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Torres Holds Off Carlson to Take USA 8K Title
Flanagan convincingly wins Central Park Challenge
By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire

NEW YORK - (March 15, 2008) - Alan Webb's toughest opponent at the USA Men's 8K Championship on a cool Saturday morning turned out to be not Jorge Torres or Andrew Carlson, but the turkey sandwich the 2004 Olympian ate at Thursday's press conference. The turkey won, and as a result, on race day, Webb didn't, as the food poisoning he contracted Thursday evening sapped him of the strength he needed to compete with the nation's best distance runners over 8000 meters (or just under 5 miles).

Webb looked fine through 5K, even dipping at the imaginary line to edge Christian Hesch and put himself in line for the $1500 prime awarded to the first man to cross the timing mat there. But shortly thereafter, it all fell apart, and quickly, for the U.S. record holder in the mile, making his 2008 competitive debut here as he begins his push for the Beijing Olympics.

"I've never felt like that in a race before," said Webb, who actually had to stop for a few seconds to regain enough composure to finish, well back in 16th place. "I was light-headed and kind of dizzy. It's frustrating, because I felt good until then. I was in the mix, and ready to start making some moves toward the finish."

Instead, Webb quickly fell out of contention, leaving the quintet of Torres, Carlson, fresh off his first U.S. title at the Gate River 15K last Saturday, Jason Hartmann, James Carney and Fasil Bizuneh. As the pack climbed Central Park's Cat Hill, Bizuneh and then Carney dropped back, and Hartmann, who had run well on these same roads at last November's Olympic Marathon Trials, took the lead as the road leveled out behind the Metropolitan Museum.

Carlson quickly responded, opening a gap of a few meters, and seemed on his way to winning his second national title in as many weekends, but Torres, who won this national championship in 2005 when it was held on Randall's Island, soon joined him up front, leaving Hartmann behind.

With 400 meters to go, Torres, 27, began to drive for the finish, pulling ahead by a meter or two, but Carlson had one more bullet left in his arsenal.

"I thought it was pretty much over with 400 to go, but then I saw he wasn't pulling away, so I gave it one last run," said the Team USA Minnesota runner.

In the end, he closed the gap to seven-tenths of a second, but Torres came away with the win, however narrow. Both were given the same 22:42 time, with Hartmann six seconds back.

"My training's been going really well, and my confidence has been strong," said the U.S. champion, noting that he's received a lot of advice from former marathon world record holder and fellow Boulder resident Steve Jones. "This gives me a good race before World Cross Country [March 30] and then I'll come back and start training for the Olympic Trials and hopefully a top three finish."

In addition to the $10,000 first prize purse and the national title, Torres' win here extended his unbeaten streak against Webb to 9-0. "I guess that's true," he said, while quickly noting he's never raced Webb at a mile or 1500.

The women's Central Park Challenge, which followed the men's race by 40 minutes, wasn't a national championship, but proved to be a coronation march for 2004 Olympian Shalane Flanagan, who caught a milder dose of the stomach problems that afflicted Webb as well.

Taking the lead from the start, Flanagan simply cruised to a 25 minute, 40 second win, with Katie McGregor, duplicating her Team USA Minnesota teammate's runner-up finish, 16 seconds back. McGregor held her position the entire race, as did Molly Huddle, who finished third in 26:07.

The real battle was for the next three spots, with two-time Olympian Amy Rudolph, who's been training with Huddle in Tallahassee this winter, grabbing fourth, three seconds ahead of Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar and Flanagan's training mate, Erin Donohue. Those two crossed the line in a photo finish, with Douma-Hussar prevailing by inches.

For Flanagan, the run wasn't so much a race as "a good strong workout, like a fast tempo run," she said. "I just kind of got in a groove and rolled."

Flanagan, 26, who won last month's USA Cross Country Championships by a huge margin, will switch venues once again for her next competition, pointing for a fast 10,000 meter track time at Stanford in May. "I think racing in Scotland [the site of the World Cross meet] could take a lot of recovery time, and in an Olympic year, I just want to be extra careful."

Indeed, as Beijing draws closer and becomes more of a tangible reality, the athletes who showed their stuff on the roads of Central Park on Saturday showed that they're on track to continue the strong showing American distance runners had in Osaka last year.

