Before we add the 24 hour run, we should do a test run to see how big of a TV draw, a few hours of watching paint dry would be.
The difference is the level of suffering. That is the sick fascination of something like that.
Have you read the Steven King (alias Richard Bachman) book called The Long Walk? It is about a race where they kill the people who can't maintain a 15 minute mile. The last athlete running wins. In the story, the whole nation was following the event as it progressed! I know that it is fiction, but it speaks to our human nature.
You're just reinventing the last person standing race-- 4.1667 miles starting every hour on the hour. This would be a great addition to the olympics, and show a very different type of running (I think Finn Melanson has proposed this). I would also love to see a real trail 100 miler, showing off the natural landscape of the host country. But a real point to point or single loop, not some random loop you run 20 times. Lots of people watch western states and UTMB, with the olympic name and the international audience it would bring, especially of normal people who aren't watching ultras, theres no reason it can't be successful.
The LA28 schedule includes the Olympic debuts of the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly for both men and women, and a mixed 4x100m relay on the track.
Road Ekiden (men's and women's, not mixed), and the rule is that every athlete in the Ekiden cannot be competing in any other Olympic event
or instea of road Ekiden, cross country, 5 miles or 8 km for both men's and women's. every athlete cannot be competing in any other olympic event. Individual and team medals
I like the idea of a 24 hour run because, as someone already pointed out, it's about the drama, not the speed. Set it up as a backyard ultra style race in a park. You wouldn't watch all 24 hours, you would edit it down and focus on the suffering and strategies (food, hydration, recovery, pace). Plus, the pace is more approachable for weekend warrior runners, and that makes it more relatable.
Cross country and/or some sort of trail run would be my top choice, though. Teams, not individual.
For spectacle, I've always loved watching the high hurdle shuttle relay. It's quick to run and has high drama. US is deep, so we would be among the favorites for a medal.
You guys love your ultras, but it’s far more niche than T&F. I don’t think one has ever been televised in the U.S. but you want it to skip all the to being an Olympic sport? Before that happens, it needs to prove it can draw an audience on network T.V. or a local station. The average distance, or sports fan, couldn’t care less about fueling, hydration, recovery or pace.
Why would you want XC to be team only? Other than a relay we used to run, I’ve never heard of team only XC.
I’ve seen a few shuttle relays and I wanted them to end quickly so I could watch the next distance race. I didn’t care who won or what the winning time was.
Have you ever seen kyakcross on TV in the US outside the Olympics? Or anywhere else for that matter? Who wants to pay for cable? Youtube live streams are the new TV
I like the idea of a 24 hour run because, as someone already pointed out, it's about the drama, not the speed. Set it up as a backyard ultra style race in a park. You wouldn't watch all 24 hours, you would edit it down and focus on the suffering and strategies (food, hydration, recovery, pace). Plus, the pace is more approachable for weekend warrior runners, and that makes it more relatable.
Cross country and/or some sort of trail run would be my top choice, though. Teams, not individual.
For spectacle, I've always loved watching the high hurdle shuttle relay. It's quick to run and has high drama. US is deep, so we would be among the favorites for a medal.
You guys love your ultras, but it’s far more niche than T&F. I don’t think one has ever been televised in the U.S. but you want it to skip all the to being an Olympic sport? Before that happens, it needs to prove it can draw an audience on network T.V. or a local station. The average distance, or sports fan, couldn’t care less about fueling, hydration, recovery or pace.
Why would you want XC to be team only? Other than a relay we used to run, I’ve never heard of team only XC.
I’ve seen a few shuttle relays and I wanted them to end quickly so I could watch the next distance race. I didn’t care who won or what the winning time was.
For XC, I just meant that you have to enter a team and compete on a team. You can't compete without a team. Medals for individuals and teams.
