io|events was born out of the love of racing. Founding partners, Richard Iddings and Karen Opperud, are active participants in races, from running, swimming, cycling – or all in one! They know what they do and don’t like when attending a sporting event and use that information to make io|events an extraordinary event company.

Take the love of racing combined with the marketing expertise of both founding partners and you have an event that started out as a simple community 5k/10k in 2004, the Havasu Fun Run, to an international half marathon, the Havasu Half, bringing in participants from across the country, Canada and England. io|events plans to bring this level of organization and class to each of the events that are produced.

Karen has participated in numerous road races starting in Washington State back in 1983. Some events to her credit are the Sound to Narrows 12k (13 year participant), Seafair Torchlight Run; Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic; MS 150 Bike Tour; Tour de Scottsdale; PF Chang’s Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon (5 years); 5 time triathlon finisher – both sprint and long distance; and numerous community events where she continues to place in her age bracket.

Richard is fairly new to the world of racing; however, he has attended several as Karen’s personal photographer and cheer group! Already an efficient swimmer, he started running and purchased his first road bike. He’s taken on these new activities with a vengeance, getting faster and stronger every day and looking forward to running his first half marathon in July and tackling his first triathlon in September.

Born out of the love of racing, io|events promises to bring you top quality events that are well organized, fun, and challenging. We hope you enjoy participating in them as much we love bringing them to you!