Jim Walmsley is looking like a genius now, huh?

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

With all the road races and track meets cancelled, and trail ultras continuing on, now is the PERFECT chance to show how good they are.

If ultra competition is "weak," then surely winning a "weak" event is better for these marathon hotshots than not competing in any events because they're cancelled.

Is it true that the only thing the winner of the WS 100 receives is a trophy and a belt buckle?

Look, there's no prize money in the Olympics. Sport is not about money and you can't put a price on the Cup.

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Is it true that the only thing the winner of the WS 100 receives is a trophy and a belt buckle?

Look, there's no prize money in the Olympics. Sport is not about money and you can't put a price on the Cup.

Endorsements come with winning a medal in the Olympics. Without prize money, ultra runners are basically competing for free. Even if major marathons and the Olympics are cancelled, an elite marathoner would be far better off just continuing their training.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Endorsements come with winning a medal in the Olympics. Without prize money, ultra runners are basically competing for free. ...

Unless he is sponsored, and then maybe there are bonuses in his contract if he sets a record?

hinpoln wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Endorsements come with winning a medal in the Olympics. Without prize money, ultra runners are basically competing for free. ...

Unless he is sponsored, and then maybe there are bonuses in his contract if he sets a record?

I doubt if there is much money from sponsors for ultra running. Does anyone know how much Walmsley receives from Hoka?

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Yeah, he looks like a guy that finished in 22nd place at the marathon trials.

That means he beat 90% of elite marathoners at their own sport.

How many of those elite marathoners could drop down to the 1500 trials and beat 90% of those athletes?

How much more time does Jim put into running than all those others? Exactly. He spends 8 hours a day running while the others spend 2-3 hours. Life is about working smarter, not harder.

I am pretty sure the trail season is over.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/mass-gatherings-ready-for-covid-19.html

already embarrassed wrote:

Um, how does he erase already being embarrassed at the US trials? He ran and looked like shlt and now has no opportunity to try and prove it was just a bad race. The “top” ultra runner can’t beat a whole bunch of dudes nobody has ever even heard of. Embarrassing look at the true talent of ultra runners. An other “too” ultra runner (Sage) couldn’t even qualify. The top of ultra running is low talent, I a nf even imagine how crap a “sub-elite” ultra guy is. Probably a 50 minute 10k caliber.

The US trials were a bit of an embarrassment anyway, one competitive dude winning easily followed by a guy who didn't even have a shoe sponsor and an old man. It's hardly setting the world alight for world class running.

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Is it true that the only thing the winner of the WS 100 receives is a trophy and a belt buckle?

Look, there's no prize money in the Olympics. Sport is not about money and you can't put a price on the Cup.

Sport is most CERTAINLY about money, and there is most definitely money in the Olympics. A huge number of National Bodies provide athletes with significant prize money for medals of any kind. And this pales in comparison to sponsors. Even Centro's slow gold reaped huge rewards (so much so that he didn't even take training seriously for some time afterwards).

Singapore rewards athletes with $1 million for a Gold , $500,000 for a silver, and $250,000 for a bronze.

Italy rewards $166,000 for a gold. Hungary $125,000. Indonesia more than $750,000. Even Russia and the US award $61,000, and $37500 and for them, there's no shortage of medals whatsoever.

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Yeah, he looks like a guy that finished in 22nd place at the marathon trials.

That means he beat 90% of elite marathoners at their own sport.

How many of those elite marathoners could drop down to the 1500 trials and beat 90% of those athletes?

A 26.2 mile race isn't way different from a 50km or 50 mile race. It's literally less than half of that distance. It's like saying these guys that run the marathon couldn't run a fast half marathon, even though they all run fast half marathons as well. If the 21 guys that beat Jim ran a 50 mile race and trained for a few months doing extra high mileage, I'd bet at least half would still beat Jim even though Jim's been doing it for years. And most of the guys that beat Jim work actual jobs and still manage to train enough to beat him.

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

Smaller trail and ultra events are the only sport still going on. Jim is on track to become the dominant athlete of the season.

He was close to being one of those guys that would be pulled off the course if " the women catch you.." That's how bad he was..

already embarrassed wrote:

Um, how does he erase already being embarrassed at the US trials? He ran and looked like shlt and now has no opportunity to try and prove it was just a bad race. The “top” ultra runner can’t beat a whole bunch of dudes nobody has ever even heard of. Embarrassing look at the true talent of ultra runners. An other “too” ultra runner (Sage) couldn’t even qualify. The top of ultra running is low talent, I a nf even imagine how crap a “sub-elite” ultra guy is. Probably a 50 minute 10k caliber.

It's not this cut & dry. We're runners, we can support & appreciate each other better than this. Jim is a good runner. I don't think anybody expected him to finish top-10 but 22nd is pretty dang good. I don't get all the hate for him. He does some incredible things at the longer distances. He also found time to put together a pretty solid marathon.

Yeah, I saw this thread and was wondering where this was leading..

I don't know why I held out hope it was anything positive. Guys runs a 2:15:05 debut marathon on a challenging road course, and anybody with half a sense of logic would agree that's a damn solid debut given his focus is NOT road running. He has a 2:10 engine, and maybe in time we'll see that. I'd be shocked if he isn't back at the 2024 trials. I look forward to seeing where he goes from here, with ultra and road running.

I would indeed be interested to see how top road guys fare on the trails... could be interesting. Elevation gain is an entirely different beast.

Goes back even further, you can count out the DWI and discharge from the Air Force as master strategic moves in this genius plan.

Coffee Bacon wrote:

He has a 2:10 engine, and maybe in time we'll see that. I'd be shocked if he isn't back at the 2024 trials. I look forward to seeing where he goes from here, with ultra and road running.

Stop making him out to be better than he is. Until he actually does it, he's a 2:15 marathoner and over 5+ minutes off the best in the US. He was dying at the end. All the endurance and trail running made no difference.

Go read all the threads that were started about Walmsey before the olmpic trials were people thought he could actually run 2:10 and make the team. It is only after the total failure that we talk about running a 2:15 (and it wasn't like he went out hard and died. He just died) and finishing 22nd is decent. And before you blame his fans, read the interviews he gave.

What we don't know is what happens when 100 2:10 guys try ultras. Most of them will suck but the 10% who take to it might rewrite the record books. And who the hecks knows what happens when a 2:05 guy is just as good at ultras. In low depth fields you often get crazy outliers.

Virtually all of the Walmsley fans were not predicting a "damn solid debut". There was talk of him running 2:10 or faster, gapping the field with only Rupp having a chance of catching him during the last mile and the top runners fealing threatened enough that strategies were being devised to defeat Walmsley.

If he did some speed work, and it's likely he did, he ran to his potential. I seriously doubt he has a 2:10 engine. If he did, he probably wouldn't be running ultras.

I have friends that are serious sports fans that likely can't name a single distance runner and it doesn't bother me at all. The ultras fans can't accept that some distance runners don't worship Walmsley and consider trail running to be the minor leagues.

Jim Walmsley Superfan wrote:

Smaller trail and ultra events are the only sport still going on. Jim is on track to become the dominant athlete of the season.

No, they aren’t. Most trail and ultra races have been, and are being, cancelled as well. Even the small trail/ultra races are being cancelled.