Across the Years

Beautiful Nardini Manor, located in Litchfield Park, AZ,
owned and operated by Rodger Wrublik, is presenting the
twenty-third running of the popular multi-day ultramarathon
"Across the Years", from 9:00am December 29, 2005, until
9:00am January 1, 2006. Paul Bonnett is race director.
Across the Years consists of three races, one each of
duration 72, 48, and 24 hours, starting on December 29th,
30th, and 31st respectively, with all races running their
final day and ending simultaneously.

All three races include the last day of the calendar year
and continue through midnight on New Year's Eve. Thus
runners run "across the years," and also across whatever
other time markers happen to apply. In 1999 we hosted a
six-day race to celebrate the incoming of the new decade,
century, and millennium.

Runners have traveled from most states in the US to
participate in ATY. Runners from Brazil, Canada, England
Germany, Greece Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Scotland,
South Africa, Venezuela, Wales, and Yugoslavia have also
run or are running this year.

The object in fixed-time racing is to go as far as possible
in the time allotted. Distance is measured by counting laps
run on a loop course, in this case, a track built around
Nardini Manor by Rodger Wrublik explicitly for this race.
The length of a single lap at Nardini Manor has been
officially certified as 500 meters by USA Track & Field, the
national governing body for track and field, long-distance
running, and race walking in the United States.

Many elite athletes have participated in Across the Years,
including numerous holders of national and world records in
the sport of ultrarunning. In years past, records have been
set at this event. In 2003, John Geesler set a US national
48-hour record by running exactly 400 meters (248.55 miles).
In 2004, he ran 300.122 miles in the 72-hour race. Geesler
will be returning to this year's race to run the 72-hour
race, in which he hopes to run 350 miles.

Geesler will have stiff competition, as this year the race
is honored to feature the participation of Yiannis Kouros,
widely heralded as the greatest distance runner in history.
In November of this year, Kouros re-set the six-day world
record, in the process passing 368 miles at the 72-hour
point. His goal at Across the Years is to set a world record
for 300 miles and then coast the rest of the race.

Guests are invited to drop by as observers and to cheer on
the athletes, any time of day or night during the running of
Across the Years. Web visitors will be able to enjoy seeing
the race via webcam, and will be able to view regular
results updates throughout the race.

To find out more about the race, please visit our Web site
at http://acrosstheyears.com or send email to
webmaster@acrosstheyears.com.

by LynnDavid Newton