Memorial race will honor Maize sweethearts killed by drunk driver

The fifth annual Run2Believe 5K will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday with a pre-race pancake feed by the Maize Lions Club in the Commons Area of Maize High School.

Registration is at GoRun Fleet Feet Wichita’s east and west locations – 2350 N. Greenwich Road, Suite 1300, and 2556 N. Maize Road, Suite 108 – and online at Run2Believe.org.

The race is in celebration of the lives of the late Kylie Jobe, 20, and Kyle Thornburg, 22, who were graduates of Maize High School and high school sweethearts. The two were returning to Wichita from a Colorado ski trip on March 23, 2011, when they were killed in an accident on I-70 involving a 27-year-old man who had entered the interstate driving the wrong way and hit them head-on. The man was also killed in the accident and was later discovered to have had a blood alcohol level of 0.23 – almost three times the legal limit.

The annual run has raised more than $50,000 since its inception in 2012. Proceeds have been split between the Maize Education Foundation, which hosts an endowment in the name of Kyle Thornburg providing two scholarships each year to Maize area students who further their education; and the Oklahoma State University Foundation, which supports an endowment in the name of Kylie Brooke Jobe to an Oklahoma State sophomore Gamma Phi Beta; and After Prom and alcohol awareness programs at Maize High and Maize South High schools.

The schedule of events on Saturday includes a pancake feed from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.; a moment of silence and prayer at 8:45 a.m.; the race at 9 a.m.; and an awards ceremony honoring the top three places in 12 age groups at 10:15 a.m. in the Commons Area inside Maize High School.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Memorial race will honor Maize sweethearts killed by drunk driver."