Central Park Challenge 8K: USA Men's Championship
New York, NY, Saturday, March 15, 2008

MEN
1) Jorge Torres (CO), 22:42, $10,000
2) Andrew Carlson (MN), 22:42, $7000
3) Jason Hartmann (OR), 22:48, $5000
4) James Carney (CO), 22:53, $3500
5) Fasil Bizuneh (AZ), 23:03, $2500
6) Christian Hesch (CA), 23:04, $3000*
7) Tim Nelson (WI), 23:05, $1250
8) Josh Moen (IA), 23:14, $900
9) Ryan Kirkpatrick (CO), 23:21, $800
10) Macharia Yuot (PA), 23:21, $700
11) Paul Jellema (MI), 23:21, $600
12) Jonathan Pierce (NC), 23:22, $500
13) Ryan Sheehan (MI), 23:24, $400
14) Mike Hanlon (AZ), 23:27, $200
15) Brad Lowery (MN), 23:31, $150
*includes $1500 5K prime

WOMEN
1) Shalane Flanagan (NC), 25:40, $11,500*
2) Katie McGregor (MN), 25:56, $7000
3) Molly Huddle (RI), 26:07, $5000
4) Amy Rudolph (RI), 26:25, $3500
5) Carmen Douma-Hussar (CAN), 26:28, $2500
6) Erin Donohue (NC), 26:28, $1500
7) Firehiwot Tesfaye (ETH), 26:32, $1250
8) Liliya Shobukhova (RUS), 26:34, $900
9) Aziza Aliyu (ETH), 26:44, $800
10) Julia Lucas (CA), 26:46, $700
11) Melissa Cook (TX), 26:47, $600
12) Lyudmila Biktasheva (RUS), 26:48, $500
13) Cack Ferrell (OR), 26:49, $400
14) Carrie Tollefson (MN), 26:54, $200
15) Carrie Messner-Vickers (CO), 27:14, $150
*includes $1500 5K prime

Complete results at: NYRR.org

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The Greening of the Running Industry
By Linda Honikman, Running USA wire

What once was a relatively small group of tree hugging consumers has grown into a large population of carbon-neutral wannabes. The Running Industry is beginning to respond to this new eco-sensitive community by developing green products and events. In the short term, green efforts offer promotional benefits and over a number of years, events, vendors and manufacturers are seeing significant energy and cost savings associated with sustainable practices. But in the long run industry entities hope their collective efforts will result in clean air and attractive natural areas to fully support the low energy, health-improving activity of running, the most natural of sports.

Greener Events Becoming More Popular
Bolder Boulder was one of the first major road races to implement resource conservation efforts although race director Cliff Bosley acknowledges that initial efforts in the mid-90s were informal and modest. In 1999, Bolder Boulder began tracking the amount of waste that was collected along the course and at the finish area. Every year as the field and spectator numbers have increased, the amount of non-recyclable garbage has decreased. With the help of the University of Colorado Recycling Program, an environmental impact report is produced after each race and recommendations are made for ways to improve.

Fifteen years ago the local bus service began offering a park-and-ride service which about 27% of the Bolder Boulder entrants used in 2007. In 2003, race organizers began using a usable lunch bag for post-race refreshments and items are selected that have minimal packaging. Over the last five years, the entry form has been reduced from 8 to 4 pages and the online registrations have increased from 15% to 50%. All unused food and drinks, averaging about 10,000 lbs. per year, are donated to the Boulder Community Food Share.

At last year's event, 15,906 lbs. of race day garbage were recycled, a 41% increase from 2006. The result of their conservation efforts saved the equivalent of:
* 37 forty foot Douglas-fir trees
* 41,300 gallons of water
* 332 million BTU energy
* 7 Metric Tons of Carbon Emission (MTCE)
* 3,000 gallons of gasoline

Bosley believes that a mindset of minimizing waste and saving resources not only is the right thing to do for the environment, but can help an event's bottom line.

