A couple weeks back, I was reminiscing with a friend on our college running days, when we both agreed it would’ve been great if we would have pushed ourselves to run a marathon the fall after graduating. As all former collegiate runners knows, you put your body through incredible training for years, putting in 90+ miles per week, run some terrific PRs and have an aerobic capacity similar to very good marathon runners.

Then, this past weekend at the Chicago Marathon, I noticed BYU All-American Jared Ward in 19^th place with a terrific debut mark of 2:16:17. Here’s a guy who is extremely talented, is a 5k/10k runner on the track, probably capable of being a top 5-8 guy on the track in the right training situation, but his future definitely lies on the roads.

Ward’s performance got me thinking, what if a system was in place to where all graduating cross country All-Americans were encouraged by major marathons to come and run their fall marathons. Basically it would be a soft introduction to life as a professional runner and marathoner.

While only a dozen or so collegiate distance runners (in a good year) obtain healthy enough sponsorship once graduating college to make it as a professional runner, for the health of the sport, we should be encouraging those “B” level All-Americans to continue pushing their limits. However, many of these athletes simply aren’t fast enough to make it on the track, so a gentle push to the roads should be encouraged.

How would this work?

I’d love to see 4-5 fall marathons, especially the non-World Marathon Majors, band together and create a post-collegiate support system for recent graduating All-Americans. Recruit the talent to each fall marathon, allow them to decide which to run in, give out a $1,000 stipend as a nice financial incentive, pay their transportation and lodging and host a clinic on how to make it as a professional runner, even if they don't have sponsorship.

I know, I know, this isn’t my money to spend, but these races HAVE money to spend, so why not develop the next generation of American road runners, invest in the future, while creating a different level of excitement around the events.

Part of the problem with the sport is the lack of transition between fans at each level. A passionate high school cross country runner who doesn’t run in college most likely stops caring about the sport in college. The same goes for many collegiate athletes when they graduate. While not every athlete would have an opportunity to race a marathon and find the financial support needed to make a go of it, at least there’s more connection with post-collegiate runners if you can follow along to your teammate or conference rival as he or she tries to break 2:18 or 2:15 in the marathon.  But now I am getting distracted and focusing on a different problem…

Back to my idea.

So 20-30 freshly graduated All-Americans run fall marathons. They are supported a bit financially, given the proper guidance in training, allowed to showcase their road racing talents and learn what life offers as a professional runner, if even for a few months. This sound like a great opportunity to attract new sponsors into the sport.

Why not have sponsorship prize packages for the top newbie marathon tied to the actual race sponsors? Think about it, a kid debuts in 2:15 and has financial support for a year. Sounds like a huge enticer for both the athlete and the race. It creates motivation and hype. The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon offers a sponsorship prize purse of a year-long Medtronic sponsorship, along with small sponsorships from their gold and silver level sponsors.

Why isn’t this happening already?

I view track and field and road racing as two separate sports. They aren’t even remotely the same and should be treated as such. While I’ve tended to ideate on how to increase the popularity of track and field, lately I’ve been having more ideas centered around the state of road racing and how to make it a more viable business for race directors, athletes and fans. To me, investing in the future of the sport of road racing makes a lot of sense.

That’s my idea. Maybe I’ll flesh it out more, but if you have ideas on what you think could work with this idea, let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below or shoot me an email at scott.bush[at]flowexp[dot]com.