Week in Review – 6/15 to 6/21
6/15 – 7.35 Miles Total with 8*400 on the track at 5k pace, with 200m recovery
6/16 – 4 Miles in Virbram Five Fingers
6/17 – 15 Miles on The High Line Canal
6/18 – 3 Miles, was planning on going longer but tripped on the sidewalk and cut my hands/knees up, so I cut the run short
6/19 – Off
6/20 – 7 Miles
6/21 – 7 Miles
43.35 Miles Total
JM pointed out that the Stadium Stampede prizes only brought out two fast runners in the Men’s race. Simon Cheprot is becoming the king of the local racing circuit and is taking home a nice collection of prizes. He took home $500 in cash and a Frontier plane ticket, thus one of the better prize purses for a local race.
I have to wonder if giving away prizes is in the best interest of the race? To preface, I am all for rewarding excellence, but am guessing that it is not in the best interest of the race to give awards to the top runners in terms of ROI. Game Theory is at the heart of the discussion. A lot of elements are at play here, for starters Simon Cheprot has been dominating the local racing scene and perhaps this discouraged some of the other top runners in the area from even coming out. Of course Cheprot has been coming to any race within the last month that has been giving away money, thus I think there was a high probability that he would be at the race.
The race used getmeregistered to process online registration. One of the features of the site is it allows you to verify registration, which also allows you to check to see what other runners are registered if you know their name. Thus, if Simon Cheprot was pre-registered it would have signaled to other fast runners that they should not bother showing up if they did a search for his name.
Perhaps if you are going to give out prize money at a race this feature should be turned off? One thing I do know about game theory when dealing with auctions, it’s always better for the business that the players involved know little about who else is playing and when you can find out what other runners are participating it hurts the field and the race’s bottom line. But who knows, for all I know Simon Cheprot could have registered on race day. His Coach has posted on my blog before, I guess I could email him and ask him.
I think it’s doubtful anyone looked to see if Cheprot was registered. No one, except me and apparently you, would think of doing that, and I didn’t do it. I think everyone assumed that he’d be there though. Likewise, I assume he’ll be at SkirtChaser and at Park to Park.
In the past, I think you needed a low 15 to crack the 3, so guys like me have no business going if we just want some $. The race just has a reputation that that’s what it’s going to take. That’s where you need prize money to go deep, 5-10 deep, have some specifically for masters too. In this way, I like what Boulder Half/Marathon is doing and giving $50 to age group winners. At the same time though, $50 would still put me $30-40 down for the day there.
I’ll also say that he will show up at the Southlands 5k for the $500 Mall Gift Certificate. My guess is Cheport likes to shop at Banana Republic, so he will surely show up for that race.
I also hope he runs the Pearl Street Mile for the $125.
Last year Clint Wells and Leatherby tied for first with a 14:49 at the Stampede, wonder where they were this year? I haven’t heard Clint Wells name mentioned in awhile, now that I think about it.
I think Clint ran the Teva Mtn Games 10K, but I was surprised that he didn’t go for a 3-peat at BB10K.