Steamboat’s Run, Rabbit, Run 50 Mile Run has added a 100 mile race, to be held on Friday September 14, 2012 (the day before the Run, Rabbit, Run 50 miler). What is unique about it, is it’s the only 100 mile race in the world that is offering significant prize money.
Those who have run the Run, Rabbit, Run, or who have read the race reports about it, know that it is one the most beautiful, best run and fun ultra marathons in the country, put on by and for runners. It’s an old school ultra, where the goal is to put on a first-class, well organized race and give money in excess of expenses to local charities. The race has a loyal following (there was a long wait list last year), and it was named 2010 Colorado Ultra Marathon of the Year. Past winners include such ultra luminaries such as Geoff Roes, Joelle Vought and Ryan Burch. Nick Clark was second this past year, behind former University of Colorado All-American, Zeke Tiernan, who also won the race’s inaugural run.
The goal is to attract the best field of ultra marathoners in the world, and the way to do that is by offering real prize money. The Run, Rabbit, Run can can do that, and still put on a first class event, and still donate to charity, because of the incredible support of the Steamboat community, and because the organizers are willing to donate an awful lot of their time to give something back to the sport they love.
The race will have two classes of runners – Hares and Tortoises. Hares will run for 90% of the purse, with the Tortoises, what you might think of as the amateurs, or age-groupers, going for the rest, through age group awards and other prizes. Hares will be running only for the money and will be subject to strict rules – no pacers, no hiking poles, strictly limited crew access. And no buckles or winning anything at the pre-race drawing. The race organizers figure the Hares already have all the buckles, headlamps and running shoes they need anyway. Everything else is going into making it a top notch race for the vast majority of runners, who probably figure they have no chance of winning the big money. The prize money is contingent upon entrants, and sponsors. The web site features a “Bunny Money Meter” showing where the prize money stands. The race organizers are putting up $10,000 to start the meter running and are shooting for $100,000. The Tortoises will get a 5 hour head start, and with the few out and backs of the course, mid-packers will have a good chance to see the race unfold.
With the race just recently open to entrants, it has already generated attention among the elite of the sport. Among those already entered are Geoff Roes, 2010 Ultra Runner of the Year, two-time Leadville 100 winner Duncan Callahan, and ultra-running standouts Mike Wolfe, Timothy Olson, Dave Mackey and Karl Meltzer. KilianJornet, two time winner of both the Western States 100 and the Ultra Run du Mont Blanc – and currently considered to be the best ultra-runner in the world – is also reported to have his sights set on the Run, Rabbit, Run 100.
The course has been pretty much determined (there may be some tweaking involved). It has been designed to be at once challenging – about 21,000 feet of climbing, much of it at 10,000 feet – and also spectator (and press) friendly, to increase its attractiveness to sponsors.
Trail and ultra races are some of the fasting growing sports events in America, as evidenced by the success of Chris MacDougall’s national best seller, Born to Run, and the increasing coverage the sport has garnered in the mainstream news media. Most of the “legacy” 100 mile runs are oversubscribed many times over; many have resorted to lotteries to limit entrants. Running Times magazine recently estimated that nearly 200,000 runners participated in trail running events in 2010 in the United States, which is quadruple that of only a few years ago. While this number pales in comparison to those participating in road races (there were 500,000 runners who ran marathons alone last year; nearly 12 million individuals in total ran road races) ultra-running and trail running are very much where road racing was thirty years ago.
In 1981 the first “professional” road race was held in Oregon, in a race known as the Cascade Run Off. Until that time runners did not compete openly for purses; they had sponsors who provided support, but in theory the runners raced only for the sport of it. Now, of course, races such as the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon provide purses and appearance fees in the millions of dollars to the world’s top runners While ultra-running is unlikely to generate that sort of money, the race organizers believe that substantial purses in ultra-running is inevitable and that Steamboat Springs, with its long tradition of world-class sports and athletics (the town has produced more Olympic caliber athletes than any place in America), is the right community for it. And, with the race occurring shortly after the 2012 Olympic Games, when interest in running is at its peak, organizers expect it to generate international press coverage.
For more information about the Run, Rabbit, Run 100 and 50 mile runs, check out the race website: www.runrabbitrunsteamboat.com. Registration is now open.