Jim Walmsley/Western States has gotten more posts than all USA threads combined. Brojos remain silent.

???.??? wrote:

As you cut and paste the bait.

No cut and paste. I just highlighted and deleted the rest of the nonsense that he posted so as to be clear about which egregiousness I was referencing.

GBohannon wrote:

If/when Walmsley shows up at the Trials, he will be the biggest story there.

Nah. There will be better fluff pieces.

Did Irish mma boy last even a round? I just know he lost bad.

And yes, it would pain me for trail dude to leach $$ off the real talent and specter of an elite runner making him puke midway.

helpfulhands wrote:

GBohannon wrote:

If/when Walmsley shows up at the Trials, he will be the biggest story there.

Nah. There will be better fluff pieces.

I hope you’re right. In 2016, it was Barnicle. Don’t get me wrong - pot rules, but Walmsley seems to generate more “buzz”. (See what I did there?)

The only winner is trail boy because he would leach off the delusional hype $$$ of facing off against an elite world beater.

Anyhow, it doesn’t do anything for the sport.

The sport is what it is.

For three weeks in August every four years the letsrun audience tunes into the reality of American men and women kicking ass again on the Olympic stage.

That’s the sport.

That’s the service of letsrun.

Letsrun could happily cover trail running.

I’ll have no interest to read about it.

That was the OP of it all.

m.A-ga

ARY-YUKIS! ?‍♂️

well,, wrote:

How often do Kipchoge do this in training?

rmess wrote:

Walk? Never.

Kipchoge couldn't even walk up that hill.

the beagle wrote:

Weird - I didn't see any sponsored Western States prediction contests on here and I didn't pay $70 for an annual subscription to watch ultras.

hahahaa!

I’ve walked up those hills.

Yes, it is actually more efficient as you know.

I’ve won up and down those hills.

The down hill aspect of mountain racing is ridiculous.

The prospect of being King of Sugarloaf is what it is.

You are the king of Sugarloaf.

I repeat. You are the king of Sugarloaf.

This confirms we have discovered an even more invasive species of agro runner on the planet.

Where do we cross the line from running to walking? Here is a sampling of race walking world records and how they compare to Walmsley's blistering 8:42 miles.

40k race walk WR = 3:02:18 = 7:21 mile pace

50k race walk WR = 3:48:24 = 7:22 mile pace

100k race walk WR = 9:36:33 = 9:18 mile pace

So while race walkers and ultra fans are amazed at this accomplishment, running fans probably aren't all that impressed. For what it is worth, the brojos don't really have a lot of articles on race walking either. Ultras are probably in the realm of not quite running, but not quite walking either. They are the realm of power hiking up and coasting the down hills. I won a couple trail races and triathlons back in the day, and while they are fun and great exercise, the level of competition is not even close to more mainstream events. You can't put Kipchoge who has run 3:33, 7:27, 12:46, 26:49 and 2:03 in the same class of athlete as Walmsley, who is nowhere close to those marks.

You have the logic of a potato.

Crazy ultra haters wrote:

You have the logic of a potato.

A potato can power a clock. Can you?

You keep ignoring my perfectly rational, irrefutable points and cherry picking the lame brain arguments.

I DO NOT FEEL THAT WALMSLEY IS IN THE SAME CLASS AS KIPCHOGE. I DO NOT FEEL THAT WALMSLEY IS IN YHE SAME CLASS AS ANY OF THE TOP TIER ROAD OR TRACK GUYS.

I do feel that is generating a lot of chatter on the boards. Anyone with a brain can see that based on the fact that every popular thread from this week is about him. This is despite that fact that the track national championships were held last weekend. I do feel that people would be interested in hearing the Brojos weigh in on what Walmsley is doing and what he *could* do in the Trials. People would be interested because it is relevant and unknown.

Personally - I say 2:11 at best even if he focused hard on the marathon between now and early 2020. I think 2:14-2:15 is much more likely. I do not consider him elite, but I like the buzz he is generating. There are 0 threads that have ever generated buzz about racewalking. Your argument is lame-brained and off topic. This is my thread and I am getting a little annoyed that the only people “refuting” anything are too stupid to have a real dialogue and keep repeating obvious s*it that anyone who closely follows the sport already agrees with.

I’m sure my posts are too long for you, but I hope you at least saw the caps lock part. Moran.

This should be the type of story the Brojos would be interested in.

A solid NCAA runner with unrealized potential. (See video of him running away the field with 800 to go in the 2nd heat at the Stanford Invitational in 2012 to PR in 13:52).

Steps away form serious competition and training because he went into the Air Force (he has some sporadic, unimpressive local road race and cross country results).

