Back in March, iRunFar reported that Pearl Izumi was rumored to be forming an ultrarunning team based on a comment we received. In private conversations at the time, we speculated that the partner would be Smith Sport Optics. Both the rumor and the speculation are confirmed – Team Pearl Izumi – Smith has formed! Read on for more information regarding Team Pearl Izumi-Smith and its stable of ultrarunners. It turns out that the Pearl Izumi-Smith squad formed back in April, so iRunFar isn’t exactly reporting cutting edge news here… except that we didn’t learn of it until yesterday. Had anyone else heard of the team?
Regardless, for 2008, the team consists of four extremely talented runners:
- Paul DeWitt;
- Lisa Smith-Batchen;
- Scott Jaime; and
- Josh Brimhall.
Rumor is that the team will expand slightly in 2009, but remain 10 or fewer runners. While no official announcement has been made regarding the 2009 Pearl Izumi-Smith Team, potential athletes can contact team manager Aric Manning at [email protected]. (As a side note, iRunFar is glad to see that the team is managed by an ultrarunner.)
The team’s website is well laid out and the blog has been frequently updated for the past month, although many of the entries appear to largely mirror those found on the runners’ individual blogs. Most of the blog posts are accounts of the team members’ running adventures. The team intends to expand the scope of the pots going forward. To date, there are few comments on the blog other than those by team members, but iRunFar believes that is due in large part to the word not yet being out about the team or its website. We know we wouldn’t mind plugging into a community that includes the likes of these four.
Team Pearl Izumi-Smith’s sponsors include:
We look forward to hearing more out of Team Pearl Izumi-Smith in the future.
For more information about Ultramarathon Teams and Sponsors check out these iRunFar posts:
