What’s a Record When it Can’t be Confirmed?

After her massive FKT on the Appalachian trail Tara Dower re-ups her contract with Altra. Abby Levene, for ‘Run Powered by Outside’ shares the news:

Tara Dower, the ultrarunning champion who broke the overall record on the Appalachian Trail this September, has re-signed with her shoe sponsor, Altra. The multi-year sponsorship will allow the 31-year-old from Virginia Beach to focus full-time on running.

Well deserved, I’d say.

Aside from the headline (Tara Dower Signs Record-Breaking Deal with Altra) that leaves more questions than answers a couple things, highlighted in this paragraph confuse me:

Like most running sponsorship contracts, Dower’s comes with a confidentiality agreement. Abetted by her agent Kelly Newlon, it’s believed Dower negotiated a contract between $100,000 and $250,000 per year. It could be up to a double-digit-fold increase from her contract this year as a first-year member of Altra’s elite athlete team, and it could be one of the biggest in ultrarunning history. 

The rest of the article reads like a press release from Altra, which is fine and understandable for such a big announcement, but if Altra wants to keep the contract details under NDA, why throw out numbers that are such a wide spread that they confuse more than tell the story they are trying to share.

If it’s indeed record-breaking can you really pin this on such shaky ground as: “could be one of the biggest in ultrarunning history”?

Not even the duration of the contract is shared in the article.

If a global corporation would hire an employee full-time for these tasks:

From product development to racing, marketing campaigns to diversifying the sport, both McLaren and Gould underscored the astronomical impact they believe Dower will bring to the brand.

What would the annual salary be?

Not trying to dump on this, clearly this is a big win for Tara. It shows that having an agent on your side is helpful, and clearly this is great news for the top athletes in our sport. I just don’t know if this framing does for Altra what they hoped it would do. Claiming a record calls for comparisons. If a record can’t be proven, it’s better not to call it one?