Elkhorn Relay rounds out seven years of racing, charity and community

Aug. 15—LA GRANDE — While a nearly full moon hung over La Grande, racers were taking their marks among the pines at Hilgard State Park. It wasn't quite 5 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, but the Elkhorn Relay — an 82-mile race put on by La Grande's Doomsday Racing — was about to begin.

The yearly relay is a summer staple for runners in the Union County area.

While stunning views of the Elkhorn Mountains and the Grande Ronde River may be part of the draw, the race's charitable zeal gives many added motivation to participate.

Doomsday Racing, a La Grande nonprofit, started the local relay in 2015, intending to raise funds for nonprofits helping people around the world.

According to Summer Steele, one of Doomsday Racing's six founding board members, the relay has raised approximately $10,000 for charity since its inception.

The idea for the Elkhorn Relay stemmed from Steele's passion for humanitarian support. She has been involved with the nonprofit organization Far Reaching Ministries for over a decade, and has traveled to South Sudan several times in the last five years. While there, she saw the impact of a ruinous civil war, ethnic massacres, famine and continued humanitarian emergencies on the country's most vulnerable population — children.

"When you see that level of need, you can't get it out of your mind," she said.

Back in the states, Steele looked for a way to raise money for relief efforts around the world. It was her brother, Clayton Collins — a seasoned marathon runner with a knack for developing race courses — who had the idea to use a race as a fundraising effort.

Together, Steele and Collins, along with their spouses and two long-time friends, registered Doomsday Racing as a nonprofit and got to work.

The first year, the board planned the race to be more than 200 miles long — a two-day relay that lasted through the night. Doomsday board members and volunteers fondly reminisce about the many animal encounters that participants have had over the years when running early in the day or late at night — from raccoons to elk.

"One guy came to me just terrified, he said a cow had chased him," Steele recalled.

This is the third year the relay has followed the shorter, 82-mile course. In the final leg of this year's race, each team member ran a portion of a trail course that the board marked out across the Anthony Lakes Ski Resort.

This year, 24 teams participated in the relay, each with between one and six runners of various skill levels and ages.

For Steele and the Doomsday Racing team, the day kicked off at 3:30 a.m. Teams began showing up an hour later. By then, volunteers from La Grande's Calvary Chapel were busy flipping pancakes, frying up sausages and brewing coffee to help fuel relay participants for the day.

As the clock approached 5 a.m., some team members began warming up, while others decorated their cars — using colorful paint markers to write their team name under the light of phone flashlights and headlamps.

Runners for the relay's first leg took their places at the top of the hour, and with a countdown from the morning crowd, they were off, headlamps bobbing onto the Ukiah-Hilgard Highway.

Over the next several hours, racers traversed their way to Anthony Lakes. Team cars stopped at designated transition markers along the way to pick up and drop off runners for each leg.

As the sun began to rise, Gail Kimberling cheered on her granddaughter, Kasey, as she approached the first transition point.

"Good job," Kimberling said, high-fiving her granddaughter. "Five and a half miles."

Kimberling and the Carrion On team is one of several multigenerational teams that comes back to run the relay each year. Last year, Kimberling, a long-time runner and the cross country and track coach at Pine Eagle High School, wasn't able to race. She had broken her toe, and due to an infection, almost had to have it amputated.

This year, Kimberling was back on the course with her daughter and grandchildren — and all her toes.

"I love people like that," said Steele of Kimberling. "They inspire me. I'm like, 'hey, that's what I wanna be when I grow up.' "

During the relay's first year, John Pace was one of the oldest participants, while his granddaughter, Ahnica Shoemaker, was the youngest runner. Now, their family members make up two teams in the yearly event. Pace and Shoemaker both agreed that for them, it's a priority to support a local relay that is working to raise money for non-commercial causes.

"We decided this is the one we wanted to do, and we've stayed with it every year," Pace said.

Although several teams like Kimberling's have been faithful relay participants since the start, the race draws newcomers as well. A few of this year's teams were made up of employees from some of the race's corporate sponsors. Steele estimated that around three-quarters of teams will sign up again.

"I know that's why they run with us," she said. "They want to be able to support and this is a way that's very doable for them, and their runners and it just fits well."

The Elkhorn Relay was even able to carry on during the pandemic. During the summer of 2020, the board began submitting permits, unsure of whether things would get shut down. With a COVID safety plan in place and over 90 miles of the Elkhorn mountain range in which to social distance, runners were able to participate in the relay. Steele said that year felt particularly special.

"There were a lot of tears at the finish line," she said. "I think a lot of it was just that people had been so lonely and were excited to get out and do something as a community again and do something they love."

In the past few years, Doomsday Racing has donated proceeds from the race to a feeding program in South Sudan, run by Far Reaching Ministries. The nonprofit has also donated funds to Send Hope Now, an organization that runs aid programs and projects in India. According to Steele, the proceeds support the program's orphanages for HIV-positive children, providing funds for medical needs, food, clothing, education and career support.

"I know that what we do is only going to impact a small corner of the world or a small amount of suffering," Steele said. "Maybe that's all you can do, but it's something."

Beyond the relay's philanthropic goals, Steele noted that the folks involved in the race are enough of a reason to keep it going each year.

"The running community's pretty dang awesome," she said. "You always have a really good time, just being part of this race and meeting all these people."

Shannon Golden is a reporter for The Observer. Contact her at 541-624-6015 sgolden@lagrandeobserver.com.