Photo Credit: @AlexisBerg
UPDATE 11/5/18: Albon is One Step Closer to $1,000,000
As everyone has caught their breath after the recent Spartan World Championships a new question has come to the forefront. Can Jon Albon and Lindsay Webster win $1 Million dollars from Spartan?
For those scratching their head right now, Spartan issued a $1 Million Dollar challenge earlier this year. The challenge consists of winning the Spartan World Championship, Sparta Greece Trifecta Weekend, and winning the Ultra Championships in Iceland. If winning these three events was not hard enough you also have to run over 100 miles in Iceland.
From Spartan:
What is the Spartan $1 million prize?
Spartan will pay $1 million to any athlete who is able to achieve the following:
- 1st place at the 2018 World Championship in the qualifying Elite Beast heat (September, USA)
- 1st place at the 2018 Trifecta World Championship, Elite category (November, Greece)
- 1st place at the 2018 Ultra World Championship, Elite category (December, Iceland) with 100 miles or more
Who is eligible to win the $1 million purse?
Anyone who can successfully qualify for the Trifecta World Championship, Spartan World Championship, and the Ultra World Championship Elite heats.
What if a male and female athlete both become eligible for the prize?
In this case, the prize purse will be split between the two winning athletes. $500,000 for the male winner, and $500,000 for the female.
What does “100 miles or more” mean in relation to the Ultra World Championship?
The UWC in Iceland is a 24-hour event, multiple-lap format event. The winner is the athlete who runs the most complete laps within the time limit. To be eligible for the $1 million prize, the athlete must also complete 100 miles or more.
How do I qualify for the Trifecta World Championship?
You must have earned a Spartan Trifecta (completed a Sprint, Super, and Beast) in 2017 or 2018.
How do I qualify for the Ultra World Championship?
You must finish any regular-season Spartan Ultra in the world with a finish time of less than 10 hours.
What happens to the already allocated prize money at the Championships?
The US$1 million purse is a bonus prize, awarded in addition to all advertised prize money at the 3 Championship events.
Is anyone in the world eligible?
As long as the athlete meets the winning criteria at official Spartan events, there are no restrictions as to nationality or geographical location of the winner.
What happens if nobody wins the $1 million this year?
In the event no athlete is able to claim the prize in 2018, Spartan may choose to offer the purse again in 2020.
Albon's Road to $1 Million
Now over a week after the Spartan World Championships Spartan, today put out this video of Jon Albon indicating he is pushing for that $1 Million Dollar prize purse. Find the video here. The Spartan World Championships was the first Spartan of the year for Albon so he will need to run a Super and Sprint to gain entrance into the Greece Trifecta weekend. Albon began that journey with a win over the weekend in the Windsor Super leaves Albon with a sprint to run before the trifecta weekend Nov 2 – 4, 2018. Which Albon could accomplish this weekend in Barcelona.
In order to fill the Ultra requirement it looks like Albon will have to travel to Dallas, Texas on October 27, Bright – Australia or Carolina's Ultra (USA) on November 17, or San Luis Potosí for the Mexico Trifecta weekend on November 27, or finally travel to Malaysia on December 1-2 just a week before the Ultra World Champions to get that final piece of the qualifying puzzle. Either way unless Spartan makes a change to the rules Albon will have to travel to gain entry into the Spartan Ultra Championships.
Once qualifying for the Spartan Ultra Championships Albon would have to not only win the championship race in Iceland but would have to run over 100 miles which the winner Joshua Fiore ran 71.1 miles last year. According to many racers when asked about the 100-mile distance most said it would be a stretch to see it accomplished. Most in the obstacle racing industry know that if anyone is up for the challenge it would an athlete like Albon.
During the Spartan World Championship weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with Albon's family and during a pizza lunch we discussed the options Jon might have to accomplish this goal. While there are a lot of moving pieces today's article from Spartan and this video Jon himself posted it seems he has a new goal in mind. Which we all will be able to watch.
Lindsay Webster's Road to $1 Million
While no reports have been posted that Lindsay is indeed going for the $1 Million Dollar Challenge it is worth noting that she is the only other person in the world up for this prize purse. Lindsay has won the first stage the Spartan World Championships. She has a full trifecta completed from 2017 which qualifies her for Sparta Trifecta Weekend. She has not, however, run a Spartan Ultra this year and would be in the same boat as Albon in terms of qualification. In terms of Iceland, the winning female last year was Morgan McKay who ran 57.5 miles. Webster has a bit of experience at the longer distance OCR but would have to nearly double what a woman did last year to capture part of that $1 Million dollar prize purse.
While Webster has not said if she is going for the prize purse, it is worth noting that would be her path.
Overall, for either athlete to win the $1 Million Dollar prize purse the ultimate factor will be the mileage in Iceland. If either or both athletes are serious about this prize purse they both are undoubtedly making adjustments to their training and seasons in order to achieve this historic prize in the obstacle course racing industry.
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