Indy Classic

It looks to me like the race is done. From their site:

ICM has issued refunds to the thousands of ICM registrants due to the fact that there is not enough volunteers to make the marathon a success, for everyone. The investors have determined that this is the best way to proceed, and by issuing full refunds to all the thousands who have registered will insure all of you that ICM does not intend on keeping your entry fees.

Although full refunds have been issued, ICM will continue to pursue volunteers. If ICM secures enough volunteers within the next few days the investors have decided to allow all those who have received a refund to run this race for free, 2007 only. (Does not pertain to those who have requested a refund on their own, but only to those who ICM voluntarily issued refunds to).

Please help us contact persons interested in volunteering for the marathon. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Jed,

Here is the original article from Dec. 5. I pulled it from the Indy Star archive, via the public library:

Organizers seek 40,000 runners -

Indy Classic Marathon claims solid funding, still working on route, sanctioning

Indianapolis Star, The (IN)

December 5, 2006

Author: BARB BERGGOETZ

BARB.BERGGOETZ@INDYSTAR.COM

A group of local running enthusiasts says it has raised more than $4 million to host an annual marathon in Indianapolis beginning next October.

Organizers of the Indy Classic Marathon have set a goal of 40,000 participants. By comparison, the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon has capped its field at 35,000.

"Our financial backing includes local and out-of-state investors," said Jeanne Johnson, event spokesman and one of several organizers. "We have the money to run the race. We're really excited about it."

Registration for the 26.2-mile race is scheduled to begin Jan. 15.

The exact date and route of the Indy Classic Marathon still needs to be approved by city officials, said DeAnn Milliken, special events coordinator in the city controller's office.

Johnson said the route will be submitted after it is certified by a national running organization. Plans call for the race to start Downtown and to encompass the south, west and north sides of the city.

"We want people to be able to see the beauty of the Downtown area and what Indianapolis has to offer," she said.

Organizers have been planning the marathon for nearly two years and have worked with a marketing firm to determine interest.

Joel Sauer, an organizer of the Indianapolis Marathon in Lawrence, said he is unsure if the new race would siphon runners from his event. In its 11th year, the Indianapolis Marathon was held Oct. 21 and attracted 800 runners. Another 2,000 participated in half-marathon and 5K races. Sauer's goal is to reach 4,000 entries.

Brandi Davis-Handy, spokesperson for the 500 Festival, said another marathon would not adversely affect the Mini- Marathon.

"If anything, it could have a positive impact on the community. It shows there is a huge racing community here," she said.

Tom Hathaway, a local runner who has completed 111 marathons, expressed a preference for a November date due to several other Midwest marathons in October.

Monon Runner wrote:

It looks to me like the race is done. From their site:

ICM has issued refunds to the thousands of ICM registrants due to the fact that there is not enough volunteers to make the marathon a success, for everyone.

I would interpret it to mean that the race is cancelled, but the website never actually uses the word "cancelled." They seem to go out of their way to say the race will not go forward, but avoid the "C" word. It is just another example of the confusing nature of the website and how they do things.

They had to know of this volunteer problem long ago, yet they re-opened registration and accepted more runners until Oct 14, 2007. Why did they do that?

Is there any talk about this in the local press or running community? Anyone saying "I told you so?"

Thanks for reposting the original article.

It says THEY HAVE RAISED - past tense - 4 million dollars.

It would be interesting to know where all that money went.

They ralk about "investors" so this appears to have been set up to make a profit. Nothing wrong with that, but I would be pissed if I had invested in this mess.

On the original thread some posters were calling this a "scam." I don't think one can go that far, especially sice they appear to be refunding the entry fees, but this was just a mess from the beginning.

I also would like to know what the "investors" think about this.

A big THUMBS DOWN to the IndyStar for even biting on the initial press release and publishing that story (thanks for digging that up) without doing any real research and talking to the obvious experts on the local running scene. A simple call to Don Carr or Ken Long for some simple questions about their claims would have raised huge red flags...

Of course there is buzz about this in the local running community - although I don't know anyone that actually signed up for this debacle.

Huge bummer that it sounds like there won't be anything for any of us to go down and watch that morning. Would have been entertaining...

Do you think they will still do the 5k?

Here are a few more funny pages on their website that I just noticed:

http://www.indyclassicmarathon.com/terms.html

http://www.indyclassicmarathon.com/privacy.html

And this classic volunteer opportunity:

"Chip Removal

Each runner is issued a timing chip that is placed on his/her shoe. Indy Crew Volunteers are needed to remove these chips from their shoes so that the runners' times can be recorded."

Yep - gotta make sure you remove that chip, take it over to the scoring table and make sure that runner's time gets recorded...

Good Lord...

Can anyone think of a bigger screw up in a marathon ever?

How do you go from $4 million raised and $750,000 in prize money to not even having a race.

These people in charge have to be the biggest idiots in the history or race organizations.

Indy Guy wrote:

Do you think they will still do the 5k?

