Running USA wire 105, December 28, 2009

Thousands of runners to kick off New Year in Central Park running tradition

NEW YORK - (December 21, 2009) - As the clock strikes midnight on December 31, New York Road Runners (NYRR) is kicking off the new year in Central Park with fireworks, a costume contest and a four mile fun run for thousands of runners at the 31st Emerald Nuts Midnight Run.

Olympians Ian Dobson (left, PhotoRun) and Erin Donohue are among the top athletes expected to race for a prize purse of $2000, including $500 apiece to the male and female winners. The field also includes Dobson's wife, Julia Lucas, and Team USA Minnesota's Patrick Smyth and ZAP Fitness' Alissa McKaig, in addition to top local runners Abiyot Endale and Genna Tufa on the men's side, and Aziza Aliyu and Lesley Higgins on the women's side.

The men's event record is 18:12, set by Andrew Carlson in 2007. Carmen Douma-Hussar holds the women's event record of 20:54, also set in 2007.

The Emerald Nuts Midnight Run, a Central Park tradition since 1978, offers runners and spectators a fun and healthy way to celebrate the New Year, just blocks north of the crowds in Times Square. The Emerald Nuts Midnight Run promises to be one of the most distinctive, cost-effective parties in all of Manhattan.

"The Emerald Nuts Midnight Run has become a New Year's Eve destination for thousands of runners and spectators," said Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of New York Road Runners. "It has a dedicated crowd that gathers each year for one of the most active New Year's Eve parties in New York City."

"We're proud to be the title sponsor of the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run," said Jeff Ngo, Director of Marketing at Diamond Foods. "We're excited to help people start the year off right with a source of natural energy. This is part of our commitment to promoting active and healthy lifestyles."

The festivities begin at 10:00pm with a dance party and costume contest, followed by a costume parade at 11:00pm. At midnight, the runners will take off on their non-scored four mile loop through Central Park, under the glow of a 17-minute fireworks show. In lieu of water at mile two, runners will have the option to raise a glass of non-alcoholic champagne to the New Year.

For the third straight year, military personnel stationed in Iraq will start their own Midnight Run at the stroke of midnight - eight time zones ahead of New York. Captain Clifford Cotten, a NYRR member stationed at CSC Scania in Iraq, has organized the event with a team of 50 runners, including military personnel on base as well as a few local Iraqis who Cotten has inspired to join the team.

The pro athlete field includes:
MEN
Ian Dobson (Portland, OR), 2008 Olympian, 5000m
Abiyot Endale (Bronx, NY), third, 2008 Emerald Nuts Midnight Run
Patrick Smyth (Minneapolis, MN), third, 2009 USA 10 Mile Championship
Bado Worku Merdessa (Bronx, NY), 2009 NYRR Club Team Champ
Derese Deniboba (Bronx, NY), seventh, 2008 Emerald Nuts Midnight Run
Nick Polk (Blowing Rock, NC), fourth, 2008 NCAA D-II 10,000m
Harbert Okuti (New Rochelle, NY), seventh, 2008 NYRR Club Team Championships
Sean Brosnan (Lafayette, CA), 18th, 2009 Fifth Avenue Mile
Genna Tufa (Bronx, NY), 2008 SLC Marathon winner
Derek Scott (Bloomington, IN), 2007 NAIA 1500m champion
Antonio Liuzzo (Scicli, Italy), first Italian, 2009 ING New York City Marathon
Emrani Dustin (Kings Point, NY), 2009 Maccabiah Games 800m champion

WOMEN
Aziza Aliyu (Bronx, NY), two-time Emerald Nuts Midnight Run champion (2006, 2008)
Erin Donohue (Haddonfield, NJ), 2008 Olympian, 1500m
Hirut Mandefro (Silver Spring, MD), third, NYRR New York Mini 10K
Julia Lucas (Portland, OR), 2005-06 ACC 5000m champion
Alissa McKaig (Blowing Rock, NC), 2008 NAIA 5000m & 10,000m champion
Zeferjahn Tanya (Charlotte, NC), 2009 NCAA D-II 10,000m champion
Lesley Higgins (New York, NY), runner-up, 2001 NCAA indoor mile
Kim Duclos (Worcester, MA), 16th, 2009 Boston Marathon
Susie Rivard (Indianapolis, IN), sixth, 2007 NCAA D-II indoor mile

