? Why the hate? Good for him for trying. Did he disrespect Walmsley ahead of time? No. Afterwards? No. Honestly, I'd love to see more elite American runners transition to trail and ultra races. It's fun to track the transition
Embarrassed? Tipped his hat to Walmsley and had some fun. You should try it some time.
Exactly. Good for him for trying and showing some love in the process. Honestly, if Craig made a full time transition to trails/ultra, I'm here for it. I don't see a future for him in mid-distance events. Why not give it a go? I'm here for more elite american runners to try to make the transition
I figured Engels' contract had expired last year, surprised to see he hasn't thrown in the towel yet. He's one of my favorite distance runners so I'm glad to see that he's still around and appears to be planning on running outdoors this year.
honestly more people like Craig need to make the transition to running the JFK 50, Western etc. He doesn't have a future anymore in mid distance or even distance events. Even if he ran a marathon it would be a disappointing result for him relative to his mid-distance PRs.
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
even the very best ultrarunners have marathon PRs of like 2:20. And they're not necessarily better at ultras because they're bodies are more inclined to it. They've just spent the time and done the races to adapt to the distance. If more marathoners with 2:15 pr or faster made the transition to ultras, they would clean up
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
Yeah but those ultra guys usually have killer TikTok and Insta pages, which automatically makes them great runners and coaches. Oh yeah, and abs. You have to have the abs and the right filters.
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
Yeah but those ultra guys usually have killer TikTok and Insta pages, which automatically makes them great runners and coaches. Oh yeah, and abs. You have to have the abs and the right filters.
agreed lol
but seriously, I'd care more about Craig's running future if he transitioned to ultras. He was very close to making some teams--all that is over, even if he transitioned to the 5k or 10.
Yeah but those ultra guys usually have killer TikTok and Insta pages, which automatically makes them great runners and coaches. Oh yeah, and abs. You have to have the abs and the right filters.
agreed lol
but seriously, I'd care more about Craig's running future if he transitioned to ultras. He was very close to making some teams--all that is over, even if he transitioned to the 5k or 10.
plus Craig's personality of "i'm just here to have fun" would get so much more traction in the ultra world, where it is about having fun but also the people who take it seriously are off-putting tools
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
JFK 50 would be a good course for road/track guys to start out on as it only had 13 miles of single track/3000 ft of vert with the rest being on the CO canal and roads. Comrades Marathon would be interesting too, which is the most competitive road ultra. If we're talking about more mountainous ultras, a Olympic miler or a sub 2:10 marathoner has less chance of being elite in that world than some average D1 xc skier.
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
JFK 50 would be a good course for road/track guys to start out on as it only had 13 miles of single track/3000 ft of vert with the rest being on the CO canal and roads. Comrades Marathon would be interesting too, which is the most competitive road ultra. If we're talking about more mountainous ultras, a Olympic miler or a sub 2:10 marathoner has less chance of being elite in that world than some average D1 xc skier.
JFK 50 would be great for Craig or someone like him.
I agree that very technical trails are a different beast. But if the trails are very well-maintained, even if there is a lot of elevation change, an elite runner could do quite well. Maybe not right away, and maybe not all elite runners would be capable of making the transition, but enough would where it would completely change the game
JFK 50 would be a good course for road/track guys to start out on as it only had 13 miles of single track/3000 ft of vert with the rest being on the CO canal and roads. Comrades Marathon would be interesting too, which is the most competitive road ultra. If we're talking about more mountainous ultras, a Olympic miler or a sub 2:10 marathoner has less chance of being elite in that world than some average D1 xc skier.
JFK 50 would be great for Craig or someone like him.
