St. Louis, Mo (April 26, 2010) – Big River Running Company, St. Louis’ running and walking resource, will host the third annual Festival of Miles on Saturday, May 22 at Saint Louis University High School at 6:30 p.m. This year’s event is being presented by Under Armour and the night’s featured event, The Elite Men’s Mile, will once again be sponsored by the St. Louis Track Club.
The Festival of Miles presented by Under Armour includes ten different competitive races. One of the major attractions is the men’s one-mile, comprised of elite national and local track stars, who will attempt to run a sub-four minute mile for the second year in a row. In addition, the event includes a celebrity 100 meter dash, a women’s mile, a men’s masters race, children’s 100 meter dashes, a wheelchair race, invitational junior high miles and an open kids mile race. Proceeds from the event will benefit Mike Rathmann, a standout high jumper at SLUH, who was paralyzed from the diaphragm down in a 2008 accident.
This year’s men’s mile field is extremely deep and is led by Port Byron, IL native and University of Arkansas NCAA Champion Dorian Ulrey. Ulrey represented the United States at last summer’s World Track and Field Championships and has run 3:35 for the 1500 meters. Challenging Ulrey will be Tommy Schmitz - who placed third at last year’s Festival of Miles - as well as Reebok’s Brian Olinger, Big River Running Company’s Dan Strackeljahn and several others. 2008 U.S. Olympian Leo Manzano won last year’s event in 3:55.29, the fastest time ever run in the State of Missouri. The winner of this year’s race will win $1,000 plus a $1,000 bonus for breaking four minutes and another $1,000 for besting Manzano’s meet record.
Highlighting the women’s field this year will be Parkway Central standout Emily Sisson. Sisson is one of the country’s best high school distance runners, having finished third at last fall’s Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships, runner-up in March at the Nike Indoor National Meet and 18th at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on March 28. The Festival of Miles Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the sport of track and field and give back to athletes in need.
The Festival of Miles, which takes place each May, is a track meet that showcases the sport at all levels featuring youth competitors, masters runners and some of the world's best athletes. Each year all proceeds from ticket sales go to an athlete/athletes in need.
For more information visit www.bigriverrunning.com/FestivalofMiles
Members of the media interested in learning more about the Festival of Miles are
encouraged to contact Courtney Irwin at courtney@bigriverrunning.com or 314.775.8970