Gets dismissed from the Air Force and starts trail running to ease his depression.

Runs mega mileage and starts winning ultras. Declares he is going to set the record at Western States.

Western States 2016. On record pace, floats down river, gets lost, walks it in.

Western States 2017. Goes out in record pace. Can't keep food or liquid down. DNF.

Western States 2018. On a day with temperatures over 100 F, he breaks a course record set on a day when the temperatures were in the 60s. Stops for a couple of minutes when he encounters a family of bears. Beats some French guy who is supposed to be the world's best ultra runner by an hour and a half.

In an interview with Ben Rosario, states that he plans to debut in the Marathon at the 2020 Olympic Trials based on a 1:02 or 1:03 half qualifier.

Ding ding ding.

When did he run the 1:02 or 1:03? The marathon in the US is traditionally very weak (there are plenty of no names that do surprisingly well at the trials), so he probably has a chance. The only top tier talent running the marathon for the US right now is Rupp. Don't be surprised if a couple of the US Army athletes bump up in distance for the trials though or if a couple of guys that ran decent times last year reemerge in time for the trials. But why would someone who is so accomplished in the land of ultras want to lower himself and compete in a measly road race?

Gets rolled at ncaas and becomes goat in ultras

Talent pool in college> talent pool in ultras.

Not a single person called him goat in college lol

Ackley wrote:

Beats some French guy who is supposed to be the world's best ultra runner by an hour and a half.

.

That same French guy beat Walmsley in the UTMB by an hour and a half, and?

French guy wrote:

Ackley wrote:

Beats some French guy who is supposed to be the world's best ultra runner by an hour and a half.

.

That same French guy beat Walmsley in the UTMB by an hour and a half, and?

Yep. Same guy. Walmsley beat the hell out of him at Western States.

GBohannon wrote:

Rather than posting your 19th write-up on a track meet that very few people seem to care about, maybe a small blurb on Western States which has dominated the boards since Saturday?

Admittedly, I personally care more about USAs and appreciate your reporting. I am clearly in the minority though. I would also enjoy to read some coverage on Western States especially now that it is all I see generating any interest on the boards. Are you guys blind to this or simply ignoring it out of spite? I am not trying to be inflammatory; I am sincerely confused by your approach.

I really don't think this thread is fair. First, we did put up some coverage of Western States and Jim Walmsley on the homepage. Even though it was during USAs, the Western States results appear at the top of the 3rd column on the homepage on the 24th:

I believe it stayed there until the 28th before it was removed as we often clear older news off the homepage to make room for newer stories. There was also a discussion thread in the "On The Boards" section during the race and since the race concluded, there have been at least 2 (maybe up to 4?) Western States related threads in the "On The Boards" section. Considering this has all been during and in the wake of USAs, I think that's a fair amount of coverage for one ultra race which isn't not the main focus for LetsRun.com.

I can't think of any instance off the top of my head when we've bashed ultra running on the homepage or in an article we wrote. We're good friends with Sage Canaday who is a top US ultra runner and he posts on these boards often. I respect ultra running/runners and as far as I know the rest of the LRC staff (all 3 of them) feel the same.

I don't consider ultra running at the same level as mainstream road racing or T&F, but I certainly don't hate on it or purposely ignore it. We mention ultra races on the homepage fairly often. I think we gave a pretty big headline to Comrades for example and I know I've made several articles on the Barkley Marathons "Recommended Reads" and Quote of the Day (actually Walmsley himself was QOD once last year). So we don't ignore it, but it's obviously not the focus of our site, nor is it our area of expertise. We're probably not going to be writing up play-by-play recaps and analysis of Western States, but we'll link to the results and the occasional articles others write. I know ultra running has been mentioned in the Week that Was in the past as well.

I also don't think your assessment of the overall interest of LRC visitors is necessarily accurate. I don't have access to the traffic stats, but you have to remember that while there have been several very large Western States threads, there have been probably 100+ USAs related articles and message board threads so the traffic is a bit more spread out. Comparing the overall page views and posts related to USAs and Western States, I'd be shocked if USAs didn't have a significant amount more (even though this is an "off" year).

In summation, we are not ultra running experts and this is not an ultra running site, so we're probably never going to fly a staff member to Western States to provide on site coverage and interviews like we do for USAs. However, we still have given ultra running a healthy amount of attention over the years so please don't make false accusations about us "ignoring it out of spite." All that said, we can always improve and if there is a really good article or interview on a guy like Walmsley, feel free to send it our way:

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TL;DR: We didn't ignore Western States, we had results and a couple articles and threads on it up on the homepage. But no, it does not get the same amount of coverage as a meet like USAs because ultra running is not the main focus of LetsRun.com.