Whoever successful starts a team like this will have a first-mover advantage and will temporarily dominate the sport, then it will become necessary for anyone else who wants to compete to adapt and follow a similar model.
Yeah, that’s the question. Depends on how you define what’s good for trail running. I agree that there are pros and cons. Ultimately I think the part of extreme endurance events that inspires me the most and what I think of as an essential part of the soul of ultra is pushing human limits, and this sort of team would certainly do that.
Something similar happened in the Philippines in prep for the world trail champs last year . The team all stayed in one location for 3+ months , all trained together . I went out and did a 3 day workshop educating their coaches and a 3 day course with their elite runners . They didn’t have a chef or a team of sports scientists but I was giving them their programs each week remotely and on site coaches helping implement it . They had their best result ever at world champs .
I have watched Grand Tours of cycling from 2020-2022.
I have been following meticulously the sport of ultra running like someones pays me million dollar per year to spend my time to consume content regarding this in any form. I live in India and there is one in the trail world experiencing this kind of sponsorship as you are experiencing. So envisioning of trail running as a cycling team is a far fetched idea for us. There are great trail and ultra runners in India as well but there is a lack of sponsorship in India even though the market can be huge for every kind of brand as the population is quite high here.
I still don't why it is so but can totally relate to where the sport is headed can take this model but it really seems 50-50 right now. When Jim ran his first WSER when he went off course, I still remember his Adidas shoes he was running in (barely cushioned) and the next time he ran WSER- he was sponsored by HOKA and even the evolution in shoes, trail bags, trail belts have been immense.
The funding needed for this to cater 20-25 athletes would be a hefty number. The sport if headed to this direction would be hyper competitive even though the records are being broken almost every weekend somewhere or the other.
Whoever successful starts a team like this will have a first-mover advantage and will temporarily dominate the sport, then it will become necessary for anyone else who wants to compete to adapt and follow a similar model.
The question will always be there though: Is this a good thing for Trail Running?
Professionalism in cycling has bought with it a number of negatives, not just positives.
Yeah, that’s the question. Depends on how you define what’s good for trail running. I agree that there are pros and cons. Ultimately I think the part of extreme endurance events that inspires me the most and what I think of as an essential part of the soul of ultra is pushing human limits, and this sort of team would certainly do that.
Something similar happened in the Philippines in prep for the world trail champs last year . The team all stayed in one location for 3+ months , all trained together . I went out and did a 3 day workshop educating their coaches and a 3 day course with their elite runners . They didn’t have a chef or a team of sports scientists but I was giving them their programs each week remotely and on site coaches helping implement it . They had their best result ever at world champs .
With all due respect, it sounds sort of dystopian—and joyless. But you warned me in the first few sentences!!
I have watched Grand Tours of cycling from 2020-2022.
I have been following meticulously the sport of ultra running like someones pays me million dollar per year to spend my time to consume content regarding this in any form. I live in India and there is one in the trail world experiencing this kind of sponsorship as you are experiencing. So envisioning of trail running as a cycling team is a far fetched idea for us. There are great trail and ultra runners in India as well but there is a lack of sponsorship in India even though the market can be huge for every kind of brand as the population is quite high here.
I still don't why it is so but can totally relate to where the sport is headed can take this model but it really seems 50-50 right now. When Jim ran his first WSER when he went off course, I still remember his Adidas shoes he was running in (barely cushioned) and the next time he ran WSER- he was sponsored by HOKA and even the evolution in shoes, trail bags, trail belts have been immense.
The funding needed for this to cater 20-25 athletes would be a hefty number. The sport if headed to this direction would be hyper competitive even though the records are being broken almost every weekend somewhere or the other.