Korrika is a running event held every other year in the Basque Country since 1980 in support of the Basque language Euskera. It is a community run in which thousands of people join in, sometimes up to 600,000.

This year, four U.S. Basque communities, San Francisco, New York City and Boise and Mountain Home, Idaho will be joining the Basque Country in its running celebration.

The San Francisco and New York City events will both be held Saturday, April 16, the Mountain Home event will be held Sunday, April 17, and the Boise event will be held Saturday, April 30.

For more details on the U.S. events, see our Events page or the NABO Korrika page. Also read Henar Chico’s blog on the Boise event.

For more information on Korrika, see the Korrika website.

This year’s Korrika in the Basque Country began Thursday, April 7 in Trebiñu (Araba) and ends on Sunday, April 17 in Donostia (Gipuzkoa).

Korrika changes its course every year, but organizers endeavor to take runners through significant sectors of the Basque Country. Every kilometer a baton is passed on to a different group that sponsors that kilometer of the run. It continues night and day and runners usually cover an average of 2,000 kilometers. It is organized by the AEK (Alfabetatze Euskalduna Konanakunte), an organization that teaches Basque language and literacy to adults. The slogan for this year’s race is “Maitatu, ikasi, ari,…kalakari” (Love it, learn it, speak it,…kalakari).

Read the Wikipedia article on Korrika.