2005 Top Road Runners Announced by Running USA and The Active Network
New Rankings Provide Many Ways to Put Performances in Perspective

The new Runner Rankings, compiled and produced by Running USA and Active Sports Technologies, part of The Active Network, provide many interesting ways of viewing and comparing the Top Road Runners of 2005. The rankings, which can be found at www.runningusa.org and www.active.com/rankings, provide recognition for all types of runners from joggers to professional athletes.

The system combines an algorithm for standardizing performances of different distances and course difficulty with age-graded factors, thus allowing comparisons across gender, age groups and year. The overall rankings displayed in the 'Runners by Points' section of the website (www.active.com/rankings/runner_points.cfm) and listed below include points from a maximum of 12 races per year.

Top 2005 Road Runners in U.S. (maximum of 12 races)
Men

Rank	Name	Age	Hometown	ST	#	Pts	ave/race
1	Matt Downin	28	Westwood	NJ	12	2047	171
2	Ryan Shay	26	East Jordan	MI	10	1973	197
3	Brian Sell	27	Rochester Hills	MI	8	1937	242
4	John Tuttle	47	Alton	NH	12	1840	153
5	Kevin Collins	34	Cicero	NY	11	1795	163
6	Len Goldman	61	Oakland	CA	11	1732	157
7	Jim Graupner	61	Lake Elmo	MN	12	1731	144
8	James Carlton	63	White Lake	MI	12	1730	144
9	Peter Gilmore	28	Menlo Park	CA	11	1707	155
10	Abdi Abdirahman	28	Tucson	AZ	5	1672	334

Women

Another approach is to view the top runners in order of the average points per performance (see tables below). The top woman, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor, is at the top of both lists as the Team Running USA athlete backed up her stellar 2004 with another impressive year of quality racing (no scored race under 94% age-graded). Kastor set U.S. road records at 8K (24:36) and the half-marathon (1:07:53) and in October, she won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:21:25, the third fastest U.S. all-time performance, and the U.S. marathon record holder became the first American woman to win a major world marathon in 11 years.

The two of the three males with the highest quality performances - 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhein - only ran two road races each and thus are #61 and #97 respectively in the overall points list.

Top 2005 Road Runners in U.S. (in order of average points per performance)

Men

Women

Basil Honikman, Executive Director of Running USA, is pleased with the results of the first full year of the new rankings system. "This system was designed to encourage runners of all abilities as well as publicize performances by the top professionals as well as the best athletes in each city, state and age group so that the public can become fans. We are nearing the end of our beta testing period and welcome any comments that people may have about the rankings process or purpose."

Later this month, final 2005 Age Group Rankings and Top Runners State by State will be released. At the same time, runners will be able to start claiming 2006 performances and checking their progress relative to their own previous times and performances of friends and family and rivals.

To be included in the rankings, running events should submit results in Excel or delimited text files to Results@LDRresults.com or results@usatf.org. For further information about the rankings, contact rric@runningusa.org.

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The 10 Best Moments for U.S. Distance Running in 2005
By Ryan Lamppa, Running USA wire

In 2005, U.S. distance runners produced another year of improvement and achievement to build upon their successes since 2001 and to serve as a springboard to 2006 and beyond. Bravo to the below:

#10
McGregor Sweeps 10K Titles
In her breakthrough year, Katie McGregor accomplished a rare double as the Team USA Minnesota athlete swept the USA 10,000 meter track and 10K road titles. Against the deepest and fastest U.S. women's 10,000 championship field ever (four women ran under 31:46), the Michigan grad won her first Open national title in 31:33.82.

#9
U.S. Women Champions Again at Bolder Boulder International Team Challenge
Elva Dryer proved an able replacement for three-time Bolder Boulder 10K champion Deena Kastor as the two-time Olympian won the race in 32:51 and led a near U.S. sweep as teammates Jen Rhines and Colleen De Reuck finished 3rd and 4th respectively. At the event, it was the third U.S. women's team title in four years.

#8
Sell 9th at World Championships Marathon in Helsinki
Brian Sell ran a smart, controlled marathon at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland last August. The Hansons-Brooks athlete worked his way thru the top international field to finish 9th in 2:13:27, the first top 10 U.S. men's WCM finish since Steve Plasencia's 10th place in 1995. Sell's time was just 5 seconds off his personal record and also was the fastest marathon ever run by an American at the World Championships. In the World Cup competition, the U.S. men's team was a solid fourth.

#7
U.S. Women's 100K Team Earns Gold Medal, Riddle-Lundblad Silver at World Cup
At the IAU 100K World Cup at Lake Saroma, Hokkaido, Japan in June, the U.S. women's team won the gold medal led by silver medalist Anne Riddle-Lundblad who covered the grueling 62.1 miles in 7 hours, 54 minutes, 22 seconds.

