We'd like to
invite you to become a part of a unique funding effort: the
Ultrarunners Supporting Ultrarunners [USU] FUND. It's a chance for
you to help twelve of America's best ultrarunners represent the US
at the annual International Association of Ultrarunners [IAU] 100K
World Challenge, the most competitive ultradistance road race in the
world.
The USU FUND is
designed to help send the USA 100K Team to the first ultrarunning
event in the world to feature official national team competition.
The 100K World Challenge is held annually, at different locations
around the world, where the best of the best gather to compete in
the one language they share: running long and hard.
Since the team’s
establishment by USA Track & Field in 1991 and its participation in
the first IAU 100K World Challenge in Faenza, Italy during May of
that year, the US Ultrarunners have proved themselves as the most
successful American distance running team in world competition. To
date, the United States has brought home seven team medals and three
individual medals from the IAU sanctioned 100K World Challenge
events.
Unlike many of the
countries which compete in the World Challenge each year, the United
States does not fully fund its team’s travel expenses. Although the
organization which administers the 100K team is the same one that
fully funds track and field teams to go to the Olympics and World
Championships, there is no money is set aside for our ultrarunning
representatives. This results in the competing athletes having to
come up with much of the money involved in traveling to the event.
In recent years, each team member has spent over $1000 of his or her
own money, or funds raised through individual fund-raising, in order
to represent our country at the 100K World Challenge. The founders
of The USU FUND firmly believe that the criteria for team selection
should be ultrarunning ability, not pocketbook depth. In an effort
to ensure the United States is always represented by its best
runners, we are contacting race directors around the country, asking
them to reserve a slot on their entry blanks for each entrant to
donate a dollar or more to the team. With The USU FUND, we hope to
make team selection more equitable and to send our best runners to
the World Challenge each year.
The 100K World
Challenge in 2005 will be held on June 26 in Lake Saroma, on the
island of Hokkaido in Japan. With your support, the USU FUND will
offer some of America's best ultrarunners the chance to prove that
the US ultrarunning community is indeed the best in the world. How
can you contribute? Mail your tax-deductible contribution directly
to the USU FUND. And the next time that the US team stands on the
podium, you'll know that you helped put them there.
Thanks for your
Ultra-Support! To make a tax-deductible contribution to the USU
FUND, mail a check (any amount) payable to "USU FUND" to:
Stan Ferguson, Treasurer, 17
Caddo Dr., Conway, AR 72032-9158
USU Website:
http://www.runarkansas.com/USU/
Questions:
usufund@hotmail.com
The USU Fund is a 501(c)3 organization, verifiable at
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/search/eosearch.html
Mountain/Ultra/Trail Running Council