From start to finish, it’ll be a long way home for these runners.

The Home Runners will have run 187 miles since the start of the Northwest Passage Ragnar Relay.

Brian McCleary, 47, is the team’s organizer and will run in his first Ragnar Relay. He admitted the team’s name is apt, albeit a bit drab.

“Because we’re running home,” McCleary said. “It’s kind of corny.”

The team is comprised 12 runners and three set up volunteers who mostly live on South Whidbey. He registered 10 runners quickly, mostly from his running group Down Sound Racing. The final runner signed up the week of the race. Home Runners racer Kathy Rogers registered her co-worker Kate Kreitzer for the final spot.

The South Whidbey team will run in the Mixed Team category for teams with six men and six women. Each racer will run three legs in the 36-leg race. The legs vary in difficulty and range from three to eight miles long.

The race itself draws competitors from across Western Washington and beyond. The more than

300 teams are as unmistakable as the support vans that follow along, often with the names of the teams — wacky names such as “Moon Over My Hammies” “Whine Now, Wine Later” and “I Just Added 11 More Runners to My Wolf Pack” — emblazoned everywhere.

A van with the first six runners drops each racer off at the exchange point for the relay. Then a second van with the second group of runners picks up and continues the leapfrog pattern.

“We try to position the runners to where they’re going to be most comfortable,” McCleary said.

Comfort is a leisure these hometown runners won’t have. They run during the day Friday, through the night, then finish in the day Saturday.

McCleary is running the 11th, 23rd and 35th legs. The 11th leg is 6.8 miles and listed as a “hard” route. The 23rd leg is 4.7 miles and “very hard.” In Freeland, he’ll continue the relay on the second-to-last, 3.8-mile and “moderate” leg to Bayview. Those distances and difficulties match well with McCleary, who runs 15 miles a week and chose those legs (by process of elimination) because of the power of his legs on hills.

“I’m probably better on hills,” McCleary said.

McCleary has noticed dozens of runners plodding along South Whidbey roads in summers past. He later learned about the Ragnar Relay series and the Northwest Passage race that ended in his hometown.

“It seemed like a pretty fun race to do,” McCleary said. “I wouldn’t do a race like this if it was not close to home, because logistically all the hotel and travel. But it’s pretty rare you get to do an event like this and finish right in your hometown. So it seemed like an ideal event for us to do.”

The course winds from Blaine to Island County Fairgrounds in Langley. The Northwest Passage race is one of 16 Ragnar Relays, all overnight races, ranging from 180 to 201 miles long.

“There’s more to take into account than the physical distance,” McCleary said.

For a group of seasoned runners who compete in marathons, triathlons, Ironman competitions and other long distance races, the challenge will be the duration.

“It’s more about pacing yourself and not going too hard and wiping yourself out so you can’t run in the end,” McCleary said.

Frank Jacques will run the final leg from Bayview into the fairgrounds. With preparations still to be made, McCleary was confident he’d run this race again, although he’ll avoid organizing a team next time. Jacques commended McCleary’s leadership and organization, and looked forward to running with his longtime friends.

“It’s running and adventure as a team sport and it becomes a community thing,” Jacques said. “It’s more about the team experience than some performance objective.”

The team captain agreed that his homebound racers have modest expectations.

“We don’t have any illusions or ambitions of winning,” McCleary said.

The day before the race began, McCleary said the team had no goals outside having a fun group to run with at the relay.

Jacques said the Home Runners hope to finish in 24 hours. That doesn’t mean the team will finish last, though.

“I wouldn’t be surprised the team did well,” McCleary said.

Win or lose, when the Home Runners reach the finish line, this dozen won’t have another big road trip ahead of them.

“We don’t have to go home; we’re already home,” McCleary said.

The hometown team is Ron Vollbrecht, Aaron Racicot, Heather Racicot, Rogers, Kreitzer, Brandon Henry, Brian Atwood, Erin Simms, Challis Stringer, Pam Jacques, McCleary and Jacques. Team volunteers Ed Stringer, Mark Racicot and Gil Lowe will help set up the finish line and Kelly Henriot will represent the team in the beer garden.