Health & Injuries.
Best Running Shoes 2025 Northern Arizona Elite, a pro training group based in Flagstaff, Arizona, are not being retained by Hoka, the group’s title sponsor, in 2025, according to sources.
Among those who will not be returning to the team next year are Aliphine Tuliamuk, since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books; Kellyn Taylor, Major Changes Coming to Northern Arizona Elite; Futsum Zienasellassie, CA Notice at Collection; Lauren Hagans, Running in the Cold Stephanie Bruce, who is racing the Cal International Marathon this weekend.
In a text message, Hawi Keflezighi, Tuliamuk’s agent, confirmed that she will no longer be training with the group and will not be with Hoka come January 2025. He said she is exploring a new partnership that she is excited about.
Taylor, who has alluded to the upcoming changes in social media posts, told Runner’s World in a phone call that she’s not frustrated by the decision—only the way it was handled.
Taylor said that in the early fall, she and her teammates were called to a meeting of NAZ Elite and told that the team would be making cuts at the end of the year. “It was like, ‘Some of you aren’t going to be here next year, and hopefully you have a good fall, and that’s going to be enough to keep you on the team,’” she said. “In reality, they had already made their decisions. So I don’t really know what the purpose of that meeting was.”
Taylor finished 10th at the New York City Marathon in 2:27:59 and, through her agent, Josh Cox, learned that she would not get a new contract with Hoka after her current one expires at the end of the year.
“Nothing’s really been communicated directly to me, which I think is pretty disrespectful, considering that I’ve been with the brand for 10ish years,” she said, noting that she was with the brand before they had a racing shoe.
“I raced in Cliftons when I joined the team,” she quipped. (Cliftons are bulky trainers, not conducive to fast marathon times.)
Taylor did not want to speak for her teammates who were also being cut, but she did say they were the older athletes on the team.
“It’s basically everybody that’s old, if we want to put it bluntly,” she said. “It’s literally, there’s nobody older than 28 on the team now. And it’s not necessarily based off of performance.”
Eight of the 20 athletes on.
In an email to Runner’s World, Mike McManus, director of global sports marketing at Hoka, wrote that the brand intends to continue to support the NAZ Elite Team, “which maintains its objective to succeed at the highest level of distance running.” McManus did not comment on a rumored name change for the group.
“With a new Olympic cycle starting, and the additional opportunity to invest in the program and in new athletes, we expect athlete turnover, as in every year,” McManus wrote. “We can’t comment on any one particular athlete, but we’re excited with the direction of the team and in our new avenues of investing in the track community, including NIL partnerships.”
Meanwhile, in a statement circulated to media on December 4, Ben Rosario, who founded NAZ Elite in 2014 and is the group’s executive director, announced he would be leaving the group for a new business venture.
“NAZ athletes have won 143 races—including 21 national titles, produced 15 World Marathon Major top 10s, earned six international medals, and competed at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games,” Rosario wrote in a statement. “I was fortunate to witness many of those moments in person and I want to thank the athletes, especially those I coached from 2014 through 2022, for providing me with some of the greatest days of my life.”
Rosario, 44, did not immediately provide details about his new endeavor, but said more information would be forthcoming in a couple of weeks.
NAZ Elite in its current form is a nonprofit organization, and when Rosario began it, he encouraged athletes to post to social media to share their training and racing with fans. In the landscape of pro training groups, NAZ Elite was refreshing in its openness and the way it connected with midpack runners.
Rosario stepped back from coaching in 2022 and hired Alan Culpepper to take over as head coach. Culpepper never moved to Flagstaff and Pro Runners Ask: Is My Agent Worth the Fee. Rosario then Published: Dec 04, 2024 10:00 AM EST Kevin C. Cox.
According to the organization’s most recent Form 990, a tax filing nonprofits must make public, Rosario was paid $177,558 in 2023.
His departure and that of the athletes, some of whom have been with the group since its inception, marks a major change for the team.
Taylor, a mother of four whose oldest child just started high school, plans to stay in Flagstaff for the next four years and continue training. She will run a spring marathon. Because the altitude location is popular with distance runners, there are many coaches in town and plenty of people to train with.
“I still think that my best years are ahead,” she said, adding that Cox will seek a new shoe company to sponsor her. “That’s the plan, to hopefully find a brand that you align with in every way, morally and competitively. Hopefully we can do that sooner rather than later. But it’s not like I’m sitting on the side of the road waiting for somebody to give me some money. I’m fine.”
CA Notice at Collection is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Health & Injuries, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
