It’s about an hour into the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and the last of the more than 48,000 runners finally make it to the start line. As they line up to begin their 26.2-mile journey, a pleasantly authoritative male voice booms over the loudspeaker, “We just got word the leaders have hit the halfway mark, so if you’re planning to win this race, you’ve got some time to make up!”
As the runners chuckle nervously, the announcer shouts: “You got it in you?”
The athletes let out a whooping cheer and pump their fists in assent. By the time the start horn blares, they charge off with extra pep in their step.
Runners may not know the announcer’s name, but they certainly know his voice. For two decades, Dave Kappas of Constructive Noise has stood on the platform near the start of dozens of local and national endurance events. He not only conveys pre-event instructions and reminders but also much-needed doses of encouragement and humor.
Kappas is as much a part of the endurance event experience as mile markers, timeclocks, hydration stations and finishers’ medals. “Dave’s voice and his presence have become synonymous with the running community,” said Carey Pinkowski, CEO and president of Chicago Event Management, which runs the Chicago Marathon.
“Dave Kappas has the ability to energize you for the race and also calm you down,” said Kathi Kaiser Tomaszewski, who completed her first Chicago Marathon last October. “He’s talking to thousands of people but he makes every runner feel important.”
In fact, if there’s a contender for Dean of Professional Race Announcers, it’s Kappas. Not that the humble and gracious man would concede that himself. His focus, as always, is on helping the event team create a great experience for the athletes. “No matter how confident or apprehensive the athletes are before they start,” Kappas said, “my job is to make sure they have the information, support and energy they need.”
Although he played some high school football and spent several summers as a lifeguard and swim instructor, Kappas, born in East Moline, admits to never having run an endurance race. His passion was, and is, the performing arts. The theater bug first bit him in high school, when a friend invited him to work the lights for the school play. “All it took was that one time,” Kappas reflected, “and I knew I wanted to do something in theater.”
Kappas pursued theater education at Illinois State University with every intention to return to the Quad Cities to teach. After graduation, acting took center stage. He has appeared in more than a hundred productions — from Neil Simon comedies to musicals like “South Pacific.” He was a founding member of The Barn Theater in Goodfield, east of Peoria.
Kappas’s first professional voice acting gig was at a Central Illinois radio station, where he cranked out commercials for local businesses. Moving to Chicago, he pursued voice work, as well as stage acting and on-camera work. He even landed a role in a 1994 Italian film “The Childhood Friend.” Ultimately, Kappas decided that “voice work would have more longevity” and made a conscious choice to focus on that business. He voiced advertisements for corporations like McDonald’s and Toys ‘R’ Us, and did voice acting for video games.
Like his introduction to the theater, Kappas’ entrée into endurance events came by happenstance. One Saturday evening, a colleague asked him to help with sponsor hospitality at the next morning’s Run for the Zoo, an event benefitting the Lincoln Park Zoo. Kappas, then freelancing as a stage manager for Centre East in Skokie (now the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts), accepted the assignment. He liked it so much that he continued working weekends for the event’s management company, Capri Events, while pursuing on-camera and voice acting during the week.
After a year of setting up and breaking down events, Kappas approached Capri about being one of its announcers. His debut behind the mic was for the 1994 Run for the Zoo. As the third in a three-announcer team, he emceed the children’s races, including a Big Wheel competition.
“Everybody figures the person with the microphone knows everything,” Kappas said. “So if I was going to do this, I needed to learn everything I could about the events and the athletes.” His homework proved fruitful. Event producers liked Kappas’ approach of focusing on the participating athletes, not on himself or anyone else. Two years into his announcing duties, Capri promoted Kappas to lead announcer.
“There weren’t a lot of legit race announcers back then,” Kappas acknowledged. “It was a TV personality, or a race director on a bullhorn. When race organizers wanted to take their events up a notch, I had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. There wasn’t any one thing I did to spread my name, other than just do my work.”
For Kappas, an endurance event announcer is an intermediary between the race staff and the athletes. “There are really, really smart people who work on this stuff,” he explained. “The more time I spend with them, the better I’m able to relay messages to the athletes. That’s what this industry is about: It’s more important to be part of a good team than doing anything individually.”
“Dave’s preparation is amazing,” Pinkowski said. “He has a good sense of humor but there’s nothing casual about what he does. He takes his job very seriously. He has a three-ring binder full of contingency plans. He’s a guy you can count on.”
In 2014, Kappas began announcing the Chicago Marathon. At the time, the popular public address announcer Gene Honda was the marathon’s start line announcer. “Gene would do everything up to the start of the race,” Kappas said, “then he would turn it over to me for the rest of the corrals.”
Kappas eventually assumed the main announcing role and handled athlete briefings for the Chicago Marathon, Shamrock Shuffle, Chicago Triathlon and similar events. By 2019, at the height of his professional career, he was announcing 70-75 events nationwide, including 5Ks, 10Ks, 10-milers, half-marathons, marathons, triathlons, the Hot Chocolate run and Hustle Up the Hancock. Sometimes that meant flying overnight to get from one event to another. When COVID-19 canceled in-person events coast-to-coast, Kappas decided it was time to focus on fewer endurance events. Given the week of prep work he spends on each event, including meeting with the race team, writing his scripts and putting slideshows together for the athlete briefings, 30 events seemed a far more comfortable level.
Of all the events he emcees, Kappas has a special fondness for the Chicago Marathon and the Chicago Triathlon. “They make athletes feel at home, important and meaningful,” he said. “Interviewing a woman at the start line who a year ago didn’t know she would be alive? When you put all of that into one event, that’s phenomenal.”
The Chicago Triathlon is Aug. 24-25 on the Chicago lakefront; more information at triathlonmajors.com
Robert M. Marovich is a freelance writer.
