Posted: April 7, 2005

Athletics: The Impact and Legacy of the Carlsbad 5000

By Ryan Lamppa, Running USA wire

Over the past six years, I have had the pleasure of attending the Carlsbad 5000, the Granddaddy of 5Ks, and without a doubt, the fastest 5K road race in the world. In those six editions, I've witnessed six world records broken or tied including Tirunesh Dibaba's world record tying 14:51 this past Sunday and Sammy Kipketer's amazing back-to-back 13-flats in 2000-01, but Carlsbad is much more than world records and world class fields.

On Sunday, April 3, at the 20th edition of the Carlsbad 5000, thousands of people tested themselves on the world's most famous 5K course - some sought personal records, while others just wanted to finish their first 5K, and later, they watched another superlative elite race culminating with another world record, the 15th overall in race history.

Put simply, the Carlsbad 5000 is something special and it came about by design. In 1986, Tim Murphy, president of Elite Racing, and Steve Scott, U.S. mile record holder and three-time Olympian, saw the potential of the latent 5K to become a "real" distance like the established 10K and marathon and thus, they created the event in the California seaside community north of San Diego.

Before Carlsbad, the 10K was the most popular distance in this country and 5Ks were run in the U.S., but the distance had a low profile and a "fun run" status until Carlsbad put the distance on the map with world records by Steve Scott (13:32) and PattiSue Plumer (15:31) in its inaugural year.

Today, thanks to Carlsbad's jump start in 1986, the 5K - which has universal appeal - is the most popular distance with nearly 3 million finishers compared to 1 millions finishers in the 10K (the second most popular distance in this country).

Along with its trail blazing impact, the Carlsbad 5000, since its inception, also welcomes runners of all abilities and as important, it also celebrates and encourages competition. At Carlsbad, people care about the competitive side of the sport - and not just the elite side. After the race, people scan the hanging age group results lists on Roosevelt Street to see how they placed and how others placed and they know and care who won the elite race.

Annually, no road race in America has such deep and competitive age group fields as Carlsbad as each year produces top age group performances and U.S. single and age group records despite a course which has two 180-degree turns and an uphill second mile.

In sum, Carlsbad is Carlsbad because of its location, its course, its atmosphere and energy, its organizers and its legacy. Kudos to Tim Murphy and the Elite Racing team for creating and maintaining such a marquee road race.

The 2005 Carlsbad 5000 will be broadcast by Fox Sports Net (FSN) on Monday, April 18 at 3:00pm PST. Check your local listings.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services Director
385 Oak View Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93111

(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 967-5958
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.runningusa.org.