UltraRunning Magazine today announced the launch of the UltraRunning Race Series (“URS”), a North American ultrarunning series that scores every North American participant in every North American ultra. Scoring is based on several factors, including finishing time and place, race length, number of participants, and strength of field, and is retroactive to May 1, 2015.
Each participant’s top score at the four standard ultra distances — 50k, 50-mile, 100k and 100-mile — will be used to calculate that runner’s score for a given year, with the highest-scoring male and female both landing entries into the Western States 100.
Karl Hoagland, Publisher of UltraRunning Magazine, said, “We know that ultrarunners love to challenge themselves and have feedback against which they can measure their performances and track progress. This race series gives all ultrarunners – from elites to regional age groupers – an opportunity to do just that. It will be something fun for people to follow as they complete the gamut of ultra race distances in a given year.”
Overall race series rankings will be published on a regular basis at Ultrarunning.com and will include overall standings as well as regional standings. With eight regions in the U.S. plus Canada, and with 14 age and gender categories, there will be 150 scoring categories and winners.
The top overall man and woman will receive entries into the Western States 100 on June 25, 2016. Such award will drop down as far as necessary to place the two runners at WS100.
Hoagland added: “We will be able to recognize 450 runners with prizes every year, and we are especially excited that the top two overall series winners will be able to gain entry in the Big Dance to test themselves at the sport’s most venerable and competitive ultra – The Western States 100.”
The URS launched in November 2015 and scoring is retroactive to May 1, 2015. On April 25, 2016, series standings will be calculated based on the prior 12 months (retroactively to Saturday May 1, 2015) and the top overall runners will be awarded entries into Western States 100 scheduled for June 25, 2016 in Auburn, California.
Details and CURRENT STANDINGS are available at ultrarunningraceseries.com