A mass of runners pulls away from the starting line at the annual Beach to Beacon road race in Cape Elizabeth last year. Gregory Rec / Portland Press Herald

Once again this weekend, thousands of people will descend upon Cape Elizabeth to watch and run in the Beach to Beacon 10K Race.

With that comes a lot of planning – not just those behind the event, but those ensuring everyone’s safety as well.

“It’s a huge endeavor,” Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Paul Fenton told the Sentry. “It’s a big event, it’s a fun event. It’s a tradition at this point but, at the end of the day, the more people you have, safety becomes a challenge.”

His department has “to be prepared for anything,” Fenton said, which requires “a ton of resources from other agencies.” While the Cape Elizabeth Police Department is fully staffed with 14 patrol officers, most others in the county are not.

“Very few departments are fully staffed, so (other) officers are sometimes unavailable or they’re forced into a bunch of overtime already,” Fenton said. “They don’t want the extra overtime, even if it is what’s traditionally a fun event and a fun trip. Most people who work overtime enjoy it.”

That also means specialty positions like K-9 and motorcycle units are harder to find.

“A lot of departments just don’t use them anymore because they’re short staffed or it’s not a priority,” Fenton said.

The department has always been able to find the resources it needs for the event, he said, but they have had to look outside Cumberland County to do so.

“We’ve been doing this for over 20 years now, so we have it down. The framework’s there,” Fenton said. “It’s just plugging in the specific pieces, and there’s a lot leading up to it.”

Of Cape Elizabeth’s 14 patrol officers, at least a dozen, if not all, police the event each year.

“Sometimes there’s one, maybe two, that get it off for things that are inevitable, like your mother’s 70th birthday or your brother’s wedding,” Fenton said. “It’s kind of baked into the culture that for Beach to Beacon, we don’t expect to take a bunch of time off. We expect to work overtime and they understand that.”

While they have a job a do, Beach to Beacon is always a joyous occasion, Fenton said, and officers enjoy themselves, too.

“We typically have a good relationship between the Police Department and the community, but especially on that day,” Fenton said. “Some officers realize that it’s a good detail to have. It’s a fun afternoon, the crowd’s into it, the runners are into it. It’s a fun race.”

With safety comes managing traffic as well. The town of Cape Elizabeth has announced the following road closures for Saturday, Aug. 3:

• Route 77, Sprague Hall to Kettle Cove Road, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Crescent Beach State Park, 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

• Route 77, Kettle Cove Road to Old Ocean House Road, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Old Ocean House Road, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Route 77 at Hill Way, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Shore Road south of Fort Williams, 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

• All of Fowler Road, except shuttle buses, 7:15 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Scott Dyer Road Eastbound, 6:15 a.m. to 8 a.m.

For information on parking and shuttle buses, go to beach2beacon.org/transportation-parking.