Americans Luke Pusekdra and Blake Russell win $5,400 for finishing 12th at Lilac Bloomsday. Runner-up won just $4,500

Dang! I could have won that 10k!

Umm... nevermind.

OP should also point out that the top runners had their travel and fancy hotel expenses paid for, while the lowly Americans probably had to pay their own way and stay at the Motel 6 out in the valley.

For some reason that race has always attracted a ridiculous amount of foreign competition. One year I was 57th overall but only the 23rd American.

At one time this was a big race with top Americans competing with the best in the world.

top runners were at Payton Jordan. This is good money for the C runners.

Is Kardong still involved with Bloomsday?

Not sure what he could really do since none of these women have tested positive but since Cierpinski probably was on PEDs and that cost Kardong an Olympic medal I wonder if someone like Scherf was an invited runner and they paid for her hotel.

A Stat Cat wrote:

OP should also point out that the top runners had their travel and fancy hotel expenses paid for, while the lowly Americans probably had to pay their own way and stay at the Motel 6 out in the valley.

The Americans would get those too if they were good enough.

RancidCupNoodle wrote:

I agree with most of that...but a girl sleeping with her college coach? It doesn't have to be rape to be wrong. The coach is in a position of power and she did the right thing.

What the hell are you babbling about? Wrong thread maybe?

And jeez, isn't the state of Washington big enough so that a guy should have to run faster than 5:01 pace and a woman faster than 5:52 pace for a 7.46-mile race to earn a grand? (On the other hand...sweet deal, take it when it's there.)

There was at least one post deleted on the thread. Rancid was talking about that post.

I was thinking the same thing about that Washington state money. 5:01 pace for a guy is meh. But 7:46 pace for only a 12k is pathetic. That is like just charity money. I'm stunned that girl claims to be a pro runner.

Easy monney wrote:

I was thinking the same thing about that Washington state money. 5:01 pace for a guy is meh. But 7:46 pace for only a 12k is pathetic. That is like just charity money. I'm stunned that girl claims to be a pro runner.

The WA guy has a 13:5x 5k to his name. And I think you may be underestimating the difficulty of the Bloomsday course.

slep5 wrote:

Is Kardong still involved with Bloomsday?

...I wonder if someone like Scherf was an invited runner and they paid for her hotel.

This is a good point. The races that are part of the PRRO Circuit (http://www.prro.org/races.html) have this anti-doping stance:

...Drug testing takes place at every circuit event. Athletes who have served a drug-related suspension of two-years or longer are not eligible for travel and lodging expenses.

http://www.prro.org/drug_testing.html

Here's Lindsey's doping ban (for those not familiar with her story, she refused to do the drug test after a marathon she ran in Australia because she said she wasn't sure how to handle the fact she used an inhaler and didn't have a TUE, which was required at the time):

It's looks like Lindsey has competed at several of the PRRO races over the year, including Bloomsday multiple times.

!athlete/lindsey%20scherf

Is she paying her whole way to races the Worlds Best 10K in Puerto Rico?

Its a sad state of affairs for americans. Yes this race has always had a large contingency of of foreigners, back in the day americans were competitive and winning.

The so called american prize money breeds mediocrity, run average and get paid well. I don't blame the athletes the are just taking advantage of inept race directors and a lack of strategy to develop american athletes.