{"id":245067,"date":"2026-04-11T12:45:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:45:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:45:58","slug":"austins-statesman-cap10k-revs-ahead-with-new-race-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245067\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin’s Statesman Cap10K revs ahead with new race director"},"content":{"rendered":"

As runners<\/a> dash to the starting line for the 49th Statesman Cap10K<\/a> on Sunday, April 12, they’ll be doing so under the purview of a new race director whose own storied history with the acclaimed road race is helping him lead it into its next half-century.<\/p>\n

Christopher Thibert has officially taken the helm as the newest race director of the Statesman Cap10K after spending approximately 25 years as its operations manager, working behind the scenes to help put on Texas’ largest 10K<\/a>. Now at the helm, he told MySA he’s impressed by the speed and precision his colleagues work with to coordinate and put on the race \u2014 attributes he’s witnessed firsthand as he’s shadowed them at pre-race day events to get a feel for that synergy.<\/p>\n

“Something I admire about some of the other [past] directors is how quickly they can make decisions confidently, and how they can handle the volume [of work],” he said. “It’s very impressive.”<\/p>\n

Thibert’s road to race director is one that predates even his time as the Cap10K’s operations manager, harkening back to when he was about 8 years old and his dad first brought him to sit along the race course to see the runners in motion. Sitting on the shoulder of the road, watching the participants up close and basking in that energy, he was hooked; approximately two years later, he laced up his sneakers and joined the thousands who took to the streets of Austin.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘I’ve got to do that. I’ve got to be part of this athletic party,'” he said.<\/p>\n

Thibert catching the running bug likely wasn’t a surprise to his family, who he said would describe him as a high-energy kid whose turn at soccer\u00a0doubled as a successful strategy to tire him out. The thread running parallel in his life and sports interests was, well, running. Off the soccer field, he eagerly looked forward to his elementary school’s track and field day, where a ribbon earned in a distance race might as well have been an Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n

“Running was just in my spirit,” he said. “I guess when I saw that [Cap10K] race, it inspired me to do more.”<\/p>\n

That love for the sport carried him into college, where he ran as a student athlete at the University of Texas at San Antonio. It was during that tenure that he and his teammates helped host regional high school cross-country meets, getting an up-close look at future regional talent and seeing all of the preparations that go into race day.<\/p>\n

“I always was very adamant about being the lead cyclist to lead the kids, and I think it was being so connected and knowing that this is the most important day of their life, getting to do this meet and running this regional,” he said. “I wanted it to be perfect.”<\/p>\n

Taking on that same philosophy in his latest position, Thibert’s vision for the next 50 years of the Cap10K includes both logistical improvements, like streamlining the registration process, and beefing up the race’s pool of elite athletes by adding a new elite athlete program director to help put this race in the national spotlight.<\/p>\n

But perhaps, in the most full-circle moment possible: His third key goal is bringing back the former mile-long kids race \u2014 lovingly named the Junior\u00a0Dillo \u2014 on key anniversary years to help inspire the next generation to take the baton.<\/p>\n

“The key for us is just going back to that original story, little kids sitting on the shoulder of the road, watching kids go by,” he said. “We need to create those triggering experiences for kids \u2014 maybe it’s like one out of 1,000 kids picks up running. I’ll take that one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As runners dash to the starting line for the 49th Statesman Cap10K on Sunday, April 12, they’ll be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2108,1113,2527,10428,820],"class_list":{"0":"post-245067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-mysaaustin","12":"tag-mysahillcountry","13":"tag-mysalifestyle","14":"tag-mysaoutdoors","15":"tag-mysastaff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}