Ultras are niche for sure. But I'm thinking coverage would be like the old-school network coverage of the Ironman races. Suffering is compelling, and you're not getting through a 24-hour race without some drama. Let your imagination go a little. Think "amazing race" kind of coverage. I'm not talking about geeking out on nutrition, etc. Do some pre-race background "human interest" packages on the top competitors and have them go through their plan, then when they crash out, you can come back to "Maybe Dave should've eaten the turkey sandwich at mile 30 instead of the jelly beans". Antonio's feet are bloody from blisters; he should've gone with the sock change earlier. I don't know - people watch NASCAR because of the crashes, pit stops, and fueling strategy. This would be at least as interesting as cars driving in circles.
When they are 20 hours in and "running" (power walking) up a hill at 16 min/mile pace, you can pull out the "go down to your local track and try to run a lap in 4 minutes" shtick.
The DMR is a terrible event. No relay with an anchor leg longer than 400m is good. The anchors are incentivized to run tactically below their capacity because running at max speed favors the chasers too much, and that invalidates what the previous legs have done.
I don’t want to add a 3k. 3k is a good event but adding it to the Olympic schedule would inevitably impact the competitive depth of the 1500 and 5k. The 1500/5k medalists doubling up and medaling in the 3k would be predictable; alternatively, if they didn’t double back or it wasn’t possible with scheduling and we got like, Dominic Lobalu as the 3k champ, everyone would say “So what, it was missing the best guys.”
I like a mixed-gender Ekiden.
I like 4x800 or DMR. 4x800 is probably better.
I like 10k cross country.
I like a 120k-150k ultra (exact distance left to host’s discretion based on the course they design). Obviously, any mainstream channel wouldn’t cover it in full, but rather give 2-minute updates with a live look-in and/or replay of key moments (dude passes leader, dude trips over a branch, woman ducks into some shrubs to relieve herself). By the last 30 minutes of the event you’d probably have piqued a lot of people’s interest throughout the day. The appeal of this event harkens back to the appeal of the marathon in the early days, before the athletes were well prepared and everything was optimized. Obviously, the modern ultra runners wouldn’t be fueling with brandy and strychnine, but it becomes a real war of attrition, battle against the course and the elements, 100% contest of endurance and will.
I don’t want to add a 3k. 3k is a good event but adding it to the Olympic schedule would inevitably impact the competitive depth of the 1500 and 5k. The 1500/5k medalists doubling up and medaling in the 3k would be predictable; alternatively, if they didn’t double back or it wasn’t possible with scheduling and we got like, Dominic Lobalu as the 3k champ, everyone would say “So what, it was missing the best guys.”
I like a mixed-gender Ekiden.
I like 4x800 or DMR. 4x800 is probably better.
I like 10k cross country.
I like a 120k-150k ultra (exact distance left to host’s discretion based on the course they design). Obviously, any mainstream channel wouldn’t cover it in full, but rather give 2-minute updates with a live look-in and/or replay of key moments (dude passes leader, dude trips over a branch, woman ducks into some shrubs to relieve herself). By the last 30 minutes of the event you’d probably have piqued a lot of people’s interest throughout the day. The appeal of this event harkens back to the appeal of the marathon in the early days, before the athletes were well prepared and everything was optimized. Obviously, the modern ultra runners wouldn’t be fueling with brandy and strychnine, but it becomes a real war of attrition, battle against the course and the elements, 100% contest of endurance and will.
Don’t ask me to narrow from 4 to 3 please.
no mixed-gender. why? just do men's and women's
okay, no 3k
yes, choose either 4 x 800 or DMR, both men's and women's, none of this mixed BS
and yes for cross country. Team xc with medals for teams and individuals.
You guys love your ultras, but it’s far more niche than T&F. I don’t think one has ever been televised in the U.S. but you want it to skip all the to being an Olympic sport? Before that happens, it needs to prove it can draw an audience on network T.V. or a local station. The average distance, or sports fan, couldn’t care less about fueling, hydration, recovery or pace.
Why would you want XC to be team only? Other than a relay we used to run, I’ve never heard of team only XC.
