Jake Jacobson, Tara Kaufman, Brenda Adams, Toni Chaska and Marcia Hoskey of Independent Insurance of Toledo participated in the IMT Des Moines Marathon on Sunday, October 16. Photo/Provided

Running, especially long distance running, can be a very solitary sport. However running can also bring people together. Running recently helped bring things together for five members of a local Toledo business.

Jake Jacobson, Marcia Hoskey, Brenda Adams and Tara Kaufman of Independent Insurance in Toledo along with David Puffett from IMT in Des Moines decided to share a little co-worker bonding by running the IMT Des Moines Marathon on Sunday, October 16.

“It was fun to train and get together and we have a long standing good relationship with IMT who sponsored the Marathon,” said Jake Jacobson.

The group ran the marathon relay style where each of the five runners took a 4-6 mile portion of the 26.2 mile marathon.

They couldn’t have done it without the help of their driver Toni Timm Chaska. Chaska dropped off and picked up the members of the team at each start and finish location along the marathon route.

The marathon route takes it’s nearly 8,500 participants through several beautiful locations throughout the Des Moines area. Hoskey ran on the Bill O’Riley trail through Water Works Park, Adams ran through Grey’s Lake, Jacobson ran the State Capitol area and Kaufman got to run on the famous Blue Oval at Drake Stadium.

Jacobson and Adams both had some running experience coming into the event while Kaufman and Hoskey were new to running. Kaufman and Hoskey both battled through some injuries to finish their portion of the race.

The team ran their legs separately but at the end of the race they joined together and crossed the finish line as a team.

The jury is still out as to whether Kaufman and Hoskey will participate again but they both stated they enjoyed the experience.