2024 IATC Laverne Kloster Service Award
We gather here, every December, to honor not only coaches, athletes and officials, but also those who have made an unwavering commitment to the betterment of our great sports of Track and Field and Cross Country.
Today we honor a couple whose dedication to these sports and the running community in general, is something that you don’t witness every day.
Cal and Susan Murdock have been timing cross country meets and road races in Iowa for over 40 years.
They were among the first to use a computer to record results; 15 years of using pull tags and 15 years of chip timing.
Their first high school meet was at Des Moines Roosevelt in 1995. They have now timed over 50 high school conference cross country meets, 30 high school district or state qualifying meets, 10 high school state meets, 20 middle school state meets and well over 500 high school cross country meets in all.
Although this dynamic duo has slowed down some, they still time 25 high school meets each season.
When it comes to road races in Central Iowa, it is very likely that Cal and Susan are the timers or are involved with the event in one way or another.
Two of the bigger events on the roads and streets in Iowa, are the Capital Pursuit in Des Moines of which they have provided the timing services since 1983, and Midnight Madness in Ames, where they have been since 1992. There are also a countless number of retired road races that the Murdock’s provided the timing services for their entire existence.
Road racing is very popular in Iowa, largely in part to Cal and Susan..
They have produced a free newsletter “On the Roads/Striderland”, since the 80’s and maintain a database that contains more than 3,000 road racing records and statistics of Iowa runners.
Cal and Susan were also instrumental in the creation of Team Runablaze, an organization that supports Iowa’s post collegiate athletes in their running endeavors.