The Great Chase
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The Great Chase : St. Charles, MO
The Great Chase is a staggered start 10K that begins and ends at Frontier Park in Old Town St. Charles and uses roads plus sections of the Katy Trail. The course is described as mostly flat. The event revives a St. Louis race format that aims to put runners of different ages and genders into the same overall competition.
Start times are set using official age-grading tables that adjust for age, gender, and race distance. Based on those calculations, runners are grouped by age and gender and released in succession, with groups departing approximately every 30 seconds. Exact start times and additional instructions are provided to participants by email during race week.
Awards are given to overall finishers rather than only by age group; the top 75 overall finishers receive awards. All participants receive a long-sleeve event shirt and a finisher's medal. The finish area is expected to bring together a mix of ages and paces because faster starters and later starters converge on the same finish line.
The format explicitly frames each runner as both a hunter and a target, since the objective is to catch those who started ahead before the finish line. The event materials note that the age-grading method is based on standardized, published data used to compare performances across ages and genders. Visit the organization's website for the most recent information.
