America's Ekiden

I saw the 1989 race, it was my spectating race favorite of all time. I chased for 2 minutes the man who 5 months later set the world record in 10K track, Arturo Barrios. The race itself had complex logistics, and more volunteers than spectators.

I volunteered on the second leg and got a logo rain jacket. I waited in the park for the anchor leg, and of the racers passing by at 4+ minutes per mile I liked Arturo Barrios' form. I somehow kept up with him for 2 minutes (thus equaling my half mile PR) through the empty park, until I started to sweat. Later at the finish line it was announced he ran the 10K leg in 27:50. Five months later in Berlin he set the track world record for 10K in 27:08.

This is the best way to spectate a race, joining the winner.

I did that race, sat next to Steve Scott on the athlete's bus on the ride over to Central Park "Hi, I'm Steve" LOL ... he had just set an American 5k road record.

Marcus O'Sullivan, John Treacy, Steve Jones, Pat Porter, Ed Eyestone, Bruce Bickford, Steve Scott ...

As for what happened to the Ekiden, I think that it was a matter of money. Imagine the cost of "renting New York" and paying for the expenses of athletes. Asics forked out big bucks to put on this event. I ran on one of the state teams, and I didn't pay for my plane ticket, hotel or meals and received a few dollars on the side for meals outside of the hotel. Seems like we stayed in a nice hotel just a short distance from Central Park.

Cool idea and was a great event.

https://youtu.be/tmUH1yvFbPI

*Edit ... Mark Curp, not Bruce Bickford.

Nike prevented their athletes from participating.

What happened is what happened to all distance team events: started getting dominated by Kenyans followed by loss of interest.

How much did this cost in 1989?

50 teams (one from each state) + DC... did they fly in and provide housing for the runners?

1 USA National Team

1 JPN, ITA, IRE, KOR, etc..

$2-3 million USD?

Not kilgore wrote:

Nike prevented their athletes from participating.

Are you sure? Porter was a very high profile Nike athlete. Maybe it was toward the latter stages of his career?

Porter ran for Pearl Izumi late in his career. There are some pictures of him racing Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams at US Cross (during the 90s) in Pearl Izumi Gear, at least.

I was running for Nike. I received a letter telling me they did not want us racing for our state teams.