The largest beach run

It began as a sketch in 2005 and was further conceptualized at a mosaic school in Ravenna, Italy, in 2010. The ten-by-ten-foot mosaic of the Virgin of Guadalupe was completed nine months later. The piece, created by artist Mark Patterson, was installed on a train bridge wall in Encinitas with the help of his friend Bob Nichols while they posed as construction workers on April 22, 2011. It was Good Friday.

Originally, the artist was unknown and the city deemed the art graffiti and ordered the mosaic removed. There was a backlash of support for saving it. Though some Catholics and Latinos found it offensive, a priest asked that a nearby church be able to display it. The state believed that the mosaic could violate the separation between state and church and denied the request to put the mosaic at the entrance of Moonlight Beach State Park.

Encinitas spent $2000 for an art consultant to review how best to remove the mosaic without destroying it. It eventually was placed across the street at what is now known as Surfing Madonna Park, on the corner of Highway 101 and Encinitas Blvd.

This Saturday, the Surfing Madonna Save the Ocean run — the largest beach run in the country — takes place in the low-tide sand at Moonlight Beach, with the first start at 12:30 p.m.

Entry: $25–$130. Spectators free.