How amazing would the outcome be of an ultra that had a 5 million dollar prize pool??

0.00 x 0/10

As a fan I'd trade the 100meter and the asphalt marathon for making 100 mountain miles the premier race. Just don't happen to have 5 million laying around.

Knockoutgame wrote:

As a fan I'd trade the 100meter and the asphalt marathon for making 100 mountain miles the premier race. Just don't happen to have 5 million laying around.

A fan of what? “Elites” running 7:15 mile pace for 40 days and nights where “race” finishing order is separated by mere hours.

Hard pass until Africans are drawn in by realistic money and the excuses for why trail/ultra support has dwindled encompass everything except the obvious: These are events for people with fragile egos who like to masquerade as competitors but can’t hack it over (any of the ample) established disciplines.

doot doot wrote:

Knockoutgame wrote:

As a fan I'd trade the 100meter and the asphalt marathon for making 100 mountain miles the premier race. Just don't happen to have 5 million laying around.

A fan of what? “Elites” running 7:15 mile pace for 40 days and nights where “race” finishing order is separated by mere hours.

Hard pass until Africans are drawn in by realistic money and the excuses for why trail/ultra support has dwindled encompass everything except the obvious: These are events for people with fragile egos who like to masquerade as competitors but can’t hack it over (any of the ample) established disciplines.

^^^A breathtaking masterpiece of utter nonsense and hyperbole.

Bow wow wrote:

doot doot wrote:

A fan of what? “Elites” running 7:15 mile pace for 40 days and nights where “race” finishing order is separated by mere hours.

Hard pass until Africans are drawn in by realistic money and the excuses for why trail/ultra support has dwindled encompass everything except the obvious: These are events for people with fragile egos who like to masquerade as competitors but can’t hack it over (any of the ample) established disciplines.

^^^A breathtaking masterpiece of utter nonsense and hyperbole.

Somehow the guy missed the hypothetical $5million that would pull in the best distance runners in the world from everywhere, which we all know includes Africans.

knockoutgame wrote:

Bow wow wrote:

^^^A breathtaking masterpiece of utter nonsense and hyperbole.

Somehow the guy missed the hypothetical $5million that would pull in the best distance runners in the world from everywhere, which we all know includes Africans.

He also missed the fact that Zach Bitter just reset the 100M WR at 11:19:13 (6:48 pace), which isn't exactly the same as 7:15 pace for 40 days and nights, and that support for trail/ultras is growing massively these days, not dwindling. And lastly, the whole point of your $5mil ultra would be to pull in those "real" athletes he prefers over the so called masqueraders.

As I said, utter nonsense and hyperbole.

His comment is also pretty stupid because most road and track guys can't truly hack it in the established distances. The world is littered with 2:18 guys, so what's his point? It's not like the ultra people are doing it to get rich. There's no prize money so they only get by on endorsements. Who cares at all. ..and yes, Bitter would win.

I’m willing to bet that someone like Kipchoge or Kimetto in peak fitnes could run 100 miles on the road in 5:45-6:10 pace

Kipchoge man wrote:

I’m willing to bet that someone like Kipchoge or Kimetto in peak fitnes could run 100 miles on the road in 5:45-6:10 pace

I'm willing to bet that some "elite", not necessarily Kipchoge and definitely not Kimetto (LOL - long gone), could run a 100 at close to 6 min pace. It is important to note that a metabolism and stride optimized for 4:35 pace for 26.2 miles does not automatically mean it will be optimized for 6:00 pace for 100 miles - these are different things.

sure a lot of people would compete, but that wouldn't make it any more watchable.

think like 24 hours of Le Mans. Probably already more than 5 mil at stake in that. Who cares, other than the drivers and car companies?

With that much money would get a lot of top runners entering and going for broke. And they will breakdown once they realize that trying to run 6 minute pace on trails is something they are not capable of doing for very long. There would be a lot top runners casualties along the race route.

