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Taking the baton: Director ushers in new era as Austin's Capitol 10,000 race director
Right from the start, it was clear that the Statesman Capitol 10,000 wasn't just another 10K race. The Lady Bird Lake hike and bike trails could barely contain the 3,400 runners crowding the narrow crushed gravel pathways on March 12, 1978, when Austin’s annual rite of spring was born.
From that humble origin, the race has grown to become the state's largest 10K runs, attracting more than 24,000 participants while building a reputation nationwide as a can't-miss event. Approaching its 50th year, Chris Thibert takes the reins as race director from Jeff Simecek.
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2026 CAP10K:The race is on for April 12 — race map, packet pickups and more
When Thibert was only 8 years old, his dad took him along with his brother to Vic Mathias Auditorium Shores to see the race. There the boys sat on a small rise and watched spellbound as wave after wave of competitors streamed by.
“At that time the race came down Riverside Drive,” Thibert said. “We saw a truck roll by, the lead vehicle. Then we saw the runners. The crowd got bigger and bigger — it was like a flash flood. We had to back up to make room for the runners. It was just amazing to see. That was pretty impactful, watching all these people having fun and running a race. It was just so exciting. I knew right then I wanted to be a part of it.”
Thibert’s dad helped him train for it and he ran his first Cap10K when he was 10 years old. “I can tell you that wearing that race shirt into school the day after the race was like an Olympian walking in with a gold medal,” he said.
Chris Thibert is standing on shoulders of giants
As he begins his tenure as race director, Thibert credits Simecek — who directed the race for 10 years, and Jann Girard, who directed it for 22 years before that — with building a first-class event.
“The Statesman Capitol 10,000, began in the right place at the right time,” Girard said. “The running boom was just starting in 1978 and it took off right from the start. This race is now woven into the fabric of Austin culture. ... It was my privilege to see families and individuals come back to participate year after year and now continue to bring their family and friends out to this event."
Grounded in the running community
Thibert, 52, has always been a runner.
“In elementary school they’d have a track and field day,” he recalled. “We had to run around the perimeter of the school. Maybe it was a mile run — the longest race for that day. I won it every year through sixth grade. I knew I was a runner.”
As a walk-on at UTSA, Thibert brought his 5K track time down to a very respectable 14 minutes, 57 seconds and ran in the 32-minute range for the 10K before graduating with a degree in marketing in 1997.
Today, you’ll find him keeping pace with many of Austin’s running groups and raising a beer with other runners after a workout.
“You might catch me running down Congress Avenue at the crack of dawn,” Thibert said. “I feel like I’m really grounded in the running community, and I’m excited to bring that energy to the race. I want to bring my connection with runners and bring my personal feelings about running to the production of the race. I want to make sure that all participants from fun-runners to elites have an awesome time.”
Said Sara Bryant, the vice president of marketing and events for Hearst Central Texas Media Group: “Chris is truly a runner’s race director — he wants every runner to have a great experience.”
Ari Perez, operating partner at Fleet Feet in Austin, said: "I've witnessed his work and care throughout the years and he's fully prepared to carry on the legacy of the Cap10K for many years to come."
Technology connects the Cap10K runners
Thibert recalls how during the early years, people filled out paper registrations and mailed them in with a check. Back in the day, runners grabbed popsicle sticks or tear tags at the finish to track their finishing position.
“We’ve seen a lot of transitions,” he said. “Now we have bib tags that transmit where you are along the course and as you cross the finish line. We’ve evolved. I feel like we’re advancing the race because we have a greater reach to people who are experts in the field.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Thibert helped to retool and refocus how to get runners active. To support local coffee shops that had been disrupted by the pandemic, he created Austin's Coffee House 10K Sunrise Tour. These social runs start and finish at the establishments so runners can come to the coffee shop and have pre-programed routes to run. Thibert measured and mapped the routes and put mile markers along the different courses.
To connect runners, he then implemented apps such as Strava and MapMyRun and one called RunGo, an audible running route app. The Strava Cap10K club is an online community specifically for people who are running the Cap10K. Participants can engage with other people who are training for the Cap10K, see where they are running and how fast they are going.
Hearst — a leading global diversified information, services and media company that acquired the American-Statesman last year — is backing efforts to take the race to the next level. So Thibert and staff are now able to choose industry leaders and the best service providers in the business. That includes everything from Haku, a new online registration company, to race timing by RunFar, which allows for leader and participant tracking.
“We’re making meaningful investments in the experience to modernize the race in a way that reflects what today’s runners expect — seamless registration, smarter integration with partners, elevated athlete engagement and a multi-channel presence that meets them where they are,” Bryant said. “We deeply respect the brand of this race as one for everybody. Our goal is to double down on its magic — to protect the spirit while building the infrastructure and energy around it that makes it undeniably a race everyone wants to participate in.”
Bring in the elites; expand the prize purse
Thibert indicated that he’s serious about pumping up the elite field, and to that end he’s brought on Jeff Cunningham — a local coach who heads up the Bat City Track Club — as elite athlete program manager.
“We really want to build our elite roster,” Thibert said. “Jeff has the expertise to manage elite athletes and knows what their needs are. With Jeff, we’ll have the beginning of a new era of elite athletes coming in. You’re going to see some of those course records getting chased. We’re going to triple the prize purse and expand it to the top five men and women. We’ll also include prize money for the overall male and female masters. Another prize money division will be for the first overall male and female local runners.
“We want to improve the overall runner experience for the race. I’m excited to see myself go from a kid standing on the sidelines cheering for the Capitol 10,000 to working for this race and being a part of the community bringing the event into its 50th year.”
