Deadman Running wrote:
3:48 - but I never received a dime of sponsorship money. I did get some free shoes though. LOL !! I expect that Nike will cut him loose soon. Is 3:42 good ? Hell ya ! But is it worth the money he's making ? Nooooo.
He gets to make money because of what he's done. If you are the American Record holder you get perks like that. If he never did that one race he probably wouldn't be sponsored (since many Americans have made the finals in world championship events). However, he ran 3:46 which really needs to be considered about how good that is. SO many mile races we've seen have had good pacing where 3:30 or below runners are brought through 800 in 1:52-1:53 yet end up running 3:49 or 3:50 mostly because they are lazy and don't want to push the third lap. Webb went to Belgium for the main purpose of running as fast as he could and pushing it to the end, and for that he gets to be where he is now.
Also since he has run that fast in the past, there's the potential he could do it again if he stays healthy. High School runner Bernie Montoya could probably run 3:42.88 if he was in the race, but he hasn't run 3:30 for 1500m or set the American Record, so that's why Webb gets the sponsorship and he or other 3:42 runner don't.