Tomorrow morning several hundreds of people will be descending upon Jefferson for an annual relay race.

Jefferson Matters Executive Director Matt Wetrich says the Market to Market Relay is a team running race that starts in Jefferson, goes along the Raccoon River Valley Trail and ends in downtown Des Moines. Wetrich describes how the different teams change from the first wave of runners at 4:30am to the final wave around 9am.

“You see, shall we say the level of seriousness that’s taken by the different teams. The teams that you know maybe they haven’t trained a lot for this or they’re the ones that are happy to enjoy the donuts before they start, they start earlier because it’s going to take them longer to get down there (to Des Moines). And as the morning progresses, the teams are continually seemingly like they’ve prepped more for the day, shall we say you know? Some of those earlier groups that are not as much about making (a good) time but they are about having a great time instead.” 

Wetrich points out all runners start at the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower on East Lincoln Way and then turn south onto the bike trail. He adds that local volunteers help with traffic control at the intersections along East Lincoln Way and the entity, Pink Gorilla Events, are out of Jefferson by 10am.