This Runner Conquered the Leadville 100 ... in Jeans Published: Jul 11, 2023 10:02 PM EDT Super Shoe Trends.
The news comes just three days after NAZ Elite team member Krissy Gear won the U.S. title in the steeplechase with a blazing kick over 10-time national champion Emma Coburn.
For NAZ Elite, Gear’s title was the highest profile moment since Aliphine Tuliamuk won the Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2020.
Jenna Wrieden, the assistant coach, has been named the interim head coach while the club conducts a search for a new head coach.
NAZ Elite and Head Coach Alan Culpepper Part Ways Runner’s World seeking comment. NAZ Elite executive director Ben Rosario did not comment beyond confirming that Wrieden was named the interim head coach and clarifying that she will travel with Gear to Budapest, Hungary, for the World Championships in August.
A source close to the club told Runner’s World that the team had expected Culpepper to move to Flagstaff, Arizona, where the team is based. He never made the move, instead commuting from Boulder, Colorado, where he lives with his wife and sons.
Culpepper’s bio has been removed from the team website, but a previous version read, “The Culpeppers will be moving to Flagstaff in the summer of 2022 as Alan begins his journey with HOKA NAZ Elite.”
Culpepper’s hiring was announced on May 19, 2022, with a press conference over Zoom featuring Rosario, Culpepper, and Mike McManus, Hoka’s Director of Global Sports Marketing. Hoka is the primary sponsor of the team.
McManus and Culpepper had been connected since Culpepper’s competitive days. Unlike the hiring of Wrieden, which came after a public search, the job Culpepper held was never posted.
Culpepper was a two-time Olympian in 2000 and 2004, who coached himself, but he didn’t have much formal coaching experience before he got the NAZ post. He coached his son Cruz at the high school level and served one year as the director of operations and the assistant cross country and track and field coach for the University of Texas at El Paso.
The news comes just three days after NAZ Elite team member his bio remains on the team’s website.
In Follow Your Heart: The Story of Stephanie Bruce’s Not-So-Final Season written by Bruce and Rosario and published in 2023, Rosario recounts the hiring of Culpepper after a Zoom call. “I remember that Zoom call well,” Rosario wrote. “And what I remember was one line above all others. At one point, unsolicited and in the course of conversation, Alan said, ‘If you guys hire me you’re going to look like geniuses.’”
The Mind-Boggling Stats of the 2025 Leadville 100 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 since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
