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WHAT IT TAKES

It takes talent, dedication and determination to become a professional runner. Hear about how each HOKA NAZ Elite athlete made it to the highest level in our athlete bios. Learn about endurance training from some of the best long distance runners in the world by reading our training logs page. And follow along as our athletes compete on the national and international stage in everything from cross country, the 1,500 meters to the 10,000 meters on the track and the mile to the marathon on the roads, by keeping up with our results, listening to our podcasts, and watching our videos.

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Thank you for supporting HOKA NAZ Elite

Our athletes have competed all over the globe at some of the sport’s most prestigious track meets, at the world’s biggest road races, at big city marathons, at the World Championships and even the Olympic Games. We couldn’t do any of those things, though, without our amazing local and national sponsors. Your sponsorships support our runners in achieving their goals and dreams by providing the necessary resources that elite athletic development requires. Because of you, our support staff includes world class strength and conditioning coaches, massage therapists, chiropractors, and a mental performance specialist. Thank you so much and we look forward to adding more great partners in the years to come.

It’s almost race day

We love to race! Our roster includes professional track and field athletes, road racers, and marathoners. Some even do a little bit of everything. We compete across all distance running disciplines, all year long. On average we compete more than once a week, having raced more than 600 times since our launch in 2014. Our athletes have won more than 85 races, including 13 national titles and two international medals. They have produced ten World Marathon Major Top Tens, eight World Championship appearances, and won one Olympic Trials Marathon. To see where we’re racing next, view our race schedule and cheer on Flagstaff’s pro running team!

Share the Journey

From the very beginning we have loved sharing the journey with all of you. From blog posts about elite athlete training, to podcasts previewing and recapping our biggest races, to workout videos showcasing our professional runners doing their altitude training in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona, part of our mission has been to bring our fans along for the ride. And to create new fans! We hope that sharing our highs and lows, our lives outside of running, and being our true selves on this website and on social media has endeared us, and will continue to endear us, to endurance sports followers all over the world.

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Team Member of the Month

Paige Wood

Paige is one of the newest members of HOKA NAZ Elite, having joined the team in January of 2023. A graduate of Syracuse University where she was a four-time NCAA All American, she also enjoyed a tremendous amount of success as a young pro–setting personal bests of 9:01.36 (3,000m), 15:16.17 (5,000m), and 31:22.55 (10,000m). Then in December of 2022 she scored a major breakthrough, winning the USATF Marathon Championships in 2:26:02. Her first result as a member of NAZ was a sixth-place finish at the 2023 USATF Half Marathon Championships. She’ll continue her racing season the first Sunday in April when she takes on the Cherry Blossom 10 mile in Washington D.C.–the host for this year’s USATF 10 Mile Championships.

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Behind the Team – Our History.

HOKA NAZ Elite was founded by Ben and Jen Rosario in January of 2014. Our team’s original roster featured nine athletes, four of whom (Ben and Steph Bruce, Scott Smith and Kellyn Taylor) remained on the squad for the next eight years. After winning two National Titles in 2014 and after Kellyn ran a 2:28 debut marathon, the team signed a lucrative title sponsorship deal with HOKA in February of 2015–and they remain our title sponsor to this day. Highlights during our first eight years include the successes of our professional marathon runners–sub 2:10 marathons from Scott Fauble and Scott Smith, a 2:24 marathon from Kellyn, and first, sixth, and eighth-place finishes from Aliphine Tuliamuk, Steph and Kellyn at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon.

As we look toward the future with our new head coach Alan Culpepper at the helm, we aim to produce world class performances across all distances and disciplines while adhering to our longtime motto–train hard, race fearlessly, share the journey. Our mission is to entertain, inspire, and bring joy to runners and non-runners alike.

Every shoe purchased from one of our links sends a percentage of the sale back to the team!

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NAZ Elite Fan Corner

Stay in the loop with NAZ Elite’s newsletter and social media handles.
Subscribe to our newsletter, our podcast, and our YouTube channel, and follow us on social media so you can get to know our athletes as people, get a behind-the-scenes look at our training (and our lives), enjoy our highest highs together, comfort us in our lows, learn from us, be inspired by us (and vice versa), and allow us to hopefully bring a little joy to your lives. We need our fans–we feel your support and you make us better!

FLAGSTAFF: Proud to announce that we're co-hosting a Boston Watch Party with @CoconinoCollege on Monday, April 17th. Doors open at 6:15am. Watch the race on the big screen. Win some @hoka swag. Run with the pros afterward. See you there!! https://t.co/7dX2sfGqz1
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