Ignorance of letsrun staff on ultras

You our delusional.

The letsrun staff seems to take pride in being ignorant on a number of different topics

Meh, ultra runners ability to endure is something. However, there’s nothing particularly athletic about it.
It’s sub elite performance that lasts longer.
It’s like the decathlon. Nobody really cares about the decathlon either.

The Brojos haven't run anything in the last 20 years. They don't know much about running beyond Marathon. They just have the same highschooler bias who think he can somehow do a faster ultra than anybody else with their sub 5 mile time ( for a mile of course).

Meh, marathon runners ability to endure is something. However, there’s nothing particularly athletic about it.
It’s sub elite performance that lasts longer.
It’s like the decathlon. Nobody really cares about the decathlon either.

All topics!

The event was incredible, Walmsley and Dewaulter are generational superstars. But, look at the gap from 1st to 20th, the fields are very shallow. Maybe 6 guys could line up with a genuine hope of winning, and no other female was winning, unless something went awry for Dewaulter.

I mean, a lot of the marathon majors are the same way. There usually not that many that have an actual chance at winning and then you have thousands of people jogging their 6 hour thon lol. Its always funny to me when people make these arguments. Sure track and field there are thousands of good runners all over the world. But aside from the fact that locomotion is the similar they are entirely different sports.

24 hr runs, runs across the USA/States/running a marathon every day for X time.. I'll even toss Streakers in there too (not people running naked at football games, but people that never miss a day running no matter what type Streakers) .. all that stuff falls into the world of running, but as a competition it's not interesting.

I'm sure the people that participate in those things find it challenging and rewarding in some way, but it's not the same as actual racing.

I remember hearing people assert this bolded part as far back as the 90s, at least. It seems to be the classic "freezing cold take" re: ultras.

The difference is that if the best marathoners devoted themselves to ultra they would dominate. If the best ultra runners devoted themselves to the marathon they would be nowhere.

No one cares about Ultra. That’s why the Kenyans and Ethiopians don’t bother.

Apparently, imaginary things can be fact according to some of you. It is honestly sad so many live in such a reality. Let the rest of us enjoy life. But in case a reminder will help you out, things that have not happened, have not actually happened and therefor only exist within your mind.

It would be cool if more "no ones" would stop caring about ultra. It's borderline impossible to gain entry into several of the more niche events that nobody cares about.

To illustrate how stupid this logic is: no one cares about running. Thats why the best athletes in the world all participate in sports that are much higher paying. If running paid more you wouldn't have some of the poorest people in the world dominating the sport.

Since you are good with using your imagination, just think if all of the best athletes from the highest paying sports in the world all took up running. The current crop of top level talent would disappear and be replaced with other people. Does that make you enjoy the sport less now? Do you no longer care?

What’s the capacity for Western States? For the NYC Marathon it’s 50K.

This is the truth that people don't want to hear. No one with a brain denies that Walmsley and Dauwalter are great and potentially generational talents, but, you have to have your head in the sand to think ultras draw as many people as other kinds of running.

Just think about the barriers to entry to ultra running. If I want to be, idk, let's just say national class in the US I have to do many 3+ hour training runs, burn through shoes like nobody's business, have race and training support, buy fuel, buy all the gear, and then the races are few and far between, so I have to fly to some mountains. Wanna race in the mountains? You better live near the mountains. So you go and do this for years, and now what, you win a few thousand bucks, maybe? Not to make this a political debate, but there's very obvious reasons why ultras are all middle to upper class white people.

So you have a huuuge time and monetary investment with very little chance of any payout. Meanwhile someone can run ~10 hours a week from their home, a few hours doing all the little things, and spend a lot less on gear and shoes and become national class on the roads or track. I'm not even that fast and I could probably make way more money winning dinkey road 5ks than many "pro" ultra runners.

I don't think you can just take a 2:05 Kenyan or Ethiopian and throw them on a trail 50k and expect them to win. But if you took a lot of East Africans and they dedicated like the best ultra runners do, then there'd be many, many East Africans on the podiums. Maybe they don't beat Walmsley and he's really that great and his trail running ability is talent that can't be trained. But the barriers to entry are undeniable.

No one care about distance running because the “Elites” are unimpressive athletes and watching them circle a track several times at a sub maximal pace is boring. The reason they excel at the sport is partly because they’re tiny people. What other sport could Molly Seidel excel at?

And no, NFL linebackers would not dominate distance running if they took up the sport.

East Africans are dominate across every distance race from the 800m> the marathon. To think they would not excel at ultras is just plain wrong. Once the money makes it worth their time and effort, like the Eye of Sauron they will suddenly focus on a few big pay day events and crush everyone in the field.