#6
Culpepper 4th at Boston
At the 109th Boston Marathon, Alan Culpepper's 2:13:39 fourth place was the highest U.S. male finish since Dave Gordon was fourth in 1987 in almost the same time. With Culpepper's 4th, Peter Gilmore's 10th and Ryan Shay's 11th places, it made collectively the best showing by U.S. men in Boston since 1993 when Mark Plaatjes and Keith Brantly placed 6th and 9th respectively.

#5
U.S. Men's 5000 Meter Championship
In June, 2004 Olympian Tim Broe three-peated as national champion in a USA Championship 5000m record with his 13:12.76 (#6 U.S. all-time performer at the time), and in addition, he pulled recent Stanford grads Ian Dobson and Ryan Hall to personal records, 13:15.33 and 13:16.03 respectively - also under the previous championship record of 13:16.42 set by Doug Padilla in 1985.

#4
U.S. Women Bronze Medalists at World 4K Cross Country Championships
The U.S. women, led by emerging star Lauren Fleshman who finished 11th, won the bronze medal at the World 4K Cross Country Championships in Saint Galmier, France in March. Also scoring for the U.S. were Blake Russell (15th); 2005 USA 4K champion Shalane Flanagan (20th) and Olympian Shayne Culpepper (21st). It was the first U.S. women's short course team medal since 1998 in Marrakech, Morocco, when Team USA won the bronze. In addition, it was the third U.S. women's team medal in four years at this world championship. In 2002-03, Team USA women - led by Deena Drossin (now Kastor) - also won team World XC silver and bronze medals respectively.

#3
Keflezighi Third at New York City
2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi returned to the Big Apple with another impressive performance at the ING New York City Marathon. Despite a reduced training window due to an August leg injury, the Team Running USA athlete hung tough with defending champion Hendrick Ramaala and world record holder Paul Tergat until mile 24. In a thrilling finish, Tergat just edged Ramaala at the tape, 2:09:30 to 2:09:31, while Meb, second here last year, was third in 2:09:56. Fellow U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman finished 5th in 2:11:24 (a personal record by 5:45) which marked the first time since 1993 two Americans had placed in the top 5 at New York. The duo's times were also the two fastest marathons recorded by U.S. men in 2005.

#2
U.S Men Earn Bronze Medal at Chiba Ekiden
Led by rising stars Ian Dobson and Ryan Hall, the U.S. men's team produced the highest U.S. men's finish ever at the Chiba Ekiden road relay with a bronze medal. In a U.S. record performance over the marathon distance, the 6-member U.S. team - Hall (second fastest leg), Matt Gonzales, Dobson (fastest leg), Brian Sell, Fernando Cabada and Josh Moen - finished only ten seconds behind host Japan, 1:58:58 to 1:59:08. Distance power Kenya won the men's event in 1:57:06, a world record.

#1
Kastor Wins Chicago
In 2005, Deena Kastor had her sights set on winning a major marathon and running under 2:20. The 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist achieved the former with her "bittersweet" victory at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in October. The Team Running USA athlete was on pace for sub-2:20 until the wheels fell off in the final miles, but the U.S. marathon record holder held off Romania's Constantina Tomescu-Dita, the defending champion, by five seconds, 2:21:25 to 2:21:30, in a suspenseful ending. Kastor became the first American woman to win a major world marathon since Kristy Johnston won Chicago in 1994.

In addition, like the U.S. men at Boston and New York City, the U.S. women led by Kastor's win produced top performances with Colleen De Reuck 4th in 2:28:40 (a new U.S. masters record) and Big Sur Distance Project's Blake Russell 6th in 2:29:10 (a personal record).

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Marcy Schwam Inducted into National Ultrarunning Hall of Fame
By Dan Brannen, AUA

In 2004, the American Ultrarunning Association (AUA) created the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. Last year's inaugural inductees were Ted Corbitt and Sandy Kiddy. From 2005 on, one new inductee per year will be selected. In order to qualify for selection to the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame, candidates must either have been retired from competition for 10 years or have reached the age of 60.

