waiting for it...... wrote:
champion of ducking competition wrote:
Gets it.^
If you offered a million US dollars for the winner of the comrades, do you really think some 2:04 Kenyan would win it?
These are the kind of questions worth asking!! I think that if the purse for winning Comrades was $1 million that the winner would not be an American trail runner. I think that Jim Walmsley could be in the running to win (maybe?) But in a race like Comrades, I don't think any other American ultrarunner is in competition? I mean there's other guys in the US that would race it, Zach Miller always is awesome to watch. But my bet for a $1 million Comrades would be on either an East African or a Takahiro Sunada (road 100k world record) or someone like that. The guy that's won Comrades the last couple years has a 2:23 marathon PB, so that doesn't point to anything extraordinary.
It is a valid point that Walmsley could have raced more competitive races here in the US. Black Canyon in particular. The Fast 100/80k/50 mile whatever in Hong Kong was a Hoka sponsored race, so obviously they paid him to go to that and get big exposure for them in a growing running market. I don't think the point of it was to find the most competitive race, the point was just a contract obligation by their biggest name athlete.
Bringing up Tim Tollefson and the USATF 50k "national championships" is a great example of why people aren't drawn to trail races for the money. Sure there was prize money, but 5th place got $100. Tim is a good runner. But I don't think the USATF trail championships mean very much.
Tldr: Lets crowdsource $1 million, set it as the prize for Comrades, and settle this argument once and for all!