KEMAH, TEXAS (March 16, 2017) – Running Alliance Sport (RAS) is pleased to announce that theToughest 10K Kemah has been awarded the 2018 National 10K Championship of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) with the news coming at last weekend’s 59th annual RRCA National Convention in Detroit, Michigan.
“We’re thrilled to have been selected to host next year’s National Championship,” said RAS founder and race director Robby Sabban. “Associating ourselves with the RRCA, the national body that represents our sport, positively challenges us to set and meet high standards in taking care of runners who run in and race our events.”
The race, which starts and finishes at the world famous Kemah Boardwalk and sends runners over and back the Kemah – Seabrook Bridge twice, which includes two north – to – south grades of 4.3 percent and a pair of south – to – north climbs of five percent, will be held on Sunday, September 16, 2018.
“It was exciting to get the word from our RRCA South Texas State Representative Lee Greb last Friday,” said Sabban. “We appreciate the support that we receive from Lee, North Texas State Representative Marcus Grunewald, At-Large Director Kelly Richards and Executive Director Jean Knaack.”
Started in November 2008 as the Toughest 10K in Houston to contribute funds to the Red Cross after the destruction the Kemah and Seabrook communities received after Hurricane Ike, the rebranded Toughest 10K Kemah – now held on the third Sunday in September – is the anchor of the annual three-race Texas Bridge Series, which sends runners over and back three iconic southeast greater Houston area bridges.
With 1,962 finishers last year, the Toughest 10K Kemah has ascended from 206 finishers in its inaugural year to become the sixth largest 10K in Texas in 2016.
The last three years, the race has served as the RRCA Texas State Championship in 2014 and the RRCA Southern Region Championship in 2015 and 2016.
It will be the greater Houston area’s first RRCA national championship race in more than a decade – and Texas’ third RRCA national championship in as many years.
In 2006, the Houston Area Road Runners Association – produced Bayou City Classic 10K hosted RRCA’s National Championship at the same distance in conjunction with the 48th annual RRCA National Convention.
Run For The Water 10-Miler in Austin this past October and the Dallas Running Club Half Marathon this coming November have also recently won RRCA National Championship bids.
The proceeds from the Toughest 10K Kemah – and the entire Texas Bridge Series — go directly to The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc., a Pasadena, Texas organization whose mission is to offer support, provide safety, and prevent domestic and sexual violence.
Since 2011, through its five races, including the Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon, Half Marathon and Relay, the Baytown Bud Heat Wave and the three Texas Bridge Series events, Running Alliance Sport donated more than $590,000 to local charities.