Joining Corbitt and Kiddy is our 2005 inductee, Marcy Schwam. Schwam's ultra career lasted less than a decade, from the late-1970s thru the mid-1980s. She was one of the pioneers not only of American, but of global women's ultrarunning. When Marcy Schwam entered her first ultra, barely a handful of women around the world had attempted the sport. Within a few years a trio of Americans (Kiddy, Schwam and Sue Ellen Trapp) took the lead in bringing the distaff dimension of global ultrarunning from fledgling to legitimate world class. Kiddy and Trapp were in their 30s and exhibited a measured, consistent, elegant approach to the sport. Schwam was a decade younger and, in contrast, displayed a bold, brazen, get-out-of-my-way attitude and racing style. In its year 2000 summary report on Ultrarunners of the 20th Century, Ultramarathon World contrasted Kiddy and Schwam as follows: Kiddy's great ultra performances were like Mozart symphonies, but Schwam was pure Rock & Roll.

Marcy Schwam was originally a tennis player, and competed briefly in the Virginia Slims professional circuit in the 1970s. She became a runner at the height of the mid-70s running boom, moved quickly to marathons and just as quickly into the brand new realm of ultrarunning. She achieved instant success. After a few short-range ultras to test the waters, she became the first woman to complete the 72-mile race around Lake Tahoe in 1978. The following year, at a time when just finding an ultramarathon was a challenge, she "broke" the U.S. 100K record in Yakima, Wash. by nearly 20 minutes, only to discover afterwards that on the same day, a few hours earlier, Trapp had run 8 minutes faster in a 100K race in Connecticut. Later that year, Schwam ran in two 48 hour races, establishing U.S. and World Records of 113.0 miles for 24 hours en route in the second one.

The next two years saw Trapp and Schwam trade world 100K and 24 hour records back and forth three times (lowering the 100K by almost an hour), while never meeting head-to-head. In the midst of the frenzy, Schwam set a world 100 mile track record of 15:44:27. She also lowered her marathon best to 2:47. In September 1981, Marcy Schwam finally put Trapp and all other challengers behind her with what Ultrarunning magazine has described as a landmark "performance for the ages," finishing 3rd among men in one of the world's premier ultras, the Santander 100K in Spain. Her 7:47:28 obliterated Trapp's 8:05:26 world record and put her in a class by herself. The following year, she became the first woman in history to run under 6 hours for 50 miles, winning the AMJA 50 Miler in Chicago in 5:59:26. Also in 1981, she became the first woman in the modern era to complete a 6-day race, setting a world record 384.00 miles while finishing second to Park Barner in the Weston 6-Day Race in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Schwam's last serious ultra effort was a U.S. Record 187.79 miles for 48 hours on an indoor track in Haverford, Penn. in January 1985.

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Cast Member from "The OC" to Start OC Marathon
Celebrities, Elite Runners, & Elected Officials to Participate in OC Marathon on January 8

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - (December 30, 2005) - Race officials have announced up- and-coming television and film star Autumn Reeser from the hit show "The OC" will join The Mayor of Newport Beach, Don Webb and presenting sponsor representative Kate Kane from PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. to start the Second Annual OC Marathon benefiting ROCK - Run For Orange County Kids on Sunday, January 8. Thousands of runners will begin their 26.2 mile journey of a lifetime at 7:30am promptly at the start line located on San Miguel Drive in Newport Center adjacent to Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

Reeser, who plays Taylor Townsend on the hit Fox teen drama "The OC", will also participate in The OC Marathon Mayor's Walk/5K Run post race festivities as well as support the charities after the race as part of the official finish line celebration.

"Orange County now has a world class venue for runners in what is the nation's second-largest running market," boasts Executive Race Director, Bill Sumner. "Orange County is widely popularized in pop culture by the appeal of Disneyland and the Fox television series "The OC" so it's only fitting that the county has a marathon to add to its list of attractions and a cast member from the show to start the race."

This year's OC Marathon expects to draw runners from around the world and all fifty states providing a fast and scenic race benefiting eleven Orange County children's charities. Sponsored by PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: PHS), the race expects to draw 15,000 runners and 40,000 spectators to Orange County. In addition to the marathon, there will also be a half-marathon, Mayor's Walk/5K Run and several children's races of shorter distance.

The race benefits eleven children's charities through the nonprofit organization Run for Orange County Kids (ROCK). The 2006 ROCK charities that will benefit from this year's races include: Make A Wish Foundation Orange County; The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Southern California Chapter; SeaStar; Shortstop; United Cerebral Palsy Association of Orange County; The CSUF Special Games/Kathleen Faley Memorial; Olive Crest Abused Children's Foundation; Orange County Ronald McDonald House; The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; SCAMP - Southern California Asthma Medical Program and The Boys & Girls Club of Santa Ana.

Participants can register online at OCMarathon.com. The last day to register for the Marathon will be Saturday, January 7 at the Health Expo. For more information on the OC Marathon, please call (949) 222-3327 or visit OCMarathon.com.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
415 E Figueroa St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

(805) 696-6232
Ryan@RunningUSA.org

RunningUSA.org