The Boilermaker Road Race is a USATF-certified 15-kilometer (9.3 mi) foot race and wheelchair race held annually in Utica, New York, United States. Although local recreational runners are the majority of entrants, the race is highly competitive, with international professional runners filling the top ranks. With the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boilermaker has been held every year since 1978. Traditionally, the Boilermaker is held on the second Sunday in July, although the 2021 Boilermaker was held on October 10 due to COVID-related concerns. Although 15Ks are uncommon compared to other road races, the Boilermaker has been rated highly by running publications.
USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking. The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin-off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected president Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members, but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, and they cannot win USATF medals, prize money, or score points for a team, per World Athletics regulations.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels. The association was created to standardize rules and regulations and to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States.
William Henry Rodgers is an American runner, Olympian, and former record holder in the marathon. Rodgers is best known for his four victories in both the Boston Marathon, including three straight from 1978 to 1980, and 4 straight wins in the New York City Marathon, between 1976 and 1979.
Craig Steven Virgin is an American distance runner. He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and grew up near Lebanon, Illinois. While in high school, Virgin won 5 state championships as well as setting the national outdoor high school 2-mile record of 8:40.9. Additionally, Virgin held the Illinois Boys Cross Country all-time state championship record for 47 years, running a 13:50.6 in 1972, a record that stood until November 9, 2019, when Josh Methner of John Hersey High School ran a 13:49.86. Virgin was Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1973.
The National Distance Running Hall of Fame was a hall of fame in Utica, New York dedicated to the sport of distance running. It was established on July 11, 1998.
Hal Higdon is an American writer and runner known for his training plans. He is the author of 34 books, including the best-selling Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. He has worked as a freelance writer since 1959, and has written a variety of subjects including a children's book that was made into an animated feature. He has contributed to Runner's World magazine longer than any other writer. He ran eight times in the United States Olympic Trials and won four World Masters Championships. He is one of the founders of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA).
The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 36 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams. Both men's and women's teams are called Navy Midshipmen or "Mids". They participate in the NCAA's Division I, as a non-football member of the Patriot League, a football-only member of the American Athletic Conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and a member of the Collegiate Sprint Football League (men), Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (men), Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges, Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (men), Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (men) and Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. Navy is also one of approximately 300 members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
The Peachtree Road Race is an American 10-kilometer run held annually in Atlanta. After being held on Independence Day from 1970 to 2019, the race was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic after originally being set for Thanksgiving. It is the world's largest 10k race, a title it has held since the late 1970s. The race has become a citywide tradition in which over 70,000 amateur and professional runners try to register for one of the limited 60,000 spots. The event also includes a wheelchair race, which precedes the footrace. In recent years, the race also has a special division for soldiers stationed in the Middle East. The race attracts some of the world's elite 10K runners and has served as both the United States' men's and women's 10K championship.
Harris Browning 'Brownie' Ross is often referred to as the father of long-distance running in the United States.
Nina Kuscsik is a retired long-distance runner from the United States, who has participated in over 80 marathons. In 1972, she became the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon. After Beth Bonner, Kuscsik became the second American woman to complete a marathon in under three hours, running a time of 2:56:04 at the 1971 New York City Marathon.
The West Texas Running Club (WTRC), founded in 1972 by Gene Adams and James Morris, has grown into the foremost running organization in West Texas, with over 300 members. WTRC conducts 13 events each year.
Nancy Jane Ditz is a former American long-distance runner who is a United States national champion in the marathon. Ditz competed in the marathon at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Jacqueline Hansen is a former long-distance runner from the United States who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set a world best in the marathon on two occasions.
The Road Runners Club is an association of road runners formed in 1952 to encourage the athletic discipline of road running in the United Kingdom. Since then it has developed into a club that embraces the concept of assisting in the promotion of and training for road races and long distance track races. The most popular distances amongst current members are the half marathon and marathon for which much training advice is available to members. The club operates a unique club championship whereby members send in the verifiable results from any sanctioned race in the world and the results are entered throughout a calendar year. This has proved popular amongst all levels of ability and resulted in 280 championship entries for 2019. The club now embraces all runners from the park run to the marathon and ultra marathon competitors with comprehensive advice on its website.
George Aaron Hirsch, is a magazine publisher, a founder of the five-borough New York City Marathon, a former unsuccessful candidate for Congress, and a television commentator. Hirsch was founding publisher of New York, New Times, and The Runner magazines. He also was publisher of Runner’s World, the first publishing director of Men's Health, and the publisher of La Cucina Italiana. He was the chairman of the board of New York Road Runners from 2005 until June 2023, when he became chairman emeritus.
Jacquelyn Camille Herron is an American ultramarathon runner and scientist born on December 25, 1981 in Norman, Oklahoma. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest Ultramarathon runners of all time.
Gary Allen is an American long-distance runner, race director and entrepreneur. He is the founder and director of the Mount Desert Island Marathon, the Millinocket Marathon & Half and the co-founder of the Downeast Sunrise Trail Relay and the Great Cranberry Island 50K Ultra Marathon.
Sara Mae Berman is an American marathon runner. Berman won the Boston Marathon as an unofficial winner from 1969 to 1971 as women were not allowed to compete until 1972. At subsequent Boston Marathons, Berman had a fifth-place finish in both 1972 and 1973. Berman's wins were made official by the Boston Athletic Association in 1996. Outside of Boston, Berman finished third at the 1971 New York City Marathon. In 2015, she was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Hall of Fame. Berman is the daughter of Saul O Sidore and May Blum Sidore Gruber.
Allan Steinfeld was the president of the New York Road Runners and race director of the New York City Marathon from 1994 to 2005. During his executive career, Steinfeld was also the technical director of the New York City Marathon and the NYRR's chief executive officer during the 1980s. In 2009, Steinfeld received the Abebe Bikila Award from the NYRR. Outside of the NYRR, Steinfeld was a co-establisher of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races in 1982.
