Any day in Iowa can feature a variety of weather, and last Saturday, the day of the Market to Market Relay Iowa, was no different.
Nearly 2,100 runners were in Jefferson early Saturday for the start of a 72-mile relay race to Des Moines. All team members were at the starting gate; only one left town running on the Raccoon River Valley Trail. The other team members rode in vans to Bull Head Farm about four miles south, where they exchanged runners and continued the relay.
The first wave of runners left at 5:40 before the sun was fully up. The last wave left at 9:30. In that four hour window, Jefferson received sprinkles of rain, but nothing that caused people to hurry inside. The weather was much different by the time the runners reached the end of the race in Des Moines. There they were greeted with thunderstorms.
Mike Palmer 9right) and Jeff Lamoureux (second from left), both of Jefferson ran on a five-person team, The Incredibles. With them were two former Jefferson residents, Lisa (Clark) Tingwald of LeMars (next to Palmer) and Connie Ten Napel of Sibley (middle). Nathan Wenck (left) of Carroll, dubbed “Fast Nate” by Lamoureux, was the fifth runner.
The Incredibles ran last year’s race with only five on the team and it worked out. “We’re nuts to do it again, but here we are,” Lamoureux said Saturday morning.
Palmer said that after cool weather for the start of the race, it was hot for running mid-race. Then thunderstorms hit metro Des Moines before they finished. Page 6 of the teams’ race manual included instructions for lightening, Palmer said, and although he saw no lightening, he heard thunder. Palmer ran the 16th of the 17 segments in the race. His team was waiting for him at Gray’s Lake, the exchange zone, but instead of passing off to the next runner, they all climbed in the team van and waited.
The delay was only 10 or 15 minutes, but they lost momentum. “We had already run more than nine hours. We planned for our fastest runner to finish the race and we talked about how many runners he was going to catch. And then we sat. We didn’t even bother adjusting our time for the wait. It didn’t matter much after that delay,” Palmer said.
Market to Market Relay Iowa is highly organized. Volunteers with ham radios are positioned at every exchange point to facilitate communication during the race. Bob Jimmerson, a member of the Des Moines Amateur Radio Association, manned the Jefferson post. He said his club volunteers at about a dozen events a year, including the Des Moines marathon, the Dam to Dam race, and the State Fair parade. “This is the most organized event. We’ve never seen anything like this,” Jimmerson said about Market to Market.
Still, with runners spread out over as many as 30 miles, there’s no way to monitor the entire course. In most cases, runners had to keep moving to the next exchange point regardless of the weather.
Despite the disappointment of not having an accurate time to compare to last year’s race, Palmer said he’d run the race again.
Alicia Clancy of Jefferson ran on a team named #Run Iowa. Teammates were Rob and Nicole Lindquist, Rob Leavell, Ben A’Heran, Gale Weis and April Falk. Clancy and Tom and Jane Heun hosted the runners Friday night. For most of them, it was their first visit to Jefferson. “It’s fun to host a team where you live. There are things I wanted them to see,” Clancy said before the race started.
#Run Iowa started running at 8 am. At Clancy’s suggestion, they watched the 7:30 start from the top of the Bell Tower. They enjoyed the view, Clancy sad.
Local runners were also on the Bright Babes and Boys team. That team, like The Incredibles, started at 8:30. Runners were (from left) James Morgan, Tiffany Bowman, Brooke (Wanninger) Smith, Jill Wanninger of Jefferson, Dawn Taute of Paton, and Brandon Hagen and Andrew Michaelsen, both of Jefferson.
Runners in Jefferson Saturday morning came from 146 Iowa towns and 18 different states. According to radio operator Jimmerson, “Market to Market won’t go just anywhere. It says a lot for Jefferson and the county that they came back.” He was at the same post last year, and he was happy to return because, as he said, “we got such a great welcome from the community last year.”
“I’m so impressed with Jefferson. It’s surviving and it’s growing. You don’t see a lot of communities like that,” he said.
Market to Market Relay depends on volunteers to man the exchange zones and makes donations to groups in exchange for that help. The Lincoln Way starting point was manned by members of the Cyclists of Greene bicycle club. Jefferson Matters: Main Street manned the Bull Head Farm zone and member of Central Christian Church were at the Cooper exchange zone. Chuck Offenburger, who headed up the effort because of his involvement with the Raccoon River Valley Trail, said about 40 volunteers were involved.
Among them was Chris Henning, owner of Bull Head Farm. She said this year was much easier than last year. “There wasn’t much comparison. It was so much easier this year, so much calmer,” she said. There were several more volunteers at the exchange zones this year, and she said that helped a lot.
Jefferson mayor Craig Berry is a member of Cyclists of Greene and was at the start of the race. He told the Jefferson city council Tuesday evening that runners he talked with were very impressed with the appearance of downtown, and that race organizers have already said they’ll return Ma 9, 2015, for a third Market to Market Relay Iowa.
