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Lace up your running shoes and get ready to race through town.

The Town Council voted Tuesday night to allow Danville-based Katalyst Events to bring back the Devil Mountain Run on Sunday, May 5 of this year. The well-loved race got its start in 1978 and will return to the streets of Danville after a one-year hiatus.

"The run has been a fixture in Danville for 34 years and a great source of pride. Recently, the focus seemed to be drifting away from Danville," said Forward Motion Sports owner Marty Breen, a sponsor of the event. "Our goal is to bring the focus back to Danville with the involvement of the entire community from not only a participation standpoint, but also through volunteerism and support of our local businesses and organizations."

The new Danville Devil Mountain Run would consist of a fun run, 5K and 10K hill climb. The annual run generally drew 2,000 participants and Breen expects much of the same in May. In a proposal to the town, Breen said 40 percent of runners would be local to Danville, 30 percent from surrounding cities, 20 percent from the greater East Bay and the remaining 10 percent from out of the area. Breen also expects two or three 5K participants for every one 10K participant.

"We also will have 200 volunteers involved in preplanning, setup, day of activities and/or clean up. These will most likely all come from the community and build a great sense of character and pride in doing good for the town which ties in to another main goal for the council of 'positive community appearance,'" Breen wrote.

Bringing back the run was an important decision for Danville resident Chris McCrary, co-founder of Katalyst Events, both personally and for his neighbors.

"We want to build on the tradition that has been in place for over 30 years and ensure that the Devil Mountain Run continues to offer the community a fun, healthy, family-oriented event centered right here in our own downtown," he said.

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