A whopping $480,000 prize purse went out to impediment course racers on the first-ever 2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla occasion in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend. Prime path runners had been among the many athletes vying for that money.
Athletes from 40 totally different nations took half on a looping 10-kilometer course, passing 20 obstacles per lap. The purpose was to finish as many loops as attainable in eight hours.
Uncommon in a single day rain pushed the race begin again one hour, however as issues obtained happening Saturday, February 24, the recent and sandy situations anticipated of Saudi Arabia prevailed.
Particular person winners Jonathan Albon (U.Ok., lives in Norway) and Alisa Petrova (Russia) every collected $80,000, and the large prize purse ran 10 deep in each the ladies’s and males’s races.
Jonathan Albon, the 2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla males’s winner. Picture: Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla
For some context on this prize cash, in impediment course racing, a $30,000 to $50,000 first-place prize has been seen with some frequency, however as we perceive it, this payout is the very best for the game to this point.
In ultrarunning, the largest prize purse is at South Africa’s Comrades Marathon, the place for this 12 months the winner will get 550,000 South African Rand (about $28,500) and the complete prize purse is 3,278,000 Rand (about $170,000). In path working, it’s possibly the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile within the U.S. that provides the largest prize purse, with $15,000 for the person win and $83,500 awarded whole.
Per the race group, full race outcomes are anticipated to come back on-line on Wednesday, and we’ll replace this text after they do.
2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla Males’s Race
Longtime rivals Jonathan Albon (U.Ok., lives in Norway) and Ryan Atkins (Canada) had been once more on the entrance of the boys’s pack. Way back to the 2014 Spartan World Championships, the pair of all-timers have been one-two on the prime of the obstacle-racing sport. Albon gained then, a mere 65 seconds higher than Atkins in a roughly three-hour race, and Albon gained once more right here too.
Albon wore full-leg white compression tights, presumably to assist to handle the day’s warmth, solar, and sand publicity. Albon totaled 100 kilometers on the eight-hour circuit. He took residence $80,000 for his effort.
Since his 2014 win, Albon had principally stepped away from impediment course racing, first to pursue skyrunning and later, ultrarunning. Albon most just lately gained the 2023 CCC and the 2023 Les Templiers, and he’s anticipated to make his 100-mile debut on the 2024 Western States 100.
Atkins, who additionally has had success at ultrarunning, completed second, additionally with 100k. He gained $32,000.
Third-place Mark Batres (U.S.) additionally completed with the identical variety of laps of the course. Batres is a brand new title to iRunFar, however maybe has the quickest working pace. The 40-year-old ran as quick as 29:25 for 10,000 meters again in 2009. Batres earned $16,000 his podium end.
The 2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla males’s podium (l-to-r): 3. Mark Batres, 1. Jonathan Albon, and a pair of. Ryan Atkins. Picture: Impediment Racing Media/Matt Davis
2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla Ladies’s Race
Race winner Alisa Petrova (Russia) overtook fast-starter Nicole Mericle (U.S.) late within the day to complete with 90k run. Petrova’s profitable effort was additionally value $80,000.
Mericle and Janka Pepova (Slovakia, lives in Switzerland) each completed a lap again with 80k run. Mericle earned $32,000 and Pepova $16,000.
The 2024 Robust Mudder Infinity AlUla ladies’s podium (l-to-r): 3. Janka Pepova, 1. Alisa Petrova, and a pair of. Nicole Mericle. Picture: Impediment Racing Media/Matt Davis
All three of those ladies have expertise in path working as properly. Final month, maybe in coaching for this occasion, Petrova gained the 2024 G.O.A.T. Extremely Path Race 50k within the United Arab Emirates, beating Marathon des Sables prime Moroccan ladies’s runner Aziza El Amrany.
Amongst her current path outcomes, Mericle was thirteenth on the 2023 Damaged Arrow Skyrace Vertical Kilometer. And Pepova ran Sierre-Zinal again in 2021.
