| Running USA Wire 109, December 18, 2003 |
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to main page FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2004 USA Running Circuit Offers Record Purse INDIANAPOLIS - With a record $818,700 in guaranteed prize money, the richest USA Running Circuit in history is set for 2004. The USARC, a USA Track & Field road series, features USA Championships from 5 km to the marathon and attracts the best U.S. distance runners, including Olympians Deena Drossin, Meb Keflezighi, Elva Dryer and Bob Kennedy. The tenth edition for the men and ninth for the women, the 2004 circuit has nine events for men and seven events for women. Every 2003 USARC race has returned to host a national championship. The 2004 Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon, hosted by the Mercedes Marathon on February 7 in Birmingham, Ala., kicks off the Men's USARC. At the Olympic Marathon Trials, qualified U.S. men will vie for three Olympic team spots and an Olympic Trials record purse of $271,500. The Gate River Run 15K, a long-standing national championship, opens the Women's USARC (also a Men's event) on March 13. The 2004 circuit offers over $790,000 in national championship prize money plus a $25,000 grand prix purse. The River Bank Run 25K, CVS/pharmacy Downtown 5K and Tufts 10K also have Open prize money. The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 points for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6000, $4000 and $2500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall. The USARC points at the USA Marathon Championships will be doubled. The 2003 USARC was perhaps the best ever, featuring three U.S. records and five national championships records. While $425,000 was earned by U.S. athletes, fast times and exciting and deep competition were the rule. With consistent performances, rising star Ryan Shay and veteran Colleen De Reuck won the overall 2003 USARC Grand Prix titles with 68 and 73 points, respectively, and the accompanying $6000. De Reuck also defended her GP crown, while Shay won two U.S. titles - marathon and half-marathon. The other GP prize money winners were Meb Keflezighi and Marla Runyan (second) and Phillimon Hanneck and Sara Wells (third). U.S. road records at 15 km (47:15) and 20 km (58:57 and 1:05:52) by Drossin, Keflezighi and Runyan respectively highlighted the 2003 USARC. The three U.S. records were the most set in one USARC season; the previous record was one (1995 and 2002). Overall, 54 U.S. men and 49 U.S. women scored USARC points in 2003, and U.S. athletes took home $412,350 in prize money plus a $25,000 Grand Prix purse for the top three GP scorers. The USA Running Circuit mission is to showcase, support and promote U.S. runners, and since its inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $4.2 million dollars to U.S. distance runners. Past USARC Grand Prix champions include Olympians Keith Brantly ('95), Mark Coogan ('96), Rod DeHaven ('98/'00), Colleen De Reuck ('02-03), Libbie Hickman ('99-00), Anne Marie Lauck ('96), Shelly Steely ('98) and Todd Williams ('99). Below is the 2004 USARC schedule: MEN *USARC points will be doubled at the USA Marathon Championships USARC Grand Prix Champions (1995-2003) For more information on the USARC, go to: www.usatf.org Return to top / Return to main page FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Susan Reid/Audra Fleming, (858) 450-6510 Musical Marathon Champions Headline Elite Men's Fields for Inaugural P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon SAN DIEGO, Calif. - (Dec. 17, 2003) - The inaugural P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon is less than a month away and an impressive field of elite athletes will be leading the pack in what is expected to be an exceptionally fast race on January 11, 2004. Past champions from musical marathons around the country dominate the marathon field in the race that runs through the flat and fast terrain of downtown Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe. Kenya's Jomo Kororia, winner of the 2003 Country Music Marathon, will be joined by countryman John Kagwe and Ethiopia's Belay Wolasha, winners of the 2001 and 2000 Suzuki Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, respectively. Kororia made his distance debut at the Country Music Marathon this year and won in impressive fashion, recording a time of 2:12:56, just one second shy of the course record. Kagwe owns a personal best of 2:08:12 and Wolasha has a 2:10:57. The fastest time in the field though belongs to Kenya's Josephat Kiprono, who won the 2001 Rotterdam Marathon with a sizzling 2:06:44. "The Arizona course is flat and fast with few turns," says Mike Long, elite athlete coordinator for the event. "We are expecting world class times." The pacesetters for the elite group will be Kenyans Joseph Kariuki, who has paced the London, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Suzuki Rock 'n' Roll Marathons, and Philip Tarus, the 1998-99 winner of the Suzuki Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. Tarus holds the course record in San Diego with a time of 2:08:33 set in his '99 victory. The P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon has also been designated as the Olympic Trials qualifier for the country of Columbia, giving a select group of men the opportunity to challenge for a spot on their 2004 Olympic Team. The half-marathon field should be equally exciting as an elite group of American men will be on hand, using the race as a final tune-up before the Olympic Marathon Trials which are set for Feb. 7 in Birmingham, Ala. Highlighting the field is the U.S. record-holder at 10,000 meters and 20K, Meb Keflezighi of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. He finished seventh at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon this year with a time of 2:10:03. Joining Keflezighi will be his Team USA California teammate 24-year-old Ryan Shay, the 2003 USA Marathon, Half-Marathon and USA Running Circuit champion. Keith Dowling, a three-time World Cross Country Championship team member and runner-up at the 2001 USA Half-Marathon Championship is also in the group. The elite women's field for the marathon will be announced at a later date. P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona is the fourth in a series of musical road races that feature a live band staged along every mile of the 26.2 and 13.1-mile race courses to provide runners and spectators with continuous entertainment. The day concludes with an evening concert featuring the Grammy-nominated Goo Goo Dolls at Tempe Beach Park. For more information on P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona or to register for the race, visit www.rnraz.com or contact Elite Racing, Inc. at 5452 Oberlin Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, or call (858) 450-6510. P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon Men's Elite Field NAME AGE CTZ PR Pacesetters: *P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona has been designated as the Olympic Trials for Columbia. P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon Men's Elite Field NAME AGE CTZ PR Return to top / Return to main page FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Crim Festival of Races Produces Powerful Economic Boost FLINT, Mich. - (December 18, 2003) - The Crim Festival of Races - Flint's premier annual tourist tradition - delivered a powerful $8.5 million dollar boost to the Genesee County economy in 2003, according to a study just completed by the University of Michigan-Flint's School of Management. More than 13,000 participants are attracted to Flint's annual showcase event each August, and runners at the Crim in recent years represented 42 U.S. states, 20 countries, and five continents. In contrast, the Boston Marathon, a world-renowned, century-old event attracts 14,500 runners. Including spectators, the crowds in downtown Flint for the 2003 Crim were estimated at almost 50,000 people for the three day event. The recently completed study by UM-Flint on the economic impact of the of Crim Festival Races on the Flint economy was conducted by Mark J. Perry, Associate Professor of Finance, in conjunction with undergraduate student, Darryl Barber of Davison, who worked on the project as part of an independent study under Professor Perry. Professor Perry and Barber used data on Crim attendance over the last 12 years, and followed the generally accepted statistical procedures to estimate the economic impact of tourism and special events on a local economy. Further, they had access to data from 1993 and 1997 surveys of Crim participants about how money much they spent while in Flint, how long they stayed in Flint on average, and how many guests accompanied them to the race. Using this survey data, the research team was able to first calculate the direct spending in Flint during the 2003 Crim Festival of Races, on groceries, restaurant meals, hotels, entertainment, race registration, etc. This direct spending by non-local participants and guests each August during the Crim Race is the estimated, initial amount of new money that enters the Flint economy solely because of the race, and was estimated to be $5.4m in 2003. Once new money is injected into a local economy in the form of direct spending, there are secondary effects on spending and earnings as the new money begins to circulate locally, and generates additional spending. Based on: 1) sector-specific economic multipliers supplied by the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of Commerce, and 2) the direct spending amount of $5.4m, it was next possible to calculate: a) Total or Gross Spending in Genesee County, b) earnings generated in the local labor market from the increased spending, and c) the number of jobs in Flint supported by the increased spending and income. For 2003, attendees at the Crim Race generated $8.5m in Total Gross Sales for the local economy, boosted earnings for local workers by $3.4m, and helped support approximately 184 full and part-time jobs in the Flint economy. Looking back over the period from 1992-2003, and making adjustments for annual attendance and annual changes in the price level, Perry and Barber were also able to estimate that the Crim Festival of Races had had a whopping $91.5m impact on the Flint economy over the last ten years. "The Crim Festival of Races is a first-class athletic event for The City of Flint, and we now know that the Crim is also a first-class economic event for the Flint community," said Professor Perry. "The Crim Race brings people from all parts of Michigan, from 20 countries, and from 42 states to the Flint area every August for three days, and in the process generates $8.5m of solid financial benefits to the local economy. There is no other single, annual tourist event that comes anywhere close to generating that level of economic impact for the City of Flint." Barber, who will graduate in May 2004 from UM-Flint with a B.A. in economics, plans to attend graduate school at Florida State University to study applied economics, and he hopes this research project will help prepare him for his graduate studies. "This independent study on the economic impact of the Crim Race gave me the opportunity to gain valuable experience in applied research by working under an experienced professor and researcher," said Darryl Barber. "I was able to go beyond my typical classroom experience by actually applying my knowledge about economics and statistics to a real-world case study. The Crim Race study increased my motivation to pursue graduate studies in applied economics, because I have seen first-hand how important and satisfying applied research can be. It was extremely rewarding for me when I saw how excited the Crim people got about our results." Professor Perry emphasized Barber's role in the study by saying, "Darryl's contribution to the research project was extremely important and significant. I provided him with some general guidance and direction about economic impact studies at the beginning of the semester, but he did most of the initial statistical analysis and estimation for the Crim Race case study. In the end, we collaborated on every part of the final results, but it was Darryl's initial research on economic impact studies that laid the groundwork for the final report on the Crim Race. He worked very hard, and I learned a lot myself working with Darryl over the semester." Perry also said, "Hopefully the economic impact study of the Crim Race serves to advance one of the core goals of the University of Michigan-Flint, as expressed recently by Chancellor Juan Mestas: University professors engaging in applied research that has a potentially positive and important impact on the local community. It's important for professors to interact with the local community through outreach activities, and I hope this is an example of how applied research efforts by UM-Flint professors and students can benefit the Flint community." Perry and Barber intend to continue their study on the economic impact of the Crim Race on the Genesee County economy by: 1) releasing a final, comprehensive 30 page report in January 2004 on the economic impact of the 2003 Crim Race, 2) designing a detailed survey instrument that will be given to the 2004 Crim Race participants to assess their spending while in Genesee County, and 3) analyzing the economic impact of the 2004 Crim Race on the Flint area economy based on the results of the survey results. The 2004 Crim Festival of Races is set for Saturday, August 28. For more information, visit the race website at: http://www.crim.org Contact: Sherlynn Everly, (810) 235-3396 Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services USATF Road Running Information Center 365 Oak View Lane Santa Barbara, CA 93111 (805) 696-6232, fax (805) 696-6252 http://www.runningusa.org
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