Athlete Sponsorship
Club Northwest offers two support categories for elite and aspiring elite athletes:
Performance-standard-based funding: For athletes competing or seeking to compete on an elite or developmental level - including in Olympic Trials and National/International Championships, elite fields of major marathons, and other elite-level road, track, and cross country races. Support includes competition funding and stipends.
Brooks High Performance Athletes: For athletes pursuing high performance goals in road, track, and cross country races, up to but not necessarily elite level competition, and/or athletes who have made significant team contributions to Club Northwest (such as volunteering). Support includes twenty gear packages generously provided by Brooks Running, including shoes, apparel, and accessories for 20 qualified Club Northwest athletes per year. Team selected in January.
Elite Competition Funding
Club Northwest has funds available for Club members seeking financial assistance to compete in events that help them reach their high-performance goals.
ELigibility
Club Northwest funding is for those members who are devoted to racing exclusively for the club. To be eligible for funding, you must have represented the club for at least one year before the first event for which you receive funding. To “represent the club”, you must satisfy all of the following:
Be a member of Club Northwest.
Run every race in the club uniform (orange top with the CNW logo) whether or not you receive funding for it. This includes any organized race in which you participate, including informal events such as parkruns.
List your affiliation as Club Northwest for every race that allows statement of affiliation. If a USATF member you must also be affiliated with Club Northwest.
For 2024 eligibility, you must be available to run for Club Northwest at the National Club Cross Country meet that our club is hosting in December, 2024. Availability includes running no marathon after October 13, 2024 so athletes have time to recover to compete at a high level at the meet.
The year begins from the first race you run representing the club, and you must continue to represent the club at every race while being funded. If you fail to do so for any race, you must start over and represent the club continuously for a year before becoming eligible for further funding.
If you have special circumstances (such as outside sponsorship), please discuss this with the teams committee.
SERVICE
Beginning 2023, funded athletes must provide service to the club before receiving funding. Details are on the volunteer page and a summary follows. Note that SU stands for “service unit” and represents about 2-3 hours of work; the general rule is 1 SU required for each $500 of club funding.
B: 1 SU
A: 2 SU
A+ Road: 3 SU
A+ Track: 5 SU
Brooks High Performance Athletes: 2 SU
Masters funding (see below), since it is at a lower amount, only requires 1 SU for either A or B funding. Note that Brooks gear package recipients who also receive A+/A/B funding must satisfy the SU requirements for both.
Service requirements must be met before funding is given. So Brooks athletes must satisfy the 2 SU requirement by the time they apply for the gear package in January. For A+/A/B athletes, funding may be approved before the service requirement is met but reimbursement will not be made until the after the requirement is met. Partial funding may be provided if part of the SU requirement has been met to that point, at a rate of $500 per SU satisfied.
MEETING THE PERFORMANCe STandards
You must have met the standard within 2 years of the race for which you are requesting funding. The performance must be run at an organized race (no time trials) on either a track or USATF/AIMS certified road course that was set up correctly on race day. Net elevation drop can be no more than 1m/km (the Boston Marathon and California International Marathon are also allowed). Timing must be fully electronic, either chip timed (for road races) or FAT (for track races). Net chip time is allowed for road races.
For A/B funding the standard must have been met by a race at most half or double the distance of the race for which funding is sought (10k times can be used for a half marathon and vice-versa). Athletes who meet the A+ standard (either track or road) may receive funding for any distance race.
You can receive funding for the highest level you achieve within a calendar year, and can get funding for the race at which you achieve a standard. Note that if you hit the A+ track standard mid-year you should discuss this situation with the teams committee.
See the table below for the current performance standards. 3200 <> 3000 <> 2-mile performance conversions are also valid via the latest World Athletics points tables.
FUNDING LEVELS
The funding level is dependent upon a performance standard achieved (see table below). Note that A+/A/B funded athletes may not request additional funding from the Marathon Program but can be a member of the Brooks Elite team.
A+ track standard: Up to $2,500 over one year. Along with meeting the standard, the athlete must submit a year-long plan before the start of the year. The major component of this plan is expected to be steps toward qualification to race in at least one national/international level track championship.
A+ road standard. Up to $1,500 over one year. This amount may be distributed among any number of events subject to teams committee approval.
A standard: Up to $500/event, 2 events per year
B standard: Up to $250/event, 2 events per year
ELITE MASTERS FUNDING
Beginning 2023, we will also fund our top masters (40+) runners who satisfy all requirements above (including the open B level service requirement) and meet the performance standards through age-grading. Only A and B funding are provided and the level of support is lower. We will use the WMA 2023 age factors to determine if you meet the standard. You can only use races for which age factors are available (note that there are separate factors for 10,000m track and 10k road races, but no separate factors for 5k road races, so for a 5k road race use the 5000m factors).
To use the age factors, convert your race time to seconds, look up the factor for your sex and age in the WMA table, and multiply the two numbers. The result is the corresponding “open” time in seconds which can be compared to the club standards. You may find using an online calculator to be helpful.
Masters funding levels:
A standard: Up to $250/event, 2 events per year
B standard: Up to $125/event, 2 events per year
EXPENSES and reimbursement
We pay actual cost for race fees, transportation, hotels (up to 2 nights) and reasonable food expenses up to the event maximum. You are expected to provide a budget that must be approved before you travel to the race. You must also submit receipts for all items after the race.
Note that all funding is subject to club budgetary constraints.
To apply for A+ funding, directly email VP of teams Steve Heaps.
To apply for A/B funding, click the button below and fill out the form for approval before your race. If you have any questions, please feel free to email VP of teams Steve Heaps. Please email him as well once you have completed the form so that we know to look for it.
Brooks High Performance Athletes
In January/February 2024, Club Northwest will award gear packages supplied by Brooks to 16 athletes. The package includes any seven pairs of shoes and any three apparel items (athlete’s choice) found on the Brooks website. Athletes receiving a Brooks gear package must race in Brooks shoes and the CNW uniform (orange top with prominent CNW logo) at every event they attend in 2024. Athletes must also meet a service requirement (see the “Service” section above) before being accepted. For 2024 with CNW hosting the USATF National Club Cross Country meet in December, commitment to volunteering in support of this event will be strongly considered when awarding this year’s gear package. It is highly encouraged (but not required) that package receivers try to attend CNW practice, team races, and important local races to further develop team cohesion.
Note that for 2024 eligibility, you must be available to run for Club Northwest at the National Club Cross Country meet that our club is hosting in December, 2024. Availability includes running no marathon after October 13, 2024 so athletes have time to recover to compete at a high level at the meet.
To apply, download the application below and email it to Teams VP Steve Heaps by January 19, 2024.
Thank you to Brooks for continuing to support Club Northwest with these packages.