The wild and wacky Capital Challenge is a light-hearted annual tradition among members of the legislative, executive and judicial branch who run. The media is invited as well, because politicians know better than most that nothing truly happens until the media says it does. Still, the exclusivity of the event keeps it largely under the radar of less public runners.

And that is too bad, because the race is an amalgam running, camaraderie, politics, and bad puns, all at the direction of Jeff Darman, who tames some of the biggest egos in the city - rendered less formidable in shorts and lycra - over a three- mile course along the Anacostia River in Southeast D.C.

Thirty-nine members of Congress registered for the 27th running, and Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) retained his title as the fastest man in the House with a time of 18:40.

"I'm still going strong," said Gordon, whose time of 18:40 at age 59 would make him highly competitive at any road race. Gordon's team - Dash Gordon - won the House competition.

Rep. Jean Schmidt (D-OH), heading the "Your Team Ain't Schmidt" squad, won the women's House race in 22:50.

John Ensign (R-NV) was the first senator in 19:34. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) was the top female senator.

In photo Team Hutchinson races in unity.

In photo, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) maintained his status as the only runner to have completed every Capital Challenge. Running is the easy part, Lugar pointed out on the occasion of his silver anniversary; the hard part is maintaining the seat.

A faux partisan, genuinely festive spirit pervades the race: some port-a-pots at the start are marked with party affiliations, some designated for the House and others for the Senate. This year, in a nod to the split in the Democratic Party, Obama and Clinton superdelegates each had their own stalls, causing more than one double-take and a dilemma for Republicans in extremis.

The racing is more serious, but not by much.

Brandon Cherry (25), from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, left the early leaders behind with a 5-minute flat closing mile to win in 15:42.

"I wanted to bring it home fast," said Cherry, a former 3:51 1,500-meter runner at the University of Kansas.

Cherry's team name, Federal Energy Running Commission, was appropriate enough, as his teammate and lunchtime training partner, Steve Kartalia (no slouch as a 28:35 10,000-meter track specialist back in the day) took second in 16:16.

Note:Jim Hage led the race until about the 2-mile mark, when Cherry took off and opened a 50 yard lead. Hage was the first print journalist, sixth overall in 16:40.

Laura Turner, an elite fixture at weekend area road races, won the women's race in 17:15. Turner works for a House committee and ran for the winning Dash Gordon team.

Runners from NASA - the Rockettes - won the award for the best team name. I-Rock, I-Ran, from the State Department, earned the award for the worst team name.

More than 600 runners completed the course.

Full Race Day Results