Carson City IHOP shooting memorial run joined by friends, family of those lost
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 09/06/2018 - 8:05am
Thursday morning marked seven years since the 2011 IHOP shooting in Carson City, which left three Nevada Guard members and one civilian dead.
Lt. Col. Heath Kelly, 35, Sgt. 1st Class Master Sgt. Christian Riege, 38, Sgt. 1st Class Miranda McElhiney, 31, and civilian Florence Donovan-Gunderson, 67, of South Lake Tahoe lost their lives when a man suffering from a mental illness entered the restaurant and opened fire.
This year, around 50 guards members, civilians, friends and family joined the annual memorial run, which began in the IHOP parking lot with a prayer circle.
Laura Boldry, the event organizer and Nevada Army National Guard Captain, led the group in prayer before the run began.
“I started this run to help their souls come back to the base, since they were unable to make it that day,” Boldry said. “Now I do it out of remembrance, and out of my respect and love for our soldiers.”
The three guard members, and the two additional soldiers who were injured, all worked at the Office of the Adjutant General on Fairview Drive in Carson City.
Kenny Cutzweiler, the father of Miranda McElhiney, runs every year with her flag and name plaque, but this year, her daughter, Lily Hansen, joined the run as well for the first time.
Hansen was a student athlete in Wisconsin the previous years of the run, and so she was not allowed to participate in the run (or any other sporting event), until she graduated this year.
“You sign your life away when you’re a student athlete,” said Hansen, “but now I can finally run for my mom. She loved to run, and I got my speed from her. If I’m running and my heart rate is at 185, I think, ‘well my mom did this all the time, I can do it too.’ It means a lot to me that the memorial is a run.”
The run is between 3 and 3.2 miles, depending on the route, and the route is changed every year for security reasons.
The route this year went from IHOP, to Silver Sage, up Koontz, to Saliman, and then to the National Guard Base via Fairview. The Carson City Sheriff Office accompanied the runners, as well as National Guard members in follow and lead vehicles.
At the end of the run at the front gates of the base, the runners arrived one by one, drank water and waited for their fellow runners to arrive, cheering and applauding as each one crossed the finish line.
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