Trail runners didn't need Al Gore to bring home the importance of minimizing our ecological footprint so the first 'Green Running Event' was probably a trail run. Nancy Hobbs, executive director of the American Trail Running Association, says the organization is very supportive of the green event concept. "We hope that race directors stage their races with the environment in mind. Of utmost importance is to use eco-friendly course markings such as flour, and at the very least to remove any and all markings once the event is completed. We like to encourage runners to carry their own water and / or fill up their bottles at aid stations rather than using paper cups. These are just a few ways to mitigate the impact to our natural resources."

One candidate for the first authentic green race is the Keweenaw Trail Running Festival which began in 2000. The director, Jeff Crumbaugh has been improving his pro-environment efforts every year. In 2006, there were no garbage bags to take to the landfill after a 2-day event that included a meal for 300 runners. Finishers are served a breakfast featuring organic, locally grown foods that minimize use of fossil fuels required for transportation. Real dinnerware replaces Styrofoam cups and paper plates.

Bringing in real dinnerware and refilling participant water bottles is not going to work very well for the typical road race. But running events of any type and size can get cost effective promotions by taking some modest eco-friendly steps. See the March 9 Running USA wire, for example, with an article about green efforts of the GO! St. Louis Marathon. Another example is the Carlsbad Marathon, organized by In Motion, which joined forces with "Keep California Beautiful" to make the January 2008 event litter free. Guided by the slogan 'only our feet hit the ground' all participants were invited to be 'Eco-Runners' who took steps such as wearing their own water belt or throwing cups and gels in trash cans along the course to ensure that the event left no trash. As an incentive, participants who made an Eco-Runner or Walker pledge at the expo had a chance to win $50 gift certificates along the course.

The Eugene Marathon has also generated considerable media attention by adopting green policies. Special initiatives for the May 4, 2008 event include partnering with the Eugene Water and Electric Board and the local Hilton to use sustainable power during the 3 days of the event, using a Solar Sun Rover as power at the finish, organizing special recycling volunteers and encouraging all runners to participate in their green mission.

Since Green appears to be the "New Pink" when it comes to affiliating with worthy causes, marketers are tripping over each other to associate with pro-green organizations and products. Therefore having a green platform can also help an event recruit sponsors. The San Francisco Marathon organizers, for example, have lined up an impressive list of sponsors including Clif Bar, Hyatt, JetBlue, Cytomax, Hint Water and Saturn to help implement their green plan (see www.runsfm.com/about/green.html for details).

To view details of other green events, check out Runner's World new pro-environment web community at www.runnersworld-greenteam.com. With its partner, Nature's Path, sustainability resources including green tips for race directors are provided. Eco-friendly suggestions cover every aspect of the event such as serving organic pasta at pre-event dinners, encouraging runners to recycle shoes on race day and replacing pace cars with bike police. Events that become an official Greenteam race are being promoted in Runner's World magazine ads and the website. Featured Greenteam events not already mentioned include the Portland Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll San Jose Half-Marathon, IMT Des Moines Marathon, AT&T Austin Marathon, Toronto Marathon and the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon and Half-Marathon.

Eco-Responsibility of Running Shoe Companies Evolving
Large companies such as Nike, wanting to avoid PR problems such as those caused by labor practices of the 90s, are taking a lead in the area of green policies and action. According to Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, "Nike is making bold moves to eliminate toxic materials, improve recyclability and generally reduce waste and emissions of their products and their manufacturing processes."

Highlights of their green efforts include:
* Production of Nike Considered products such as the trail running shoe Humara which uses less raw material, generates less waste in manufacturing, is PVC free and uses water-based adhesives instead of petroleum.
* Recycling effort called 'Reuse-A-Shoe' that has recycled more than 20 million pairs of athletic shoes and created more than 250 sport surfaces.
* Member of the Paper Working Group which collaborates to make environmentally preferable paper products more affordable and widely available.

