Winner of Grandma’s Marathon had to pay his own entry

Not wuite mee wrote:

Then again have you ever been to Duluth? What a dump.

How can the hotels get away with charging $200-$600 per night? Must be a killing for them. Some of those places are prob $30 per night junk box the rest of the year for ice fishermen ?

Congratulations to your athlete. I hope he had a big smile on his face as he walked away with their money.

Blow Up And Hang On wrote:

Maybe they had a hunch he'd run like a complete idiot, dropping 4:2X miles early on, and suck up all the TV coverage 1/2 mile ahead of everyone else. Then blow up spectacularly the last 10K, and be incredibly lucky to barely hang on for the win. Why would you want someone who runs like that in your race, especially if you want to focus on Americans?

Your post is sad. The dude ran 2:06 pace for 19 miles, hung on and won in front of his adopted hometown fans. Then he was full of praise for the city.

“It means more because it’s the nicest city I’ve ever been to,” he said, his red eyes glistening. “I’ve met so many people here. Everyone is so friendly. So this one means a lot.

“It’s like my second home. I’m so happy.”

I think it's a great story. We get on Americans for pumping their first when they run 2:09 for 8th in Boston. This dude goes for it and you give him grief? Moral of the story, no matter what you do, you 'll find someone on the internet to complain about it.

I put a nice article up about him under the 1st post. In case you missed it, it is here:

rojo wrote:

I put a nice article up about him under the 1st post. In case you missed it, it is here:

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/2724617-Grandmas-Marathon-Ailing-Kongin-wins-mens-race

Good article. Sounds like a rice guy. What’s the deal with the Kenyan flag waving at the finish though?

This is Merica Baby, Grandmas should DQ him. Give that money to another USA runner who deserves it more then this Bum.

1. Meaning as that he be included in the Elite field, which for Grandmas, usually includes entry, two nights hotel and $400 in travel reimbursement. Once I was informed that it was full, I asked simply for an entry and was denied.

2. Wait list apparently was for people who were outside the 300. If one of those 300 dropped out, they had a descending order list. The Elite Athlete Coordinator did not inform me of this, however three separate people I spoke with informed me that is how they got it. And yes, they were all Americans.

Lastly, even if a race is full, a comped entry for a big race is customary, especially if an athlete of Boniface's calibre was trying to enter. Why not allow a 2:10 into the field to try and make the race more competitive. Well, he did exactly that and smashed the previous studs who won there. Perhaps if he had run a bit more conservative he would of dipped under the 2:10 mark and challenged the course record. It's all moot, he went for it and should be lauded for his efforts. I'm proud of how he ran, how he composed himself and his humility.

Yeah this sounds like bullshit on the part of the race. 300 people in the elite field and they couldn't comp a 2:10 guy? Ridiculous. 50th place was 2:24. Come on.

If YOU dont like it then find another race. Thats exactly the way grandmas put it. Thats HOW it should be....get over it. Dont give 2 shits how fast u are. Go cry in another corner. Hopefully within the next few years it will be only Merica money. See how you bums will like that.

I’m with the race organizers on this one. It’s easy to lament one-offs and potential exceptions and whatnot, but the organizers have an event to run. 300 elites is not an insignificant number. That’s more than 3% of the total field, and more than $30k worth of entry fees, not to mention travel and lodging expenses. I’m not saying a 2:10 guy isn’t impressive, but as an organizer it’s a slippery slope once you start handing out exceptions. Besides, why wasn’t the application submitted in a more timely manner

It’s not like there are many other races this time of year to compete with for talent.

Numbers 5, 14, 24 and 25 finishers also paid their way in. I don’t hear them complaining about having had to do so

Also worth noting that the Grandma's Marathon elite field was in massive demand this year, since many were using it for an OTQ attempt. So, it filled very early - they already had a waitlist by the end of January for the full. And that waitlist included those who were only getting comp entry.

They take their elite program very seriously, and manage it very well. This is simply a case of demand way outstripping supply.

darkwave wrote:

Also worth noting that the Grandma's Marathon elite field was in massive demand this year, since many were using it for an OTQ attempt. So, it filled very early - they already had a waitlist by the end of January for the full. And that waitlist included those who were only getting comp entry.

They take their elite program very seriously, and manage it very well. This is simply a case of demand way outstripping supply.

Agreed. It was a massive demand and it previous years, I would have been fine entering my athlete in the timeframe I did. I, nor my athlete, are complaining at all and we never complained to Grandmas. There are people who are reactive to everything and those who assess a situation and find an alternative. We did that, made sure he could compete as an open athlete and then proceeded with our plan. We came and got the job done. End of story.

Mo Farah or Rupp wanted to enter the race late in the process? Would the race have still held the line?

If they say they gave out so many elite comps that they didn't couldn't even comp another 2:12 guy, and couldn't even get him on the waitlist, then one observes:

* PR failure, obviously

* They gave out 300 comps, so let's go admire how many of those guys went under 2:10, or at least under 2:19

But, apparently almost all of their elite guys failed, so...

* Were they mostly quitters, or hobby joggers?

Whoever ran the program to select their elite comps, apparently should be fired, as that seems to have been a disastrous failure.

They didn't come in with nearly 300 guys in the low or mid 2:10s. They didn't come in with 200 guys. They didn't even come in with 100 guys! They didn't even make 50 guys!!

Just out of curiosity, why is he living in Duluth? It seems an unlikely spot for a Kenyan to land. Does he winter there?

I can see the marathon’s point of view here. No one deserves a free entry but if you were to offer free entries and travel expenses you’d want that money to go to athletes that shape the race you want. If that is to support American athletes who will get a shot at a qualifiers then I can see why you’d exclude a foreign athlete.

I put on an event with travel resources and our committee definitely steers money in a way that best resources the meet vs based on a merit system. We could have two athletes with identical entry times but if one is an up and comer with an interesting story while the other is an late-career athlete with a stronger body of work we might have a choice to make.

like this deserve to go to hell.

Merica Baby wrote:

If YOU dont like it then find another race. Thats exactly the way grandmas put it. Thats HOW it should be....get over it. Dont give 2 shits how fast u are. Go cry in another corner. Hopefully within the next few years it will be only Merica money. See how you bums will like that.

Found the guy who didn't read the article.

Dude's been living in Duluth since April.

Also to his coach, when you applied in March what was his previous best finish? The Pittsburgh marathon was in May so he didn't have that on his resume yet. Also when you applied he wasn't living in Duluth yet so the travel expenses would have been requested - to whoever said the cost would have been much lower since he was local.

Rojo, we see you. Giving praise to African, so the next time you or your brother ignore racist posts, and get called out for it...you can point to this very thread as evidence of your "fair" coverage on this wonderful forum.