For more details on the race and pre-race festivities in Central Park, visit: www.NYRR.org

Set world road best for 50 miles; first and only American to win classic London-to-Brighton ultra

The American Ultrarunning Association (AUA) has inducted Allan Kirik of New York City into its Hall of Fame in 2009. The 6th Hall of Fame class member is probably the least well known (and least well appreciated) world class ultramarathon runner the USA has ever produced. A classic "mystery man", he lingers incognito in the annals of American ultrarunning. His ultra career was barely a blip on the global radar screen. It lasted only three years. He ran only a handful of ultramarathons in his life. In a sport in which "camaraderie" and "sharing the road / trail" are considered essential ingredients, he ran almost all of his ultra training and racing miles utterly alone. And his legacy of world class credentials was marred by minor technical glitches in three of his finest races.

The first of these is what appears to have been his first ultra, the 1977 AAU National 50K Championship in New York City, in which he ran 3 hours, 2 minutes, 56 seconds, but lost to Fritz Mueller. Only in recent years has the record been corrected to reflect the fact that Mueller was not an American citizen, and so Allan Kirik was actually one of the first official U.S. national ultra champions.

In a sense, the rest of his ultra career was just more of exactly the same: simply put, he ran 6-minute per mile pace for three years and then hung up his shoes. A friend once commented on Kirik's staple weekend long training run: he would just go out and run 6-minute pace for as long as he could. This was usually in the 25-35 mile range. In his races, which ranged from 60K to 100K, Kirik would do exactly the same thing. And he usually kept doing it right up to the finish line.

In 1978, he won the Metropolitan 50 Mile in New York's Central Park in 5:15:54, probably his worst ultra performance ever, despite producing the 4th fastest U.S. 50 mile time ever.

The following year, in the spring he traveled to the nation's premier road ultra, Lake Waramaug in Connecticut. Running all alone, he set a world road best of 5:00:30 for 50 miles. That fall, he traveled to England for what was then the de facto World Championship of ultrarunning, the 54.26 mile London-to-Brighton race. There he proceeded to do what the great Ted Corbitt was never able to achieve. He became the first and only American ever to win this classic ultra event, running 5:32:37.

The following year, 1980, he returned to defend his title at the Brighton, only to find Englishman Ian Thompson on the starting line. In the mid-70s, Thompson was one of the world's premier marathoner, with a marathon best under 2:10. Kirik's best marathon was 15 minutes slower. So what did the American do? He tried to burn off the fleet Brit early and run away with the race. He hit the 50K mark in under 3 hours, but soon Thompson caught him and went on to win. Kirik hung on for second, despite having run 10 minutes faster than the previous year. If 50 mile split times had been taken, his would have been under 5 hours, with more than 4 miles still to go.

Just a few weeks later, fellow American Barney Klecker broke Kirik's world 50 mile best on a flat course at Chicago, so only a month after his London-to-Brighton race, Kirik tried to get it back on the hilly Copper Harbor 50 Mile course in Michigan. He missed by 5 minutes, running 4:56:03 in freezing, windy conditions that included a hailstorm. The course was later remeasured and found to be short by almost 2 miles, but the essentially solo performance translates to about a 5:07:00 for a full 50 miles.

And only a month after that, Kirik extended his range at the Metro 100K in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, where he won by an hour and obliterated the U.S. 100K record by over 13 minutes, running 6:37:54. Or so it seemed. A year later when Bernd Heinrich (AUA Hall of Fame, 2007) set the U.S. 100K record that would stand for 15 years, he ran a minute slower. Kirik's 6:37:54 on a certified course missed record ratification because an early out-and-back section on the course was run slightly short. The race director caught the error and scrambled to make up the difference by measuring and having the field run another out-and-back section at the end of the race. But such patchwork courses are ineligible for records. There is little doubt that Kirik ran the full 100K distance, he just could not be credited with the record. Soon after that he encountered injury problems and ended his brilliant, but brief ultra career.

