Mad City 100K to serve as national championship in 2013, 2014

In 2013 and 2014, Madison, Wisconsin, will again host USA Track & Field's U.S. National Championship 100K road race. The Mad City 100K will utilize a 10K loop through the University of Wisconsin Arboretum for the championships on April 20, 2013, and April 19, 2014, according to event director Tim Yanacheck.

Online registration opens this month for the 2013 events which will include the national championship 100K solo race, a nonchampionship but competitive 50K solo race, and five-person 50K relay.

The overall male and female winners of the 100K are named to the U.S. 100K National Team. "This is currently a very hot ticket among American ultramarathoners," Yanacheck said. "I expect that we will draw some top-flight athletes again."

Yanacheck said the event helped field the best combined men's and women's teams in the world in 2011 and 2012. At the 2011 world championship in the Netherlands, the American men won the team gold medal and the American women won the team silver medal. In Italy in 2012, the opposite happened: The men won silver, with four U.S. runners in the top 10 finishers, and the women won gold, with three Americans in the top five.

The 2012 U.S. 100K National Team included Carolyn Smith of Milwaukee and former Midwest residents Cassie Scallon (of Watertown, Wisconsin), Luther College graduate Amy Sposton (of Monmouth, Illinois) and past Wisconsin Track Club president Joe Binder (Decatur, Illinois).

For more information and to register for one of the Mad City 100K events, go to www.madcity100k.com