Story and photos by Arlene Herrero, Club Vice President
of Business Development, and Daniel Wang.
Photos by Dylan Herrero
The 39th annual Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay grew in its second year after a hiatus during the recent pandemic, and the Club was there for all the action! The race was held from the desert to Las Vegas April 1-2.
This amazing footrace is an annual event for public safety organizations throughout the world. The relay race is a 120-mile, 20-stage footrace between Baker, California, and Las Vegas and is considered the “Super Bowl” of law enforcement; the champions are the best, in terms of physical fitness and logistics the police world has to offer. The race was created by and is managed by the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club, and the Employees Club is grateful for their leadership.
This year was another outstanding year for police runners, where more than 230 teams participated. The New York Police Dept. returned for the first time since 2016 and finished in second place (13:29:46), followed by the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. (13:34:24), The LAPD Citywide team avenged its loss to the Sheriff’s Dept. team last year, winning the overall title this year (12:51:06).
The Club once again was on the racecourse to capture as much of what unfolded as possible. Runners enjoyed exceptional weather this year; Baker to Vegas is known for its sometimes harsh conditions. Last year, strong headwinds outside Baker and the pavement temperatures hit a high of 105 degrees, and the race had to be halted so that the medical teams could be deployed to render aid to a struggling runner.
The Club sponsored six teams from different agencies:
- Team 70 LA Airport Police (15:39.34), taking second place in their overall 800 category and bringing home a covered mug)
- Team 167 LA Port Police (17:04.48, earning a mug)
- Team 195 LADOT (19:28.16)
- Team 129 LAPD Communications Division/LAPD SECSD (17:26.24, earning a mug)
- Team 84 LA County Probation (17:49.05)
- Team 210 State of California Metropolitan State Hospital (20:17.21)
Here are some notable takeaways from a few of the Club’s sponsored teams:
“This year, our team ran in memory of DSO Wall, Chief Leyva and in hope for a healthy recovery for our teammate, SDPO Cope. We competed in the mixed division, improved on our time from last year and came in 16th in our division. With 27 runners and alternates, more than 30 volunteers and our gracious sponsors, the 2023 Baker to Vegas race was a huge success.”
– DPO II Paul Chavez, Probation Training Center, team liaison,
Club Member
“At LAXPD, we have a great support group, but it has been dwindling throughout the years. We started recruiting using new technology and new registration forums to gain interest from different outlets. We lacked interest in runner participation from our agency, therefore, we personally started recruiting Officers. Our elite team included LAXPD and LA Park Rangers male and female runners. Most importantly, for the first time in our history, we placed second in our category.”
– Co-captains Roxanne Carlos, Daniel Gardea and Greg Iwamiya, Club Members
