Editor’s note: This story, originally published at 5:54 p.m. on April 28, 2025, was updated at 2:18 p.m. on April 29, 2025, to include comments from Dan DiFonzo, a member of the Pike’s Peek Race organizing committee.
A Derwood woman who allegedly drove her Jeep Wrangler through a barricade set up to protect runners participating Sunday morning in the annual Pike’s Peek 10K race in Rockville was arrested after hitting a police cruiser, Montgomery County police said in a press release Monday afternoon.
Karen Christine Gangloff, 44, is facing charges of first-degree assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, according to digital court records. No attorney information was available for Gangloff via the digital court records Monday afternoon.
Montgomery County District Court Judge Victor Del Pino ordered Gangloff to be held without bond on Monday afternoon during a bond hearing in the Rockville court, according to digital court records. She is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit.
No officer or bystander injuries were reported.
The incident occurred just before the annual race was set to begin at 7:50 a.m. on Sunday. More than 1,500 runners participated in the race, according to the Montgomery County Road Runners Club. Runners started the race at the Shady Grove Metro Station, ran down Route 355 and finished at Rose Avenue south of Montrose Road. The race ended at the Pike & Rose.
Before the race began, at approximately 7:45 a.m., county officers responded to the intersection of Sommerville Drive and Redland Road for the report of a Jeep Wrangler moving toward a crowd of runners waiting to begin, police said. The runners were positioned between Metro Access Road and Crabbs Branch Road.
Gangloff allegedly tried to drive through the intersection of Redland and Frederick roads, which was closed to traffic due to the race, according to the release. When an officer directed Gangloff to turn right onto southbound Frederick Road, she allegedly then drove through traffic cones and into the parking lot of a nearby 7-Eleven, the release said.
The officer returned to his cruiser and then Gangloff left the parking lot and continued driving northbound on Frederick Road “at a high rate of speed,” the release said.
Another officer positioned himself in front of the moving Jeep and signaled the car to stop. But Gangloff continued driving and the officer moved out of the way, the release said. At that point, Gangloff turned onto Metro Access Road, another road closed for the race, then turned onto Redland Road in the direction of the runners.
Officers pursued Gangloff on Redland Road, and another officer positioned his cruiser in front of the Jeep, causing Gangloff to rear-end the cruiser and come to a stop, police said. At that point, Gangloff allegedly refused to leave the Jeep and an officer had to break the driver’s side window to remove her.
Police searched Gangloff’s car and recovered a magazine with five 9 mm rounds. No firearm was recovered, the release said.
Gangloff was arrested and transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit in Rockville, where she was charged. She will return for a bond review hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. May 5 in the District Court in Rockville.
Dan DiFonzo, a longstanding member of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club, told Bethesda Today on Tuesday he was the announcer for the 10K race and was relieved the incident had been handled quickly. He is also a member of the organizing committee for the Pike’s Peek race.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for our partnerships with local law enforcement, specifically the Montgomery County Police Department, who could have very well prevented an unbelievably tragic national incident,” he said.
DiFonzo noted he didn’t think most of the runners were aware of the events unfolding about a quarter mile from the start line. “I don’t think anybody thought that it may have been somebody, you know, driving towards our course,” he said.
“We were waiting for the ‘all clear’ to send [the runners] on their way, and at that time, we saw a couple of police cars with sirens ablare, moving quickly over the crest of the hill,” DiFonzo said.
As the events unfolded, DiFonzo said he watched several police cruisers converge on a car and then come to a stop. That was when he was notified to hold the runners and delay the start of the race. According to DiFonzo, the race was delayed by about 20 minutes. When the race began, runners were “easily able to access” the rest of the route, he said.
He noted that during races occurring on popular thoroughfares it is not unusual to see police on the course or cars that have made a wrong turn or stalled out. This “may have been just to get around a detour, but it could have been more sinister. We don’t know,” DiFonzo said.
