2025 Runners of the Year
A veteran and a newcomer are our selections for 2025 Kansas runner of the year, in a year that featured a multitude of excellent performances.
Eric Vazquez ran the fastest times of the year at four distances from the 5K to the marathon, with bests of 14:49 for 5K at the Lawrence Thanksgiving Day run and 2:22:39 at Salina’s Crossroads Marathon.
Dee Boeck set age-group 75-79 records at one mile and 5M/8K and ran the fastest age-group times of the year at 5K and the half-marathon. More.
Because of the growing popularity of races longer than the marathon, we have substantially tightened the standards required to qualify for the state honor roll at ultrarunning distances.
State of the State's Running, 2025
The 5K was the most popular running event in Kansas in 2025, with 36 races held on USA Track & Field certified courses, of which 21 were stand-alone events and 15 were held in conjunction with other race distances.
The most popular other distances were the 10K with 15 races and the half-marathon with 14, along with seven marathons. The popularity of ultrarunning continued to grow in Kansas in 2025, as eight events with a total of 22 races longer than the standard marathon were held. In total, there were 106 separate races on certified courses at 59 events.
We encourage runners to seek out and support races held on USATF-certified courses. Course certification is an indication that the race director has made an effort to provide a safe, accurate course that serves runners’ interests. More
Introduction
Our primary objective in making this data available is two-fold:
To give more recognition for racing achievements by our Kansas runners,
- To give more publicity to the Kansas racing scene for the hard work of both runners and the race sponsors & directors.
Although not a lot of national or world class times have been run on Kansas roads, still a lot of high quality performances have been achieved. A secondary objective, is to encourage all race directors and/or sponsors to certify their race courses and submit the race results to the State Statistician. This provides publicity for the race itself as well as for the top achievements of all runners around the state regardless of the size of the race event. The certification of race courses assures all runners that they are running a course that is legitimate and accurate, whether it be for state recognition or for their own personal records or objectives. Submittal of results to the State record keeper is critical; we are aware that there have been some excellent times run on Kansas certified courses that were not submitted. Runners who know that they have achieved times that are better than the Honor Roll Target Times shown in the Honor Roll listings, can help to correct this situation by contacting the race director and requesting that they submit them to Gene Wee at runlawrence@gmail.com.
Also, some of the results submitted were not complete and some did not list exact ages, hometowns or even enough information to determine the proper Age Group. We also urge both runners and race directors to please furnish corrections to the data listed. Many, many hours of research have gone into making the data as complete and accurate as possible.
State Records Note (Sept 2023)
Some runLawrence club members compile and maintain state road-running records as a service to the Kansas running community.
Qualifying performances must meet the standards listed on the “state records” link on the club’s website and must be run on a course that has been certified as accurate by USA Track & Field.
Courses that meet the requirements may be found on the USATF website at: https://certifiedroadraces.com/search
Races must be run on the course as certified, according to the map that accompanies course information on the USATF website.
We encourage runners to familiarize themselves with course maps and ask that they inform us of races that are not run as certified. We do our best to maintain standards to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the records list.
Typical problems include misplaced turnaround points and runners who might not understand course markings and fail to run the course as certified. Race directors should be notified immediately in such cases so they can take corrective action.
In past years there were a few reports of qualifying times by runners who were linked to the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs. None of these that we are aware of involved Kansas runners, and we do not include any of those times on the state list.
We invite your questions and comments
Honor Roll Target Times
All individual times that meet or better the listed "Target Time" established for each age group and distance, will be listed in the state Honor Roll files. However, these Target Times (T.T.) are subject to being updated from time to time to stay in line with changes in the World Masters Athletics published factors for each distance and age within that distance.
Our regional T.T.'s are then adjusted to be more attainable than the World factors. Our regional factors are also sometimes adjusted when it becomes obvious that our T.T.'s are too lax or too difficult to attain.
All times are listed that bettered the T.T.'s in any single age group during the current racing season. This is followed by the "ALL TIME BESTS" list that showsup to the five "best" times that each individual has achieved since the start of course certification in Kansas in the 1970's.
In some instances we list some BEST TIMES that are inferior to the Target Time. These are usually older times in events with few results.
Age Groups
- 12 & under
- 13-15
- 16-19
- OPEN - this grouping includes all ages, but is the only group in
which ages 20
through 34 can be listed
- 35-39
- 40-44
- 45-49
- 50-54
- 55-59
- 60-64
- 65-69
- 70-74
- 74-79
- 80-84*
- 85 & up**
* At present, most distances except the 5K have only an 80 & UP group and some of the longer distances may not have any qualifiers in this group.
** A 90 & UP group may be established for some distances (see 5K)
In some events and age groups, a “Kansas Additions” list has been added to recognize Kansas residents who don’t meet the primary standard.