skewer. That's how we score the race. That's why we ask you to keep the tear-off tag intact. You may keep the upper part of the bib number as a souvenir.

If you happen to be among the first 10K finishers, please alert the score keeper. We start a new skewer for the first 10K finisher.

After the race, we have refreshments, and then we award loaves of cranberry bread to the top 3 M/F by 10-year age group, first in the 5K, then in the 10K.

Please stay for the awards so you can applaud for everyone, from youngest to oldest.

We also invite you to join PVTC as a member. You'll save $1 at all our races and help support our club. See www.pvtc.org and click "Join." Memberships from now till the end of the year are good for the rest of 2007 and all of 2008.