The 29th Annual Capital Pursuit Races were a huge success! 517 runners tackled the 10-mile course and 197 zipped through the 5K ~ all enjoying the crisp fall weather and the wonderful volunteer support. A bevy of young runners toddled, trotted and flew through the Pursuit Junior runs (keep an eye out ~ there’s a lot of talent coming up, folks!)

 Race Results

Finishing first in our 10-mile race were:

  • Marcus Murphy, 29 ~ 53:06 (Interesting side-note: Marcus was the first recipient of the Capital Striders’ Dave Hurd Scholarship back in 2000. Nice to see one of our ‘kids’ coming back to run AND WIN our race!)
  • Semehar Tesfaye, 20 ~ 58:52

Finishing first in our 5K race were:

  • Eric Cogdill, 30 ~ 16:06
  • Casey Owens, 28 ~ 17:47

Race director Bobbi Snodgrass and the Capital Striders Board would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the multitude of volunteers and supporters who made this race possible ~ too many to list them all. Some of those we’d like to thank:

Awards Table- Mike McGinn

Packet pickup and race registration - Gail Borman, Marcia Swinney-Shay, Mike McGinn, Jacob Johnson, Carrie Van Quathem, Curtis Downs, Chris Brooks, Teresa Brooks and Sheron Lininger

Course Marshalls - Brian Palmer and volunteers, Steve Halstead, Don Hostager and the Drake Men's Cross Country Team

Water Stop and Course set-up - Curtis Downs with great help from Lint Van Lines.

Start and Finish Line - Carrie Van Quathem and her crew, Steve Bobenhouse, Susan Kobliska, Linda Bergeson, Stan Smith and Cal Murdock

Pursuit Junior - Cindy Elsbernd

Announcer - Del Lasswell

Bike Support - Carl Voss & Tim Lane

Course Marking - Denny Wheeler and Scott Dennis

Water Stop support:

Greg Altmairer of Principal & friends - Water Stop #1

Dan Hostager & the Drake Men's Cross Country Team - Water Stop #2

Todd Schemper of Work Systems Rehab and his friends of Central Presbyterian Church - Water Stop #3

Chris Burch and friends of IMT Des Moines Marathon - Water Stop #4

Singer – Lori Ballard

Treasurer – Kent Altena

Additional thanks go to:

  • Larry Jablonski for providing the finish line scaffolding & set-up
  • The City of Des Moines and the DM Police Department for keeping our runners safe.
  • Prairie Life Fitness for allowing us space for packet pickup on Friday night.
  • The Suites of 800 Locust for helping us out with many last minute details, as well as providing an area for race day registrations.
  • Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) for making our 10-Mile and 5K race the State Championship events.
  • Tim Dwight for attending our race, running the 10-Mile and helping with race commencement.
  • Josh Klein and crew of JK Photography, for taking digital photos.  JK Photography is a new Merchant Sponsor, they are offering 15% discount off your purchases.  A link to the race day pictures will be posted on our Capital Strider Website on Friday.
  • Wade Wearmouth of WCM Metals for providing the special awards ~ beautiful medal hangers. Wade is another new Merchant Sponsor; he is offering a 10% discount off his merchandise to Capital Strider members.
  • COSC Center on Sustainable Communities, Waste Management, Waste Connections and the Des Moines Civic Center for helping us reduce waste, reuse commodities and recycle.

 A big “Thank you” goes out to Cal Murdock and Stan Smith for their 29 years of devoted service to the Capital Pursuit races. Cal is our timer and race historian; Stan provides our sound equipment, the starting gun and some of our finish line equipment.

Without sponsors, we wouldn’t have races. Big thanks go to our sponsors:

  • Crystal Clear Water
  • America's Best Apparel
  • Gatorade
  • Momentum Magazine
  • Lint Van Lines
  • Pella Windows
  • Living History Farms Race
  • Fitness Sports
  • Scheels
  • Prairie Life Fitness
  • Capital City Graphics

Great post-race refreshments provided by:

  • Taco Johns
  • Bruegger’s Bagels
  • Capital City Fruit
  • Roberts Dairy
  • Gatorade
  • Crystal Clear Bottled Water

 Most of all we want to give all you runners a big high five; you trained hard and it showed! Thanks for your continued support of one of the fastest races in the Midwest. We welcome you to post your personal stories and pictures on the Capital Striders Facebook page. Good Job!

 

 

 

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