A 100 miler offered $15,000 for 1st last weekend. Where does the money come from & when will the Africans start showing up?

If I am not mistaken, Sage Canaday has never finished a 100 miler. He is the perfect example that Marathon speed does not transfer that easily into trail ultras.

I'm talking about the running collectives that race every weekend, and sometimes twice. Plus, they try and beg their way into every race. These trail RDs would probably tell them to take a hike.

Most of the top ten of the men's elite field in UTMB this year would probably be in that low to high 2:20 range for the marathon if they trained for it. You'd probably have a few in that mix who would be in that low to high 2:30 range. Sure you got guys like Jim Walmsley and Tom Evans that are in that sub 2:15 range for the marathon. But they're more of outliers than anything. Look at the pikes peak marathon course record, still held by Matt Carpenter. Whose marathon PB is in the low 2:20 range. What was sage best time on that course? Tom Evans said it in a podcast once that once you get so faster there's not much benefit in getting any faster in these mountainous ultras. I'm not denying that speed doesn't help, but there's a point of diminishing returns where getting any faster than won't benefit you anymore for mountainous ultras compared to working on other aspects. This is probably for several reasons. One is the specialization and body type it takes to get a really fast marathon time vs winning a mountainous ultra. But to say ultras aren't deep because there are no sub 2:05 Kenyans competing in them is just ignorant. Look at comrades, a runnable 54 mile road ultra with prize money. Still whenever a sub 2:10 Kenyan lines up in that race. Most of the Kenyans DNF by mile 30. If they can't even win at comrades what makes you think that if a sub 2:05 Kenyan wanted to and focus on it for a few years they would crush these mountain ultras just based on their marathon PB? It's like calling speed skating or cross country skiing uncompetitive because the dudes winning are white.

Anthony Costales has run 2:13:13 in the marathon. He has also won Black Canyon 100k, The Canyons 100k, 2nd at Run Rabbit Run, and 3rd at Western States.

Javelina Jundred has approximately 1,000 entrants at an avg of $400 per entry. That is $400,000 with NO prize money being offered. Where does all that money go?

Into the pockets of a "selfless" race director.
Things have changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. RD learned to milk the heck out of the system.

No better example than this. 2:13 marathoner Anthony Costales was relegated to “Hobby Jogger” status at the very race we’re talking about. Averaging 11:13 per mile and getting smoked by nearly 40 minutes it’s what’s consider a non technical/non competitive race. Solid!

Nice find.

This was the 2021 race, were a 2:13 Marathoner was beaten by a 38 year old Dave Stevens from BC.

I don't get how Sage's 100 mile results are so sh*t. Like I understand that every pro ultrarunner has their weaker events but how do you suck so bad at the grandaddy of ultra distances as a sponsored pro?

Here in Houston there is a hobby-ultrarunner who literally started running 6 years ago from zero and has finished 30+ 100-milers, several under 20 hours, and probably 9-10 200+ milers including the HK 4 Trails Marathon which is considered one of the absolute hardest ultra races in the world. And he works a full time management job and has like 4 kids. He'd probably be a monster if ultrarunning was his full-time job. Sage should take advice from this guy.

I just found this gem.

Like those dance til you drop contests from the depression years