Creative ways to make boring distance races exciting - let's hear them. Post them now.

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http://www.letsrun.com/?p=88343

Turn a cross country course into a real X-C course. Jump over hey bails, deep mud run, first turn at 100 m, finish line up a steep hill... that would draw and people would pay to see it.

There was a race awhile back where actors dressed as zombies chased the runners and tried to pull some flag-football flags off their shorts. If both of their flags were taken, they were "dead" and had to drop. Maybe something similar would work without the zombies. Every runner would have flags, the race would start, and they would have 1000m or whatever to space the pack out before they started going after each other's flags. I bet that would yield some PRs too.

Flaming tunnels wide enough for one to force the pace.

Swinging obstacles.

Seriously, offer some money for lap leaders in race, then a race for most laps lead after the race. Or, points across events. 800,1600,5000/10000

Whatever you add, it has to be really simple.

The opposite of what's needed is NASCAR's complicated points schemes that is manufactured to create uncertainty/excitement. It's the personification of "everyone is a winner."

Letsrun lists of sub 28:00 10,000s by year (2000-2015)

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/09/wtw-the-2nd-greatest-year-in-us-10000-history-molly-huddle-and-jairus-birech-refuse-to-feel-sorry-for-themselves-letsrun-hits-the-road-in-maine-and-a-5th-olympic-team-for-abdi/

and now the rest of the story

1999 2

1998 0

1997 1

1996 0

1995 2

1993 1

1992 1

1991 2

1990 2

1989 2

1988 1

1987 1

1986 5

1985 4

1984 8

1983 3

1982 4

1981 3

1980 3

1979 1

1978 2

1977 0

1976 3

1975 1

1974 1

1973 0

1972 1

Pursuit 5k on 200 M track.

One "Team" of 4 starts on normal start line. Second team of 4 starts on 100 M mark at start of second curve. Both teams start at same time. Passed runners are knocked out. Win goes to team with fastest finishing runner at respective 5k finish line.

Teams are free to send burner ahead of other squad members. However, burners who can't last the entire race or are passed themselves by opposing squad later in race are also knocked out.

At world class level, if one team runs steady 13:20 pace all together, a chasing burner would have to run approx. 47 secs for 400, 1:51 for 800, 3:59 for 1600, 7:31 for 3k, and 10:23 for 4k to knock out members of 1he 13:20 pace team.

You could vary rules by limiting knockout power to 1 per runner or require burner to pass all opposing squad members before any are knocked out.

Have cash primes at two set points during a 5k or 10k on the track. So first person across during the set lap gets the cash, but they have to finish on the lead lap to get the money at the end.

Or it can be a case(s) of beer. One of my friends did a bike race in Wisconsin during speed week back in the 90's and they always had a beer prime lap that was more contested then the cash lap.

critic 100 wrote:

Turn a cross country course into a real X-C course. Jump over hey bails, deep mud run, first turn at 100 m, finish line up a steep hill... that would draw and people would pay to see it.

That's called a Spartan Race... include extra lifting, climbing and crawling

Creating a situation where the best in the world compete against each other with regularity would do more for the excitement of the sport than any of the gimmicks mentioned. In most other sports, fans get to see big time match ups multiple times per year. In track, we pretty much just have the WC and OG. Any other time a couple of good guys race against each other, we feel lucky to get to see an actual exciting race. We shouldn't feel lucky to get to watch the best compete against each other on rare occasions. We should expect it to happen all the time.

I would look to tennis for a model. Tennis has four events every year that bring the best players in the world together. No top player who is healthy would even consider skipping a major.

If tennis worked like track, Federer and Djokovic would have only played each other two or three times in the last 4 years, and they both would have spent the rest of their time beating up on no-name players at small time tournaments. Because the majors exist, we know that we'll see guys like Fed, Djokovic, Murray, and Nadal playing against each other a whole lot.

Track needs a handful of meets that are actually important. Not just DL meets, but meets that no professional runner would skip if invited. We should have the dozen best 1500 meter guys stepping on the track together in a final for meaningful prize money four times per year.

Have Primes like in cycling. Where at random times during the 10k (or 5k) the announcer rings the bell or similar and the next person across the line gets $100. Guys who know they wont win, sure will sprint a few of the laps for the cash.

Ive done knockout track races before. GVH (Genesse Valley Harriers) summer track meets do them. But theirs is each lap the last person is pulled, and no lapping is allowed. So you know how many laps the race will be based on the number of runners. The race usually splits into two packs with the first pack of guys just tempoing it until the slower pack runs out of people. Then it becomes a race. Really fun format.

critic 100 wrote:

Turn a cross country course into a real X-C course. Jump over hey bails, deep mud run, first turn at 100 m, finish line up a steep hill... that would draw and people would pay to see it.

You mean like they do in England, although they use logs rather than hay bails these days.

Nobody pays to watch them

8-Teams of 3 athletes compete in a 5000 on the track. Score it XC style. Each lap one athlete from each team must drop behind all athletes not currently dropping back for a minimum of 1-second.

Athletes begin dropping back at the 400m mark and continue at each 400m, with 4400m being the last drop.

This means that one runner on each team will drop only twice - the rest drop 3-times.

Spit-balling here, I'd say it could be set-up where teams are permitted to plan ahead for each lap in the race, OR, each team member is given a # 1-3 and only finds out during the race when they need to drop back. Heck, "America could decide" who drops back, a la American Idol...

What?! You thought of something better? (I really hope someone does...)

Hot Pursuit wrote:

Pursuit 5k on 200 M track.

One "Team" of 4 starts on normal start line. Second team of 4 starts on 100 M mark at start of second curve. Both teams start at same time. Passed runners are knocked out. Win goes to team with fastest finishing runner at respective 5k finish line.

Teams are free to send burner ahead of other squad members. However, burners who can't last the entire race or are passed themselves by opposing squad later in race are also knocked out.

At world class level, if one team runs steady 13:20 pace all together, a chasing burner would have to run approx. 47 secs for 400, 1:51 for 800, 3:59 for 1600, 7:31 for 3k, and 10:23 for 4k to knock out members of 1he 13:20 pace team.

You could vary rules by limiting knockout power to 1 per runner or require burner to pass all opposing squad members before any are knocked out.

Continuing post, scoring may be more interesting if team points are awarded by time place 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, This way 2 finishers always beat 1 finisher, and 3 finishers can do no worse than tie 2 finishers. This would make knockouts the key goal for each team .

I think above scoring system would keep race both exciting and honest. A lot of different outcomes possible.

Have every one start at the the normal start/finish line. After the runners are off the officials start up a bingo/lottery type of popcorn popper and draw a ball. On each ball, one distance from the 800-10k is stamped on it, including the steeple. After the runners have reached 300m a sign goes up indicating the distance of the race...and we watch what carnage may ensue thereafter.

a BEAR!!!

Bad Wigins wrote:

a BEAR!!!

We can make this better.

Add a bull, too.

...and a shark.

Bad Wigins wrote:

a BEAR!!!

You beat me to it!

Have a festival were there is music and a big party with fire works during the races. Also have more exciting announcers and have a celebrity race. Before the race starts have a press conference where each athlete trash talks each other like WWE to create drama and excitement.There are a lot of other boring sports that people go to because there is other things going on than the sport it self.We need more egos and characters that are larger than life in the sport not just runners that are humble and normal.

Demand all participants eat a pack of mentos before the race begins. Only hand out soda before, during and after the race.