A longboarding race organized by two Eastern students will occur at 12 p.m. Saturday.

The race will begin and end at the Doudna Fine Arts Center and follow a 3.7-mile course around Charleston.

The race is considered a sprint push race because the path follows a mostly flat surface and the rider has to continually push off the ground.

The race organizers are Samantha Marsteller, a sophomore psychology major, and Jessica Hegberg a graduate student in kinesiology and sports studies.

Neither the city of Charleston nor Eastern sanctioned the race when the students petitioned to close the roads they would be using.

“Charleston has lots of races, but they don’t close for anything,” Hegberg said.

Marsteller said the city of Charleston has a penalty for longboarding.

“They don’t stop you unless you’re causing a traffic incident,” Marsteller said.

Marsteller and Hegberg began planning the event in July, emailing hundreds of longboarding companies to find sponsors for the race.

The race is considered a Rad Jam, which connects the organizers with sponsors who give donation prizes for the race.

The winners of the race will be separated by top three males and top three females 17 and older, and skaters under 17 will be in the “grom” category.

The first three to finish will win either a deck or a complete board. Other prizes include Orangutan wheels, bearings, hats, shirts and posters.

Sponsors sent most of the prizes, except for an Oblivion board, which was painted by Hegberg and Marsteller.

“Every rider walk away with something, whether they come in first or last,” Marsteller said.

Registration for the race will begin at the Doudna steps at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Those 15 and older can participate with a waiver from their parents. Participants must wear a helmet to be eligible for prizes.

In the case of rain, the event will be held at the same time Sunday.

For more event information, follow @PantherPush on Twitter or search “Panther Push 2014” to find the event on Facebook.

Kendra Cwikla (@Kendracwikla) can be reached at 581-2812 or kecwikla@eiu.edu.