Brooks earned the Runner's World International 'Innovation Award' in 2006 for environmental stewardship efforts. They have an easy to find Green Room on their website which describes their technologies and practices in a way that makes it understandable to the average consumer:
* BioMoGo is a new midsole foam for footwear coming July '08 that will biodegrade in 20 years - 50 times faster than standard midsoles. That change is expected to save more than 30 million lbs. of landfill in the next 20 years.
* Collateral materials from brochures to hangtags are scrutinized for their environmental impact. By using more responsible materials for Fall 2008 catalogs Brooks saved 47 trees; 19,026 gallons of water; exhaust emissions equivalent to driving a compact car 5,322 miles and 2,174 lbs. of solid waste.
* In 2008, new eco-friendly shoe boxes will contribute to the saving of 13,827 trees; 5,693,282 gallons of water; enough power for 650,661 homes and 48,800 less tons of air pollution.
* HPR (High Performance Rubber) Green outsole featured in all trail running shoes is made from sand rather than oil.
* In early 2008 Brooks will be scored and counseled by the Bainbridge Graduate Institute on the company's baseline carbon footprint and how to improve.

Adidas is now 99% PVC-free worldwide. In 2007, the company conducted energy efficiency workshops for 101 suppliers in Vietnam and South-China. The adidas American headquarters has earned 'Salmon Safe' certification which involves an in-depth assessment of land management practices that could affect water quality and fish habitat. They are also participating with City of Portland to eliminate non-native vegetation.

An ASICS Eco Plan mark has been developed to identify products that satisfy certain standards: reduce environmental impact, save energy and resources in manufacturing, reduce wastes by extending product life, recycle products towards the goal of a recycling oriented society and consider packaging as part of the product that should also be simplified and recycled.

New Balance is the only athletic footwear company that maintains U.S. production factories. It also uses 100% recycled materials in most shoe boxes and all stuffing and wrapping. New Balance has phased out all PVC and has many vegan options and is known as one of the most socially responsible of the big shoe manufacturers.

In the coming years, if the greening of the Running Industry continues to evolve, the sport's 40 million participants will also be inspired to reduce their carbon footprints.

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DICK'S Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER Offers New Time Bonus Structure for 2008 International Team Challenge
$10,000 course record bonus too for country's second largest road race

BOULDER, Colo. - (March 12, 2008) - At the 30th DICK'S Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER athletes in the International Team Challenge (ITC) will compete for time bonuses in addition to the existing $110,600 prize purse. This change coincides with a switch from the criterium-style course used since 1998 to the point-to-point BolderBOULDER 10K course.

"Now instead of running fast enough to beat the next runner, athletes will be fighting for every second they can gain on the course," said pro athlete recruiter Don Janicki. "There has been a lot of speculation on how much faster the BolderBOULDER course is compared to the criterium course. Some think it is only 15 seconds faster while others think it can be up to 90 seconds depending on the weather."

Also included is a $10,000 course record bonus. The BolderBOULDER course record for the men is held by Josphat Machuka at 27 minutes, 52 seconds and the women's record is held by Delillah Asiago at 32:13. Both altitude marks were considered to be top five road performances at the time and were set in 1995 when the weather was cool and misty. Athletes will earn another $1000 for every second under the records.

Time bonuses will be awarded as follows:
MEN
Sub-28:00 $5000
Sub-28:15 $2000
Sub-28:30 $1750
Sub-28:45 $1500
Sub-29:00 $1250
Sub-29:15 $1000
Sub-29:30 $750
Sub-29:45 $500
Sub-30:00 $250

WOMEN
Sub-32:15 $5000
Sub-32:30 $1750
Sub-32:45 $1500
Sub-33:00 $1250
Sub-33:15 $1000
Sub-33:30 $750
Sub-33:45 $500
Sub-34:00 $250

About BolderBOULDER
The DICK'S Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER 10K, a Running USA Founding Member, is the 2nd largest running race in the USA and the 5th largest in the world. The race attracts over 50,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair racers and draws professional racing teams from all over the world to compete for one of the largest non-marathon prize purse in road racing.

The race starts at the north end of 30th Street in Boulder near the First National Bank of Colorado, winds through neighborhoods with live music and entertainment at every corner, and finishes in the University of Colorado's Folsom Field. More than 150,000 spectators watch the festivities from inside the stadium and along the course. FSN Rocky Mountain will televise the Memorial Day tradition in a two-hour feature program airing after the event. The 30th BolderBOULDER will be held on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008. For more information, visit BolderBOULDER.com or call (303) 444-7223.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232
Ryan@RunningUSA.org | www.RunningUSA.org