As discussed at the Annual Meeting, Sole Sisters has decided to provide some incentives to our members for running in the USATF NE GP Races.
If you plan to run at least one of the NE USATF GP races, we ask that you become a member of USATF so you can run as part of our team. It’s $30 to become a member, but all of the races we’ve selected are offering a $5 discount for USATF members. If you planned to run all five races, then your USATF membership is basically covered by the race discounts.
If you run three of the five selected USATF races, then Sole Sisters will reimburse you your USATF membership fee at the end of the year.
We also wanted to reward and incentivize runners who are earning money for the club by racing well at these events. Last year our Master’s team won the club a total of $600, and we want to invest that money back into the competitive side of our club. So we’ve come up with a reimbursement program for runners that score in races at these events.
SSRC will reimburse the race registration fee (up to $70) for runners that score for us on a team at three of the selected NE USATF Races as long as we have a full scoring team in attendance.
1. Super Sunday, Big Steps 5k, or Lone Gull 10k*
2. New Bedford Half
3. NH 10 Miler
*You can only get reimbursed for one of these races.
Let’s use Super Sunday as an example. We need five runners to form a team in the Open, Masters, and 50+ division, and we need three runners in the 60+ division.
We show up to the Super Sunday 5 miler with the following teams.
Open = 6 runners
Masters = 15 runners
50 + = 6 runners
60 + = 5 runners
The top five times in the open Masters and 50+ would be the scorers for that race. The top three times in the 60+ would score in that race.
So those runners would be eligible to get their race fee reimbursed since they are earning the club points and money in the series. Since we’ve chosen five races and we are giving our runners some flexibility in the races they want to participate in, we will more than likely have different scoring teams at the majority of races enabling many people a chance to be reimbursed.
In longer distance events like New Bedford Half and the New Hampshire Ten Miler, it’s only the top three scoring runners for the Master’s team, 50+, 60+.
Please understand that you don’t have to be a competitive runner to score points on a team or be a competitive runner to participate in these races. We'd love to see all of our members enjoy these races.
I’ll be responsible for submitting reimbursement requests for all scoring members once per quarter.
If you have any questions regarding this program or need further clarification on the rules, please don’t hesitate to ask.
We are so proud to be the type of club that can support the social runner, those looking to run their first 5k, and those that want to compete at the highest levels. It's challenging to be a club that does both well, but let's be the type of club that can do just that.
GO TEAM SSRC!!!!!
Happy Racing!
Jill Chisholm
USATF GP COORDINATOR