The top runners in Sunday's New York City Marathon will be chasing one of the biggest prize purses in road racing, including $100,000 for the men's and women's winner. But despite being run in the country's financial capital, New York City doesn't offer the largest winner's purse among American races, let alone world races.
Just what are the most lucrative races? And who has won the most prize money? The graphics below tell the story.
For an explanation of why the Dubai Marathon has become one of the key stops on the elite circuit, and why so many promising young African runners immediately become marathoners, see below. The January race in the United Arab Emirates pays winners $200,000, the most of any road race in the world. In all, the ten road races with the largest winner's purse are marathons. (All race-purse figures in this article are based on our research of publicly available information.)
But Dubai isn't necessarily the place to go if you find yourself in phenomenal shape. The graphic below shows the ten road races with the highest possible payouts to one runner, based on a combination of the guaranteed winner's purse and all of the offered time, course and world record bonuses. (And yes, sexism occasionally lingers in prize-money offerings. A man who breaks the world record at the Seoul International Marathon will receive $200,000 more than a woman who does so.) The World's Best 10K in Puerto Rico is the only non-marathon in the top ten.
While everyone loves a winner, some races also smile favorably on other top finishers. The graphic below shows the ten road races with the largest combined purse for places 2 through 5. Offering good prize money to runners other than the winner helps to attract deep fields, and rewards racing to the end instead of saving it for another day.
So, which runners have best capitalized on these prize money offerings? The graphic below shows the top ten men's and women's earners, as of October 29, 2014. It's no surprise that Haile Gebrselassie and Paula Radcliffe, who have set marathon world records and enjoyed long careers, top the lists. It's also not surprising that nearly everyone on the lists are or were primarily marathoners, given the graphics above.
The above graphic is based on a list maintained by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. We've updated their list, which was current through September 3, 2014, to account for races that have been run since then. The biggest change to the list as a result of this fall's races is that Rita Jeptoo moved into the top ten, thanks to her Chicago Marathon win and sewing up the 2013-2014 World Marathon Majors title, which came with a $500,000 prize.
Note that the above graphic pertains only to lifetime prize money earnings. The figures above don't include additional sources of race-based income, such as appearance fees and performance bonuses from a runner's sponsors. The dollar figures are for the amount offered at the time of the race, rather than being adjusted for inflation.
