USATF National Trail & Ultra Championships

Some visionaries in clubs like FLRC and the WMAC (our friends at Western Mass. Athletic Club ) and Dick Vincent of the Catskill Mountains region, were way ahead of their time when it came to organizing low-key, affordable trail runs and "fee-less" series with rankings. In fact, it still holds true in our Northeast region as many more groups (like Reading, Pa. and Virginia) have launched series of their own. Recently, there are rumblings of discontent among trail vets concerning USA Track & Field's "sudden" interest in our specialty sport. Some excellent editorials have been written and published concerning this "season of discontent" regarding USATF intervention. If you have an opinion, please voice it. We'll print it here.

But the following notice appeared in a recent "UltraRunning", and because we have some outstanding trail and ultra runners in our club who could kick some serious dirt at national championships (or just enjoy the long distance journey), I'm publishing the 2001 schedule of championships. There are plenty of national championships in road, XC and track -- all a treat to participate in when you can get there.

If you read "UltraRunning" magazine on a regular basis, you'll know that although elite Americans lag far behind the rest of the word in marathoning (or track, cross country and road racing) talent, the USA has a very promising, world-class stable of men and women who can hold their own in the 50K, 50-mile, 100K and 100-mile distances. USA teams have taken home medals in international competition.

So, trail & ultra fans, here we go (and I hope you do):

The American Ultrarunning Association congratulates the MUT (Mountain/Ultra/Trail) Council of USA Track & Field and the 2001 USA National Championship Ultramarathons on the following 2001 slate of USA Championship events:

*Mar. 24: USA 100K National Championship and 2001 USA National Ultra Team Selection Race, GNC Ultramarathons, Pittsburgh, Pa. $10,000 plus American athlete prize purse.

*July 28: USA 50 Mile Trailrunning National Championship, White River 50-mile, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington State. $10,000 plus American athlete prize purse.

*Sept. 15-16: USA 24 Hour Run National Championship, Olander Park loop, Sylvania, Ohio. $1,500 and American athlete prize purse. (ed. note: Our own John Geesler owns this 2000 title, and set a M40 AR!)

*Dec. 29: USA 50K Trailrunning Championship, HUFF 50K, Fort Wayne, Indiana. $$$ American athlete prize purse to be determined.

For information on any of these championships, go to http://www.americanultra.org and click on "championships."

All of these 2001 USA National Championships will be broadcast live (or immediately following the race) on the AUA (American Ultrarunning Association) website: http://www.americanultra.org