WEEKEND EVENTS FOR NOVEMBER 14 - 15

The race listing is pretty short this weekend.  Next weekend will be slow, too, followed soon after by the biggest race day of the year across the country, Thanksgiving Day.

The weather will be a little chilly this weekend, but milder weather is supposed to return next week.

Around the state:

Kansas City:

Yeti Endurance Weekend, 5K/10K on Saturday, half and full marathons on Sunday (5K/10K are sold out; few slots still available for half/full marathon)

Springfield:

Turkey Trails (5K/10K/half marathon), Saturday

St. Louis and vicinity:

Run S'More for Help 5K, St. Peters, Saturday
Veterans Appreciation Run (5K), Jefferson Barracks, Sunday

Vienna, Illinois:

Tunnel Hill 100 (100M/100K/50M/Marathon), Saturday  

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MO' COWBELL MARATHON, HALF MARATHON, 10K & 5K (updated November 9th)

The change from an early October to early November race date didn't hurt MO' Cowbell at all.  For the third year in a row, the race set a new participation record, eclipsing 5,000 finishers.

Unfortunately, the race timing company, Big River Running, switched this year from the virtually unsearchable Athlinks.com results platform to an even worse one.  Like Athlinks.com, the new one, Project88hub.com, allows you to search for participants only by name or bib number. However, it doesn't report the athlete's city, like Athlinks did.  This makes impossible to scroll down the results pages, looking for runners from Osage Beach, Lake Ozark, etc.  That's not a huge deal for a small race, but scrolling through 51 pages of MO' Cowbell results to look for familiar names would take far more time than I have available right now.  Plus, there are certain to be local runners whose names are unfamiliar to me, so they would be missed.  End of rant. 

If you raced and would like your results noted here, please let me know.

On the very first page of the half marathon results, I did see one familiar name. Jeremy Ryan, the outstanding former Camdenton Laker and Drury University cross country runner, finished 10th overall, in 1:15:26. That placed Jeremy third in the men's 30-34 age group.

Updates:

Former Camdenton cross country runner Blake Roettgen finished his very first marathon, in 3:27:10.  He placed 16th (of 63) in the men's 20-24 age group.  (Blake has actually gone far longer than a marathon.  He completed 50 miles at the 2020 4 Fore 30 backyard ultra, and 52.4 miles in 2021.) Blake's sister, Claire, also ran the marathon, breaking her previous personal best by 5 minutes--despite being 22 weeks pregnant.

Complete results can be found here. 

Here are the number of race finishers, by distance, since 2018.

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BASS PRO SHOPS FITNESS SERIES' DOGWOOD CANYON TRAIL RUNS (posted November 8th)

Six Lake-area runners competed at the Bass Pro Shops Fitness Series' Dogwood Canyon Trail Runs (50K/25K/15K and a newly-added 5K in 2026) on Saturday and Sunday.  As is usually the case, all of races at this year's event were sold out.

Here are the results for our Lake-area runners.

Complete race results can be found here.

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MISSOURI STATE HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS (updated November 8th)

Here are the results for our local high school cross country runners at the state championship meet held on Friday and Saturday at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

In the Class 3 team standings, the Osage girls placed 8th of 16 teams. The Macks Creek boys team placed 14th of 16 teams in the Class 1 standings.

The fastest boys and girls state champs were in Class 5 and Class 3, respectively.  The Class 5 boys winner, Jack McGovern, is a junior at Rockhurst, and would be the clear favorite to win next year since no other junior finished within 45 seconds of him on Saturday.

Here are the winning times for each class:

The fastest boys team was Liberty North, with an average time of 15:49. The fastest girls team was Blue Springs South, with an average time of 19:10.

The complete results for all classes can be found here.

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The biggest surprise of the weekend was a Swedish runner winning the TCS New York City Marathon's men's race. Andreas Almgren won in 2:06:01, in his very first race at the marathon distance.  The women's race was won by Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya, in 2:24:36. Jess McClain of Phoenix took second, in 2:24:42, after sprinting one second ahead of last year's winner, Kenya's Hellen Obiri, at the finish line.

There were 61,066 total finishers. Missouri was represented by 147 runners, though none from the Lake area.

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BASS PRO SHOPS FITNESS SERIES MARATHON, MARATHON RELAY, HALF MARATHON & 5K (posted November 2nd)

Fifteen Lake-area runners competed at a record-setting Bass Pro Shops Fitness Series marathon, half marathon and 5K in Springfield on Sunday.  That was nearly double the number of locals appearing at last year's race..  (The 2014 Bass Pro still stands as the out-of-town race with the most Lake-area runners ever, with 40.)

We had one age-group podium finisher--Dan Robertson in the marathon--and three fifth-or-better finishes in the half marathon:  Camden Schmitz, Alysia Maschino and Jim McDermott.

Here are the results for our Lake-area runners. If I missed anyone in the listing below, please let me know.

Complete race results can be found here.

Total participation was a race-record 3,409 solo finishers.  That was up 14% from 2,981 in 2025, and surpassed the previous record of 3,175 set in 2014, when interest in running began a years-long decline.  Here are the total number of finishers, by distance, since 2018:

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HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY DISTRICT MEET RESULTS FOR OCTOBER 31st (updated November 8th)

At Saturday's district meets, 16 of our Lake-area high school cross country runners qualified as individuals for the state championships to be held this coming Friday and Saturday at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia. The Class 3, 4 and 5 championships will be held on Friday, followed by the Class 1 and 2 championships on Saturday.  

For the ninth year in a row, the Osage girls team will be going to state, after having beaten all other teams at the district race.

The Macks Creek boys team took fourth (of 14) in the team standings, and qualified for the state championship.

The top four teams and top 30 runners at each district race qualified for the state championships.  Below are the results for each local school's top runners, plus all others who had qualified as individuals.  The names of those who qualified as individuals appear in red.

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I'll post details of these upcoming events as soon as I can. Until then, here are links to them:

Thanksgiving Day, November 26: LOTO Turkey Trot 5K and Fun Run