Fair our Foul: Two-time Olympic medallist Nick Willis just won a $20 shoe voucher at an all-comers 800 race

Hardloper wrote:

Flounder wrote:

What does a $20 voucher buy? A portion of a shoe? 20 packets of Gu? Crappy a$$ race award if the first place voucher doesn't even cover the cost of the race entry.

Congrats to Nick for staying in shape.

Yeah and after his agent and coach take their cuts he's only left with $16

And that's being optimistic, some poor Kenyan would likely comeback with just $8 after the Italians had taken their share.

rojo wrote:

https://twitter.com/nickwillis/status/1149153755826311169

Imagine you've been training all spring/summer for the local all-comers 800 where first prize is a $20 shoe voucher. You are peaked and ready to go, until..... a two-time Olympic medallist with a shoe sponsorship shows up and gets the win.

What's the appropriate reaction?

All I can say is let's hope Nick gave 2nd place the voucher.

-Rojo

PS. It reminds me when I ran (and won) the intramural mile at Princeton as a senior. A couple of the young studs on the track team showed up and were way ahead mid-race. I yelled out, "If you beat my ass, you're in trouble." They dutifully slowed up and let me take my deserved glory (there was an actual rule that varsity athletes couldn't score points in intramurals).

Shouldn't there be like an international law, for races with non-monetary prizes, professional athletes are ineligible?

;)

Absolutely fair. Anyone but an idiot would rather compete against someone like Willis than get enough money for a pair of socks. The race against Willis is something the second placer can talk about for months. Getting $20 and only having to pay $90 for a pair of shoes is something one would forget in a few days. Plus compared to running warehouse vs the local store, that $20 is only worth $9 towards a pair of $110 shoes.

Well let's see he's 36 and ran a 3:54 mile indoor, a 3:37 1500m a couple of days ago and then a 1:49 800m the next day. That's pretty good. The two 5k's were a disaster (one due to health and the other due to pace) and the Pre meet last lap was not good, but otherwise he's run a lot of solid races, almost won in Boston a couple weeks ago.

I'd put my money on him being competitive in Doha with the heats and championship racing. No rabbits, just experience and navigating three rounds.

A wins a win Rojo.

It’s not unfair but kinda sad and pathetic. You have to get your kicks by beating up on non-elites?

Lost respect for nick.

Fair! Of course normally one would expect a guy like Willis to find a race with a larger purse.

How could it possibly be unfair unless he’s cheating. He meets the entry criteria. Good for him to enter whatever race he wants, and great for the sport.

Armchair quarterback wrote:

Well let's see he's 36 and ran a 3:54 mile indoor, a 3:37 1500m a couple of days ago and then a 1:49 800m the next day. That's pretty good. The two 5k's were a disaster (one due to health and the other due to pace) and the Pre meet last lap was not good, but otherwise he's run a lot of solid races, almost won in Boston a couple weeks ago.

I'd put my money on him being competitive in Doha with the heats and championship racing. No rabbits, just experience and navigating three rounds.

+1

Yes, I thought it was impressive he came back with a 3:37 the other day. An a 1:49 800m after spending essentially a year training for the 5000m isn't too bad at all.

I wouldn't discount the possibility that he could make history next year and reach his fourth successive 1500 Olympic final.

Screw the voucher......just take a pic with a few of the guys you raced against. I am sure they would love to have the memory of racing against him.

Like someone said earlier, more guys need to show up at run with the hobbyjoggers. Makes the sport more popular

First I would say it’s only $20. Then I would ask who was second? If it was a HS or College can they legally take the voucher anyway?

As a hobby jogger running an all comer's track meet tonight, I would think it was sweet that he took the time to come to an all comer's track meet and take a nice photo for instagram. I have a $20 dollar gift card from placing in a local race way back in February that I still haven't spent because the shoe store is so far from my house and I buy all my shoes on Running Warehouse anyway.

It’s an “ALL” comer.

No vouchers at steak but I remember Reuben Reina showed up at the Los Gatos all-comer and crushed everyone running 13 something. No hard feelings and was awesome to watch.

rojo wrote:

https://twitter.com/nickwillis/status/1149153755826311169

Imagine you've been training all spring/summer for the local all-comers 800 where first prize is a $20 shoe voucher. You are peaked and ready to go, until..... a two-time Olympic medallist with a shoe sponsorship shows up and gets the win.

What's the appropriate reaction?

All I can say is let's hope Nick gave 2nd place the voucher.

-Rojo

PS. It reminds me when I ran (and won) the intramural mile at Princeton as a senior. A couple of the young studs on the track team showed up and were way ahead mid-race. I yelled out, "If you beat my ass, you're in trouble." They dutifully slowed up and let me take my deserved glory (there was an actual rule that varsity athletes couldn't score points in intramurals).

Shouldn't there be like an international law, for races with non-monetary prizes, professional athletes are ineligible?

;)

Wow, ever stop making everything about yourselves? I think that's why you posted the link knowing that you could Segway into yourself again.

foo wrote:

Which would you rather have: $20 or bragging rights saying you ran against Nick Willis and finished 2nd.

This was my immediate thought too.

No hard feelings wrote:

No vouchers at steak

I, for one, would love to win a voucher FOR steak

Rojo - you sound an awful lot like a snowflake here.

I think it's fair. If I ran at an all-comers meet, I would be doing it for fun and watching/racing an Olympic medalist run would just add to it. I would try and get a photo taken with him if anything.

As for him running it, I would say running just to run is refreshing. He's been in some tough races with high expectations so to be able to have a race that he can run without pressure was probably a lot of fun. Like he said, "You'd be surprised how rejuvenating a win like this can be!" Occasionally during my senior year of track I would run at a JV meet instead of a varsity meet and without the pressure of higher competition and time expectations, it's easier to run fast without getting tense.

I agree with most of the posters here that I feel it would be nice to be able to say you had the opportunity to race with an elite at a local race. Especially for a trivial amount like $20 shoe voucher. Something similar happened where Suguru Osako (Japanese marathon NR holder) came to a local/regional half marathon I was running in and ran a sub-63 half to set a CR and win $1000 (a couple of local elites/OTQ marathoners finished 3rd and 4th after Osako and another elite Japanese runner)

I've had a couple conversations with Nick back in college and found him to be one of the nicest guys ever. I've talked to other runners over the years that have all said the same thing. Just a nice guy down to the core. Sounds like he gave away the prize anyway, clearly not the reason he was the race in the first place. Just a glorified training session. I'll agree that a "coupon" for race prize is at the top of the lame list. Better to offer nothing at all. Just the fact that I'm writing this anecdote is semi-proof that most guys that got to race him consider it an honor... I hope he makes another final at worlds!

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

No hard feelings wrote:

No vouchers at steak

I, for one, would love to win a voucher FOR steak

Did that last week!!!