I’ve seen a few shuttle relays and I wanted them to end quickly so I could watch the next distance race. I didn’t care who won or what the winning time was.
For XC, I just meant that you have to enter a team and compete on a team. You can't compete without a team. Medals for individuals and teams.
Ultras are niche for sure. But I'm thinking coverage would be like the old-school network coverage of the Ironman races. Suffering is compelling, and you're not getting through a 24-hour race without some drama. Let your imagination go a little. Think "amazing race" kind of coverage. I'm not talking about geeking out on nutrition, etc. Do some pre-race background "human interest" packages on the top competitors and have them go through their plan, then when they crash out, you can come back to "Maybe Dave should've eaten the turkey sandwich at mile 30 instead of the jelly beans". Antonio's feet are bloody from blisters; he should've gone with the sock change earlier. I don't know - people watch NASCAR because of the crashes, pit stops, and fueling strategy. This would be at least as interesting as cars driving in circles.
When they are 20 hours in and "running" (power walking) up a hill at 16 min/mile pace, you can pull out the "go down to your local track and try to run a lap in 4 minutes" shtick.
Yeah, brain fart on my part. Kenya and Ethiopia have a lot of depth, but the U.S., minus its 5/10 guys on the track, won’t match up at all. The race would effectively be an Ethiopian/Kenya dual meet.
Your love for ultra running is clouding your opinion. I’ve been a distance running fan for many years and nothing you described about a 24-hour race interests me.
You’re comparing ultras to NASCAR, but NASCAR averages 2.8M viewers per race while ultras have never had a viewer.
I will always always bang this drum, but XC team scoring to the marathon. Have a team race along with the individual race, countries with top finishers by XC scoring also medal.
The difference is the level of suffering. That is the sick fascination of something like that.
Have you read the Steven King (alias Richard Bachman) book called The Long Walk? It is about a race where they kill the people who can't maintain a 15 minute mile. The last athlete running wins. In the story, the whole nation was following the event as it progressed! I know that it is fiction, but it speaks to our human nature.
You're just reinventing the last person standing race-- 4.1667 miles starting every hour on the hour. This would be a great addition to the olympics, and show a very different type of running (I think Finn Melanson has proposed this). I would also love to see a real trail 100 miler, showing off the natural landscape of the host country. But a real point to point or single loop, not some random loop you run 20 times. Lots of people watch western states and UTMB, with the olympic name and the international audience it would bring, especially of normal people who aren't watching ultras, theres no reason it can't be successful.
How do lots of people watch WS 100? It’s point to point on a trail, and it must be difficult to watch the leaders go by, more than a couple of times.
Again, the sport needs to prove itself before it becomes an Olympic sport.
I would love to see a 3k as well. I think that would be a great race, and we would see a lot of doubles.
Still, XC scoring to the marathon would be the most interesting addition for me. If we're being honest with ourselves, it's not track and field that's growing. No only in the US but worldwide, it's road racing that's growing, and marathoning specifically. A team competition would engage marathon fans of all the big nations, the US, China, Japan, Germany, France, GBR, Italy, etc. It would keep them engaged even when usually the medals just go to a couple African nations. And it wouldn't even require setting up a separate event logistically.
I would love to see a 3k as well. I think that would be a great race, and we would see a lot of doubles.
Still, XC scoring to the marathon would be the most interesting addition for me. If we're being honest with ourselves, it's not track and field that's growing. No only in the US but worldwide, it's road racing that's growing, and marathoning specifically. A team competition would engage marathon fans of all the big nations, the US, China, Japan, Germany, France, GBR, Italy, etc. It would keep them engaged even when usually the medals just go to a couple African nations. And it wouldn't even require setting up a separate event logistically.
team competition for the marathon would be very interesting. Double the number of entrants from each country, from 3 to 6. So you have a team of 6 for each country, team and individual medals
why not? would certainly make it more entertaining and more competitive