Did Wesley Korir Start 5 Minutes Back and Run 2:13

Has anyone else noticed that every post in this thread says pretty much the exact same thing?

I am just surprised that Korir wasn't with the elites. He seems like he had a pretty good collegiate career and I would have guessed before the race that he would beat the Hanson guy.

seinfeld - the hot tubhaha yeh there was a seinfeld episode where the plot was centered around an elite marathoner from Trinidad and Tobago. let me think what else happened during that episode...Jean Paul (the marothoner) was supposed to stay with elaine, but stays with jerry in his appt. the power goes off in the building because kramer overtaxes the electrical grid from use of an industrial grade heat pump, as he has quite rationally installed a hot tub in the middle of his room.here is the link to the video: quality sucks, but loads real fast.http://www.surfthechannel.com/info/television/Seinfeld/67229/S7E5.html?aid=264635

Hot Coffee wrote:

Wasn't that a Seinfeld Episode?

Rojo says:

"This year a guy in the regular field runs a good race and may or may not get prize money. It's not the end of the world. He clearly must not have been concerned with the prize money if he ran the race despite not being given an elite start. Clearly, he knew he'd be starting 5 minutes back and the odds of him getting in the top 5 in that field were very, very small.

Under the rules, he doesn't deserve it. It's very clear. Read the IAAF explanation. "

_________

I agree with a lot of your points about the race being well organized and the race director doing a lot of good. As I understand it, he's decided to pay Korir, which is another example.

But the IAAF explanation is not "very clear". It goes on about chip times and gun times, as if that distinction would rule Korir out of the money. That is not correct. By either his chip time or his gun time, Korir ran 4th fastest on the day.

And how on earth would his decision to race despite not getting an elite start prove that he "isn't concerned" about being denied $15,000 that his PERFORMANCE merits? Maybe his thinking went like this: "I know I am ready to run a good time. Not being allowed to start in the first wave is a disadvantage, but I will just have to do my own pacemaking."

The most I've ever won in a race is $2000. Winning the money was not my primary reason for running that race, but I would have been severely pissed off if I had been denied it because of some after the fact explanation about which wave I started in.

There's no honor in taking the prize money when you get outrun. Protecting the runners who are offered the advantage of the elite start from the other runners is contrary to the basic principle of having a race. Whoever runs fastest wins.

Did the USA men who finished 2-5 also start 5 min. later (as part of the Top 100) and thus denied the American-only money (for not starting with the elites)?

Pinkowski agrees with you guys and something will be altered next year. He also paid all of the top 5 the correct amount of money per the rules. He also paid Wesley because he agrees with you. WHAT IN THE HELL ELSE SHOULD BE DONE AT THIS POINT?

questionn wrote:

Did the USA men who finished 2-5 also start 5 min. later (as part of the Top 100) and thus denied the American-only money (for not starting with the elites)?

EVERYONE WILL BE PAID. This has been asked and answered. Find something else to cry about. This thread should be over.

As I stated before, everyone is just posting their ideas like they are original. Read 1 page of the thread people! All your ideas have already been stated!!!!

Here is the deally wrote:

EVERYONE WILL BE PAID. This has been asked and answered. Find something else to cry about. This thread should be over.

what?!?! wrote:

As I stated before, everyone is just posting their ideas like they are original. Read 1 page of the thread people! All your ideas have already been stated!!!!

Ironic that your posting your "idea" multiple times that everyone else is posting their ideas multiple times. LOL!

Here is the deally wrote:

Pinkowski agrees with you guys and something will be altered next year. He also paid all of the top 5 the correct amount of money per the rules. He also paid Wesley because he agrees with you. WHAT IN THE HELL ELSE SHOULD BE DONE AT THIS POINT?

Chill, dude. Most of us were reacting to rojo's illogical post and link to the IAAF article, which had nothing to do with Korir's situation. It's great news that Pinkowski will pay everyone appropriately.

I hope the separate starts are gone forever.

From there wrote:

It was a nothing race. It was the great runners you mentioned and about a thousand others. It didn't bring millions to the local economy. It wasn't mentioned in the same breath with Boston, London and New York until Carey arrived.

Since when is a great race determined by the amount of money that it brings to the local economy? Do you really consider a 40,000-participant jogathon to be a greater race than a marathon with a field of world-class runners? Was Fukuoka a "nothing race" because it just had a bunch of fast runners, whereas the Marine Corps Marathon was a great race because it had a big parade of participants?

As for your assertion that the Chicago marathon "wasn't mentioned in the same breath with Boston, London and New York until Carey arrived," you simply haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. In the mid-1980s, Chicago was the premier marathon in the WORLD (excluding the 1984 Olympic marathon). The 1984 and 1985 Chicago marathon fields were unmatched by the fields of any other marathons in the world outside of the Olympics, while the Boston marathon had only one runner in each of those years (Geoff Smith) who was even remotely near international caliber. Bill Burke, not Carey Pinkowski, was the race director for the Chicago marathon back then. Although Khalid Khannouchi's performances many years later brought back some attention to the Chicago marathon after a string of unspectacular fields and winning times, the race under Carey Pinkowski has never achieved the preeminence that it achieved in the marathoning world under Bill Burke.

That, by the way, is no slight against Pinkowski. I know that the race has had sponsorship problems over the years, while races in other countries (and even the Boston marathon after 1985) have had some solid sponsorship money to throw into their elite athlete programs. Moreover, although Bill Burke put together the best marathon fields anywhere outside the Olympics, the race sponsors didn't necessarily profit from that. Furthermore, the competition for top fields has probably gotten tougher over the years, with world-class marathoners opting for big paydays by running races and time-trials in places like Berlin and even Dubai. But anyone who was a serious marathoner in the mid-1980s knew that Chicago was where the big guns were. And the fields were not only strong at the very top; they were generally very deep with runners in the 2:10 to 2:20 range as well.

Has it been confirmed that Wesley will be paid? All I've seen are posts on this message board saying so, which in my experience is less than conclusive evidence.

Here's a thought...the sponsors could pay out the 4th place prize $ to Korir and benefit from the PR in the running world for doing so. Or at least the notoriety.

Nobody's getting paid until the drug testing results are in and they are all negative...

its not his fault he started 5 minutes back i blame it on horrible planning my the race itself. Wesley qualified as an elite by 5 minutes in the half marathon and yet even though that was on his entry form he still gets screwed and has to start with the masses. I blame the race officials shame on them

I disagree. He wasn't the 4th finisher so why should he get 4th place prize?

PR Maven wrote:

Nobody's getting paid until the drug testing results are in and they are all negative...

You're a little negative yourself.

"PR Maven" isn't being "negative" -- that's how it works.

Races don't distribute prize money until everything related to PED testing is resolved.

Korir was a top 100. I think his number was T248 (I was looking at his MarathonFotos). For the Top 100s, they just took their finish time and subtracted the approx. 5 minute head start the elites had. For instance, his finish photo shows him crossing the line in 2:18 and change, but his official time is 2:13 and change.

They should give him his damn money and start everyone together next year.

Last year Michael Cox came in 8th. He was a top 100. Did he get eighth place price money?

prize money is only 5 deep and this was the first year of this kind of start.

boogaboo wrote:

Korir was a top 100. I think his number was T248 (I was looking at his MarathonFotos). For the Top 100s, they just took their finish time and subtracted the approx. 5 minute head start the elites had. For instance, his finish photo shows him crossing the line in 2:18 and change, but his official time is 2:13 and change.

They should give him his damn money and start everyone together next year.

Last year Michael Cox came in 8th. He was a top 100. Did he get eighth place price money?