Eric Clifton writes:

As a USATF Mountain, Ultra and Trail (MUT) at large council member I would like to help clarify recent issues involving USATF and the AUA. In the February and March 2004 issues of National Masters News, AUA made several announcements that concern ultrarunning in the U.S.  Primarily, AUA has changed masters age groups at AUA events to start at 45 or 50 depending on the distance.  The “USATF Preserves Masters Age Division” announcement that appeared in the March issue was incorrectly credited to AUA. In fact, that article was submitted by USATF/MUT to confirm that at USATF events the masters age groups will remain at increments of 5 years starting at age 40. AUA’s arguments for raising the minimum masters age groups are not compelling and would only serve to benefit a handful of 50+ year old masters runners while causing significant harm to the much larger population of affected 40- 49 year old runners.  Since there is no mass outcry about the traditional masters age groups there is no need to fix what is not broken.

In addition, AUA’s "A New Beginning..." statement contains inaccuracies and misleading information. One inaccuracy that needs clarifying is the partnership of AUA with UltraRunning (UR) Magazine.  Initially, AUA intended to use the UltraRunning subscriber list as its membership base.  What benefit UR was to have gained from this partnership is unclear. However, UR has since maintained it’s neutral status as a pure information source, and has not relinquished its subscriber list for AUA membership.  UR editor, Don Allison, states in his March 2004 UR Chatter column that, “…UltraRunning subscribers will not automatically become AUA members by virtue of their UR subscription.  Rather, they will do so by actively signing on with AUA.”

Another inaccuracy concerns the U.S. representation on the International Association of Ultrarunner (IAU).  AUA has in fact represented the U.S. on the IAU board in the past, ostensibly as a USATF proxy.  But, starting in September 2004, USATF/MUT will appoint the representative who will be the sole U.S. voting representative in the IAU.  The AUA can remain an associative member of the IAU but will not be the National Governing Body representative to IAU and will not speak for USATF.

I also dispute the AUA statement that ultrarunning performances have declined for both masters and open runners.  While it is true there has been a slight drop in performances at the 100K distance, this is attributable simply to there being less interest and fewer races at that distance.  At other ultra venues and distances, including the 50K trail and 100 mile trail races and especially at the 24 hour event, performances have been as good or better than ever.    At the San Diego One Day 24 Hour National Championships in November 2003, Pam Reed set the U.S. women’s track 24 hour, 40-44 age group, 100 miles and 200K records.   Joe Gaebler, the men’s winner at San Diego ran the third best American performance for 24 hours.  Several other master’s age group records were set at this race.

Another issue of concern to masters ultrarunners involves AUA's attempted takeover of the USATF 100K National team.  I refer to it as a takeover because the MUT council of USATF has not approached the AUA as an "outsourcing" vehicle for the team.  The AUA has aggressively tried to supplant the MUT Council’s oversight of the100K team.  The AUA alleges to have substantial funds to contribute for the travel expenses of the USATF 100K National team. In exchange for said funds all AUA asks for is control of team logistics and selection.  When outside agencies provide money for a sport they are considered sponsors and as such should have no control of team logistics and selection.  The majority of the MUT Council voted not to sell the USA 100K National team.  USATF president Bill Roe affirmed MUT’s vote with the statement, "I am not in favor of abdicating any portion of our governance obligation to comply with the International Associations of Ultrarunners/International Association of Athletics Federation (IAU/IAAF) invitation for USATF to name USA teams, as we do for all disciplines of our sport".  After the vote, AUA withdrew three previously sanctioned USATF National Championships and declared them "American  Championships".  At about the same time they stated they would fund an "American" team at the 100K World Challenge in September in Winschoten, Netherlands.  While I applaud the AUA's efforts to increase U.S. presence in the World Cup event, said "American" team would not be able to compete as a recognized U.S. national team and all their runners will essentially be competing in the open division as individual runners.  The AUA can tally their runners' times for comparison with the international teams but the team has no legitimate standing.

I would like to end by saying that ultrarunners receive more from the USATF than just a “card with numbers on it”.  USATF/MUT provides credible, nationally recognized championship races at a variety of distances and terrains, annual awards and recognition for runners of all ages, and a fair, unbiased open selection process for a recognized U.S. national team.

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Last updated: 09/14/05
Web Author: Lorraine Gersitz