February 15, 2006 NATIONAL 24-HOUR RUN TEAM HEADS TO TAIWAN FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP  The fourth annual World 24-Hour Run will be conducted by the  International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) the weekend of  February 25-26, 2006 in Taipei, Taiwan.  The U.S. national contingent will be one of the strongest ever in the  four year history of the event.  The Americans include:  MEN:  Rudy Afandador, 47, Medford, NY  Scott Eppelman, 39, Coppell, TX  John Geesler, 47, St. Johnsville, NY  Roy Pirrung, 57, Sheboygan, WI  Danny Ripka, 48, Minneapolis, MN/Naples, FL  Alex Swenson, 41, Vashon, WA  WOMEN:  Laura Nelson, 40, Woodstock, VA  Sue Olsen, 48, Burnsville, MN  Sandy Powell, 48, Greenville, VA  Pam Reed, 45, Tucson, AZ  Five of the six American men on the national team have run over 140  miles, and all have World 24-Hour racing experience.  Eppelman and  three-time national champ Geesler have been the top Americans at  previous editions of this all-day, all-night global crucible of non- stop running.  But on recent form, the men are so evenly matched that  any of the six could be among the three American scorers, and in any  order.  The best team showing for the men occurred in the 2004 World  event in Brno, The Czech Republic, where Eppelman led the Americans  to a fourth place finish.  Pirrung continues as athlete/manager, a  role he has played all four years of the World event, and each year  the 57-year old continues to break his own record as the "most  senior" athlete ever to participate on an open national team.  Only  three months ago Pirrung finished second overall in the open National  24-Hour Run Championship.  Reed and Powell are the likely leaders of the women's squad, which  has won the bronze team medals in both the 2004 and 2005 World  events.  Reed is the current American Record holder for the 24-hour  track run and recently won her second national 24-hour title.  Powell  was the top American, finishing 6th, in last year's World 24-Hour in  Worschach, Austria.  Olsen was also a scorer on that team.  Laura  Nelson, a relative speedster as a recent veteran of the national  100km squad, brings the fastest set of distaff legs to the team,  having only moved up to the 24-hour event during the past year.  Results of the World 24-Hour will be posted on the website of the  American Ultrarunning Association (www.americanultra.com), which  organizes and manages the national team.  This year's National 24-Hour Run Team is sponsored by Recover-Ease, a  new endurance athlete recovery supplement (www.recover-ease.com).