For years, a ton of people have said the key to making track more popular it to hype the money angle. A lot of people associated with the sport have emailed us and posted things like, "If only the major marathons paid out more in prize money and less in appearance fees, then the sport would be popular."
We've never really totally 100% bought that argument but the prize money being offered at Drake is incredible.
Midwest grocery store chain Hy-Vee has commited $50,000 to each pro race at the meet, with the winner getting $25,000, the second finisher $15,000 and the third finisher $10,000. It hink all together there is more than $500,000 in prize money. The road races - a 6-K, 10-K and half-marathon--also got $120,000 in prize money.
After her BAA road mile win, we asked Brenda Martinez if she was running Drake. She said she wasn't. It almost sounded as if she wasn't invited to Drake (listen here at 1:15 mark -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNSCBubmQhY
) which might make sense as the Drake race is being hyped as the "London Rematch".
But if they'd let her in, how do you turn down $25,000?
The Drake race is at 7:20 pm on Friday night. Martinez could easily run that, win it and then get on a $500 flight to Penn Saturday morning in time for the 1:05 pm Saturday race. We feel like an in-form Martinez deserves the money rather than a Rowbury/Uceny who make way more and seem to be struggling right now.
Does anyone have the full 1,500 field for Drake? We know it has Rowbury, Simpson, Uceny and Cain. Gabrielle Anderson as well. Who else? Where can we find full fields?