AUA HALL OF FAME
* Ted Corbitt (2004)
* Sandra Kiddy (2004)
* Marcy Schwam (2005)
* Sue Ellen Trapp (2006)
* Bernd Heinrich (2007)
* Stu Mittleman (2008)
* Allan Kirik (2009)

Its most popular online tool allows runners to load customized training plans to their RW online Personal Trainer log

NEW YORK - (December 22, 2009) - Runner's World magazine, the worldwide authority on running information, has announced the launch of a new premium interactive feature of Runner's World's Smart Coach, which allows runners to load customized training plans into an online training log. RW's Smart Coach enables runners everywhere to design a customized training plan and load it into an interactive Personal Trainer account, where they can log actual workouts against the plan, upload training data, record nutrition, create routes and more. Peaksware, the software company who also powers the Runner's World Personal Trainer, designed the new interactive Smart Coach feature.

"This new capability strengthens our most popular tool, Smart Coach, by allowing runners to develop a personalized training plan that directly populates their online training log," explained Warren Greene, Runner's World Brand Editor. "Once the training plan has been entered into the training log, runners receive a daily e-mail with their personalized program for each day. They can also update training data, nutritional information and find new running routes."

Powered by TrainingPeaks, this premium Smart Coach tool is available now on Runner's World for a flat fee of $9.99 at: www.runnersworld.com. RW's Smart Coach is the perfect tool for transforming today's New Year's resolutions into next season's realities. Get started now with the new Interactive Smart Coach and make this year your best season yet.

Neutral running shoe earns three honors, including Runner's World "Best Global Update"

BOTHELL, Wash. - (December 23, 2009) - Leading running company Brooks Sports, Inc. has announced that the newest version of its neutral running shoe, the Ghost 2, was honored as "Best Global Update" for 2009 at the annual Runner's World International Shoe Awards in New York City on October 30. Originally awarded "Best Update" in the Runner's World Fall 2009 Shoe Guide, the Ghost 2 features updates such as a superior midfoot wrap ensuring a secure feel around the arch, extra forefoot cushioning and under-foot support, as well as Brooks' eco-friendlier BioMoGo midsole and 100% recycled shoelaces.

In addition to the honors from Runner's World, Fitness magazine named the Ghost 2 the winner of the neutral cushioned category in its 2009 running shoe review in its October issue. One wear tester in the publication raved, "They have the ideal amount of support without being too cushioned or clunky."

Finally, the Ghost 2 won the title of "Best Green Award Winner" in the article "Best Kicks" in the Nov / Dec 2009 issue of Women's Running magazine. Editors call out the shoe's "full-length midsole made of BioMogo, which breaks down in a landfill 50 times faster than other midsole compounds."

"All three wins prove that the Ghost 2 is becoming a go-to shoe in the neutral category. The Runner's World award, in particular, is an incredible honor. It takes into account all the 'Best Update' winners in 2009 from around the world, so it truly represents the best of the best," said Andre Kriwet, director of footwear merchandising at Brooks Sports, Inc. "These accolades set the stage perfectly for an even bigger update to the style in fall 2010."

Building on the popularity of the Ghost 2, the much-anticipated Ghost 3, which hits stores July 2010, will take the shoe to a whole new level with an improved forefoot flex groove pattern, a custom fit, an eye-catching, on-trend style update, and availability in widths for the first time.

"With the Ghost 3, we wanted to make a statement," said Injo Gunasekara, senior footwear industrial designer for Brooks Sports. "We started by creating a top-quality high performance neutral running shoe, then tapped into the fall '10 trends of neons and gradient color patterns to take it to the next level."

For more technical information about the Ghost 2 and all Brooks footwear, apparel and accessories, visit: www.brooksrunning.com