Running USA: Leading Races and USA Track & Field Form Historic Partnership
March 13, 1999, Los Angeles, California—Several of the leading figures in American distance running announced in Los Angeles today the formation of Running USA, a new trade organization for the road racing industry. A joint venture with USA Track & Field (USATF), Running USA results from a year of planning by the race directors of several leading U.S. road races along with USATF’s Long Distance Running Chairs and its CEO, Craig Masback.
Running USA is a not-for-profit entity devoted to improving the status of road racing in the United States through collective marketing and promotions, services to runners and events, and the development of American world-class stars. It is an effort to supplement, not replace, existing organizations and programs (such as RRCA, PRRO, USARC and USATF Associations). It will provide additional avenues for success within a context of comprehensive road racing services, geared to the desires and needs of the road racing community and all those interested in increasing the prominence of road racing.
Running USA’s first priority is to raise public awareness at a national level for a sport involving more than 30 million participants, 6 million of who registered and ran in road races in 1998. The organization announced that Steve Edwards, a founder of the SouthTrust Running Festival, has agreed to become its first Executive Director, establishing offices in Treasure Island, Florida and Santa Barbara, California. A full-time staff of five will begin work immediately on seven key areas - marketing, media services, promotions, athlete development, technical support, sponsor services, and expanded benefits to runner/participants.
"With more than 100 American races with more than 4,000 participants and several multi-billion dollar companies selling their products to runners, road racing represents an important industry," Edwards said. "By bringing the leading races under a single umbrella, we will for the first time enable the sport to flourish and compete on a national level with other professional sports," Edwards added.
A productive meeting of 60 representatives of events and other entities from the road racing industry endorsed Running USA. A complete roster of the founding members, including many of America’s flagship events will be released shortly.
"Running has incredible but largely unrecognized economic impact both locally and nationally," observed USATF’s Masback. "Running USA will allow the leading races to use their collective strength to take the sport to a new level," he added.