I agree that very technical trails are a different beast. But if the trails are very well-maintained, even if there is a lot of elevation change, an elite runner could do quite well. Maybe not right away, and maybe not all elite runners would be capable of making the transition, but enough would where it would completely change the game
I mean these days if you're a 2:14 marathoner, you can qualify for the OT, but that's about it. Even if you're 2:12 or 2:10, that doesn't mean much. Imagine if after a few years of running those times and not improving, they transitioned to ultras. They might have more success. They might have more fun. They might make more money. Sounds a lot more fun than fading into oblivion running marathon after marathon and getting smoked
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
Just a heads up if you aren't aware. It's not a dozen runners, but there is one former US miler stud on Engels level (actually 10-5 advantage over Engels head-to-head in their main event) making the transition now. Ben Blankenship has actually really been training hard, trying to be actually competitive unlike most track runners who have made some half-hearted tries at ultra or trails.. He's learning, making progress, and has already finished a 100 miler.
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
Just a heads up if you aren't aware. It's not a dozen runners, but there is one former US miler stud on Engels level (actually 10-5 advantage over Engels head-to-head in their main event) making the transition now. Ben Blankenship has actually really been training hard, trying to be actually competitive unlike most track runners who have made some half-hearted tries at ultra or trails.. He's learning, making progress, and has already finished a 100 miler.
right, I didn't say there were 12 runners doing it, I was just providing a hypothetical.
didn't realize Blankenship made the transition. that's awesome
Just a heads up if you aren't aware. It's not a dozen runners, but there is one former US miler stud on Engels level (actually 10-5 advantage over Engels head-to-head in their main event) making the transition now. Ben Blankenship has actually really been training hard, trying to be actually competitive unlike most track runners who have made some half-hearted tries at ultra or trails.. He's learning, making progress, and has already finished a 100 miler.
right, I didn't say there were 12 runners doing it, I was just providing a hypothetical.
didn't realize Blankenship made the transition. that's awesome
Just a heads up if you aren't aware. It's not a dozen runners, but there is one former US miler stud on Engels level (actually 10-5 advantage over Engels head-to-head in their main event) making the transition now. Ben Blankenship has actually really been training hard, trying to be actually competitive unlike most track runners who have made some half-hearted tries at ultra or trails.. He's learning, making progress, and has already finished a 100 miler.
right, I didn't say there were 12 runners doing it, I was just providing a hypothetical.
didn't realize Blankenship made the transition. that's awesome
Yeah, I thought probably didn't know about Blankenship, so I wanted to point out an individual. There's probably not going to be a project of a dozen track runners all switching together as a team.
If you ignore ultra and talk about sub-ultra trail and mountain running, many of the top US trail and ultra runners are or were pretty good on the track/cross country/road. Christian Allen just ran 2:10 last month. Allie Ostrander made Worlds team on track and cross, Grayson Murphy was top 10 at the Olympic Trials, Lauren Gregory just ran a 1:09 debut, Allie McLaughlin was a star frosh at Colorado, Anna Gibson has run 4:08 1500, etc.
"The Trail Team" has been recruiting decent fresh-out-of-college runners and mentoring them in sub-ultra trail/mountain running (though it looks like maybe they intend people to graduate from them after a year?). That's probably close to the project you would like, but less credentialed and sub-ultra. Christain Allen was with them for a year or so.
even the very best ultrarunners have marathon PRs of like 2:20. And they're not necessarily better at ultras because they're bodies are more inclined to it. They've just spent the time and done the races to adapt to the distance. If more marathoners with 2:15 pr or faster made the transition to ultras, they would clean up
No they won't. We have discussed this here many times. Totally different skill set and any elite marathon runner is probably worn out from 15-20 years of hard training.
I've said before there needs to be some kind of "ultra marathon" project. You get like 12 runners like Craig or Parker Stinson--guys who are very recently retired or close to retiring--guys who are elite or borderline, and try to make the transition to ultras/JFK 50 etc. Would they succeed? Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. It would be fun, though. I'm honestly tired of ultra runners who never did and never would have fast even marathoners promote themselves like theire god's gift to running
Nobody is trying to keep these runners away from ultrarunning. They are all welcome to try it.
Some might succeed on road ultras up to 100k and JFK 50 but most will be probably not very successful in trail ultras especially 100 milers.
But again nobody is holding them back, they can all sign up.