The University of Nevada’s cross country team participated in multiple Journal Jogs through the 1970s. Nevada’s coach, Jack Cook, saw it as an opportunity for his program to get involved in the community.

At the 1973 race, Harry Reid, then Lieutenant Governor for the State of Nevada, handed out trophies and medals.

The 10th annual Journal Jog was the biggest to date. Nearly 1,000 participants registered for the race that took place on October 9, 1978.

The winner of the 1979 women’s race was 15-year old Inga Thompson from Reno High School. Thompson would go on to represent Team USA at three Olympics in road cycling.

In 1979, Nevada coach, Jack Cook, decided to no longer allow his athletes to race the Journal Jog. He told the newspaper: “People couldn’t compete against the UNR runners. The jog is a community thing, and we should let the people in the community have their day. This race ought to be for the jogger type. The guy who isn’t running for his life every weekend.”

In 1983, the Nevada State Journal and the Reno Evening Gazette merged to become the Reno Gazette-Journal. For multiple years the race was called the Gazette-Journal Jog.

In 1987, the race went to an 8K distance — the same distance run today.

The 20th annual Journal Jog took place Saturday, October 1, 1988. It was the largest field to date with 1,571 finishers. John Trent, a staple in the Reno running community, began coving the race for the Reno-Gazette Journal. His coverage of the event continued for nearly a decade.

1995 marked the first year that the race did not offer prize money for the winners.

Over 2,500 people raced in 1997. This is the highest number of participants in race history. Alan Dehlinger was victorious. It was 10-years between victories for Dehlinger who also won in 1987. His time of 23:52 in 1987 is still the record for the 8K distance (even though the course has changed).

In 2008, the 40th edition of the Journal Jog, the course was revamped. No longer did runners go up Hunter Lake and down Ferris. It also marked the beginning of the Reno Gazette-Journal outsourcing the majority of the race production to an outside organization.

Between 2008 - 2019, due to a multiple different running events in the area and the decline in newspaper subscriptions, the Journal Jog numbers dropped significantly from its peak of the 1990s. A couple of years during this timeframe there were less than 500 participants.

For the 50th edition of the Journal Jog in 2018, it was ran as part of the Reno Running Festival. A one-mile race took place on Saturday and on Sunday the Journal Jog and the Reno 10-Miler were held simultaneously.

In 2019, the start/finish were moved to Idlewild Park.

The Journal Jog did not happen from 2020 - 2022. In 2023, Reno Running Company Races took over the event and moved the start/finish back to Reno High School. Participant numbers have begun to increase over the last couple of years.

🏊 🚴 🏃 August 23 - Lake Tahoe Sprint Triathlon - Sugar Pine State Park, CA

🏊 🚴 🏃 August 24 - Lake Tahoe 70.3, Olympic, Duathlon, Aquabike - Sugar Pine State Park, CA

🏃 August 24 - Journal Jog 8K - Reno, NV

🚴 August 26 - Aircenter Criterium - Reno, NV

⛰ Group trail run with Silver State Striders

🌄 Morning trail run with the Trail Creatures

🏔 Mountain Running Club with Alpenglow Sports

👟 Group run at Sparks store at 8 AM with Reno Running Company

🏃 Group run with at different locations with Summit Run Club

⛰ Group trail run at different locations with Silver State Striders

🍻 Group run with Mikkeller Running Club

👟 Group run at Summit store at 8 AM with Reno Running Company

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⛰ Group trail run at different locations with Silver State Striders

🏃 Group run at the Sparks Marina with Summit Run Club

🏟 Morning track workout at Reno High (meet at Hub Riverside at 6 AM) with Reno Running Company

🏔 Mountain Running Club with Alpenglow Sports

🍻 Group run with Mikkeller Running Club