ACG’s Home Field Advantage at Gorge Waterfalls

The very orange Gorge Waterfalls races by Daybreak and Freetrail happened this week. I previously mentioned Nike/ACG’s colorful takeover of the event. It’s definitely worth browsing the photos and reels on Instagram to see just how much ACG is committed to the bit. It worked extremely well against the moody PNW waterfalls pics.

Let’s start with the podium of the three different distances (check UltraSignup for the full results):

100K

Women:

1. Lotti Brinks – Boise, ID – 9:06:23 – HOKA
2. Liz Hogan – Salida, CO – 9:58:33 – Nike employee
3. Erin Moyer – Washoe Valley, NV – 10:05:15 – NA

Men:

1. Jeshurun Small – Golden, CO – 8:07:29 – Adidas
2. Drew Holmen – Boulder, CO – 8:22:11 – ACG
3. Rob King – Washington Court House, OH – 8:44:19 – Aravaipa

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50K

Women:

1. Jennifer Lichter – Missoula, MT – 4:08:02 – ACG
2. Miao Yao – China – 4:11:46 – ACG
3. Tara Dower – Durango, CO – 4:17:06 – Altra

Men:

1. Koken Ogasawara – Tokyo, Japan – 3:40:25 – ACG
2. Anthony Costales – Salt Lake City, UT – 3:48:19 – ACG
3. David Norris – Steamboat Springs, CO – 3:56:05 – ON

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30K:

Women:

1. Lauren Gregory – Nederland, CO – 2:13:37 – ACG
2. Tayler Tuttle – Longmont, CO – 2:15:58 – NA
3. Riley Brady – USA – 2:20:38 – ACG

Men:

1. Mason Coppi – Lakewood, CO – 1:58:34 – NA
2. Liam Meirow – Portland, OR – 1:59:17 – ACG
3. Grant Colligan – Golden, CO – 2:03:48 – Speedland

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The festivities in the Columbia Gorge got slightly interrupted by comments and questions being raised on how some elites, those sponsored by ACG, were given preferential treatment at the starting line. Here’s what I can parse went down:

For the 30K and 50K all runners are being bussed to a logistically challenging trailhead for the starting line. The official race management directive is NO PRIVATE CARS – EVERYONE HAS TO TAKE THE SHUTTLE. As it turned out, the shuttles had challenges to get to the trailhead and upon arrival the ACG runners were already there, had plenty of time to warm up and seemingly took dedicated transportation to get there.

Asked on Instagram by Sean Olson:

Care to address the bus of runners that were given no time to warmup due to driver error? As well as Nike runners being given an unfair advantage by not having to adhere to the race rules for getting to the start?

Freetrail responds:

We made the decision to balance the late bus arrival with a 15 minute delayed start. We do our best to be flexible given the complexities of the event logistics, while also accounting for the time of everyone involved in the event. Nike ACG is presenting sponsor of our event and our agreement allows for their access to the start line.

That busses arrive late is a logistical challenge, that on one side isn’t new for this race, but shit does happen and I am not gonna rake them over the coals for this one. (Although it’s worth nothing that if this would happen at a UTMB race they’d get heat for it. And if local races aim to play on the worlds’ stage they need to get these things sorted out, just like the big guys.) But the last sentence in the comment from Freetrail is the rub here.

Nike ACG is presenting sponsor of our event and our agreement allows for their access to the start line.

If anyone is receiving preferential treatment – especially one they are contractually committed to – it probably should be known to the other runners. Especially if elites are competing for a prize purse that’s been furnished by the same sponsor who’s aiming to give its athlete a leg up. In the grand scheme of things I don’t think this is a HUGE deal, but in a sport that prides itself with giving everyone equal access to to the same starting line this can been seen as a potential ominous sign – especially since it’s not out in the open. This is the side of increased professionalism we don’t want to see in trail running.

In other sports home field advantages are well documented and can be a real boost to the receiving athletes. But in team sports this is supposed to balance itself out by teams competing at home and on the road in equal measures. Mostly that advantage is supposed to come from fans in the stands and not written into the contract unbeknownst to the competing athletes.

Nike/ACG is currently making a big splash in our sport, and with that they a target in their back. They gotta WANT to get things right – especially given the amount of money they are throwing around – as this has the potential to distort realities very quickly.

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Addendum:

Above, for the podiums I added the brand sponsors for each of the athletes (Information taken from Freetrail’s Fantasy tracker and Instagram). Daybreak/Freetrail announced a prize purse for Gorge of $75,000 combined. This was the breakdown:

• 100K: $15,000 for 1st Place; $7,000 for 2nd Place; $4,000 for 3rd Place
• 50K: $5,000 for 1st Place; $2,000 for 2nd Place; $1,000 for 3rd Place
• 30K: $2,000 for 1st Place; $1,000 for 2nd Place; $500 for 3rd Place

In total (if I include Nike employee Liz Hogan, who’s not an elite runner but came in 2nd in the 100K women’s race) Nike/ACG runners walked away from this weekend with a combined $31,500 or 42% of the total purse. Not a bad haul.