Bad Wigins wrote:

sure a lot of people would compete, but that wouldn't make it any more watchable.

think like 24 hours of Le Mans. Probably already more than 5 mil at stake in that. Who cares, other than the drivers and car companies?

The OP didn't ask how watchable it would be. Just because you don't care doesn't mean nobody does - I'm sure there are way more car racing fans that care about the 24 hours of Le Mans than you or I realize.

In the ultra world as is, UTMB already has 100s of thousands of followers if not more (Twitter updates/other Web-based live video feeds, etc...). Kipchoge and/or some other elite throwing down a sub-10 hour 100-miler would be huge.

crash and burn wrote:

With that much money would get a lot of top runners entering and going for broke. And they will breakdown once they realize that trying to run 6 minute pace on trails is something they are not capable of doing for very long. There would be a lot top runners casualties along the race route.

The OP actually dreams about using the Chicago marathon course, so roads. Boring. For my $5 million I want nasty terrain and elevation max.

Anyway it seems like the 200th or 2000th ranked Kenyan would be doing fine at ultras if it's all these hobby joggers to compete with.

Couldn't be too hard to find some of them to race 100 miles FTW.

Running for it wrote:

Imagine this scenario:

You take the Chicago marathon this year the elite pack continues on after the first loop for a little less than 3 more loops to finish the day as a 100 miler. The prize pool is 5 million dollars which is split between the winners.

Now people always say no one good shows up to ultras due to the lack of money. Would we start seeing 2:04 Kenyans showing up if this happened? Would Kipchoge / Rupo try?

What would the winning time be ? Would someone like Zach Bitter win this event..?

Winning time, given ample preparation, would be under 10 hours for someone like Kipchoge. And yes, of course you would see 2:04 guys showing up, but if only two people are getting paid then you are going to see an incredible amount of these guys dropping out once they know the win is out of reach.

Rupp would never ever try it.

If the big names showed up Bitter would be a total non-factor. The top women would destroy him too.

Running for it wrote:

Imagine this scenario:

You take the Chicago marathon this year the elite pack continues on after the first loop for a little less than 3 more loops to finish the day as a 100 miler. The prize pool is 5 million dollars which is split between the winners.

Now people always say no one good shows up to ultras due to the lack of money. Would we start seeing 2:04 Kenyans showing up if this happened? Would Kipchoge / Rupo try?

What would the winning time be ? Would someone like Zach Bitter win this event..?

If i had that cash i would def not spend it like that. More likely buy an awesome house and throw parties. Kidding aside, i would participate in that event and go for win... Maybe cut off 5 kilos even - might make me competitive.

It would be 1% as amazing as an ultra that had a 500 million dollar prize pool!

Bow wow wrote:

doot doot wrote:

A fan of what? “Elites” running 7:15 mile pace for 40 days and nights where “race” finishing order is separated by mere hours.

Hard pass until Africans are drawn in by realistic money and the excuses for why trail/ultra support has dwindled encompass everything except the obvious: These are events for people with fragile egos who like to masquerade as competitors but can’t hack it over (any of the ample) established disciplines.

^^^A breathtaking masterpiece of utter nonsense and hyperbole.

This guy gets it.

__

And don’t start anything regarding ultrathons with “I guess you missed X...”

Yeah. I always miss everything that has to do with mountain jogging.

AP5000 wrote:

His comment is also pretty stupid because most road and track guys can't truly hack it in the established distances. The world is littered with 2:18 guys, so what's his point? It's not like the ultra people are doing it to get rich. There's no prize money so they only get by on endorsements. Who cares at all. ..and yes, Bitter would win.

At least the hacks realize we don’t need special new snowflake games because the 100m —> marathon pretty much covers the range of distances where competition exists.

And Africa is littered with sub-2:10 guys that would eat the existing crop of ultradorks’ lunches if the money were there. Pretty sure it wouldn’t take $5 million.

The point is little money = little competition. (And a whole lot of circlejerking.)

And decent money = goodbye whitey, hello creation of some other nobody sport to win at.