Since they appear to be refunding money ONLY for the half and marathon, though even that is not clear, these jokers may be trying to pull off the "5K Marathon." My guess is they may had had a good number of entrants for that and this gets them some cash to offset their losses. Plus it cannot be that hard to do the 5K in comparison to the marathon since the course is so much shorter. I still suspect that it will be screwed up, but ...

That said, I think even the 5K runners were to pick up packets at the still unscheduled expo. That would seem to indicate that the 5K is off.

At the same time the race countdown timer continues to run which indicates the race is on...

I don't quite get why the Indy Star's topix forums are not buzzing about this, my guess is that maybe not many people signed up for them, or not many know the race is off. The race seems to claim around 15,000 runners, that's a lot of runners, why isn't there a bigger outcry there?

Classic train wreck.

I can't understand why they would temporarily reopen registration then cancel the race only a few days later, unless something major changed. Is there any way to tell whether the city of Indianapolis or IMPD shut the race down? (I'm not saying that they did this.) It's true that the city okayed their plan, but as they say the devil's in the details. I wonder if the plan is public information.

What will this race end up costing those involved? Did they ever reserve an expo location? Did they ever procure specific security or medical support? Who is Chief Investment Officer David Williams? Given that key information has been missing from their website from the very beginning, did they really expect this race to occur? We may never know. It's like reading all but the last chapter of an exciting mystery book, only to find that the final pages have been ripped out.

Indianapolis is definitely capable of hosting a major marathon. However, it must be done with the initial support of the local running and business community. The ICM never garnered that support. That was their biggest mistake.

If anyone has email exchanges with ICM representatives about the race (recent or old), please consider posting them here. They might provide additional clues as to what has happened.

I forwarded some information to the Star and asked them to look into it. Don't be surprised if nothing comes of it.

I wonder if the Nordic Pole Walk will go on as scheduled? :)

Gee, I wonder what the "employment opportunities" are? The website seems to indicate potentential employmeny with ICM. Oh, and by the way, I did e-mail someone involved with the race on 10/22, but have yet to get any "updated" information. Never mind the "train wreck", the iceberg is looming ever-closer in the distance!

Gotta See This wrote:

Is there any way to tell whether the city of Indianapolis or IMPD shut the race down? (I'm not saying that they did this.) It's true that the city okayed their plan, but as they say the devil's in the details. I wonder if the plan is public information.

For what it is worth, this link will get you to the permit application info.

!NOO!8306!vas!!!!

It also has some contact names and info on who was hired for insurance and so forth.

There isn't a bigger outcry on the IndyStar Topix forums because all of those "bloggers" from the first few articles were the same person that is involved with the planning of the event. Likely the same person that came over and visited us until Wejo locked the other thread...

And darn it, I was looking forward to spectating my first Nordic Pole Walking event...guess I'll have to book a flight to Iceland for the championships or something now.

Hey, here comes the IndyStar now...organizers are claiming they have "lost" hundreds of volunteers, so make sure you keep an eye out for them as you wander around the city...I'm sure they are around here somewhere...

New Indy marathon nearing a collapse

The first Indy Classic Marathon, already postponed once, is all but canceled after spokesman Brian Meyers said today refunds have been given to all runners for the scheduled Nov. 3 race.

Meyers said the marathon lost "several hundred" volunteers within the past week to 10 days.

"Something's out there, negative," Meyers said. "Our volunteers are e-mailing or calling and saying they can't make it."

Meyers declined to elaborate, except to say organizers will put on the race for free --- for runners who didn't request a refund --- if they get enough volunteers by the end of this week. He said 13,000 runners were expected to participate in the marathon, half-marathon and 5K, although for months running experts have scoffed at various claims made by marathon organizers.

The experts characterized the organizers as inexperienced and said administration of the event has been bizarre.

Melissa Kummings, who works at The Running Company in Carmel, said she received an unsolicited $45 refund for the half-marathon. It came in a hand-written envelope with a hand-written check and no explanation.

"The people I work with said all along that this race is very strange, hard to understand, and that it wouldn't happen," Kummings said.

The race was originally scheduled for Sept. 8 before being postponed because of city concerns over medical and security issues.

Read tomorrow's Indianapolis Star for more details about this story.

Did they issue refunds to all runners or just the "26.2 and 13.1 Marathon" runners? Did the "5K Marathon" runners get refunds, too?

I wonder if we'll ever learn just how few people had signed up for the races.

And who are the "investors?" They must be mighty ticked off.

One thing's for sure...Iceland in November(for a marathon) WON'T be like the Chicago Marathon 2 weeks ago! The drama continues...

Darn, I hope not. I just got out my nodic pole and was getting it oiled up for the big event.

My In-Training for ICM shirt that I bought will be worth money someday

I have had email exchanges from three different people at ICM. One of them is the supposed Race Director, DeLen Parnelle. She assured me just last week that I would be running on Nov 3 in my first marathon.

I guess I must be naive, I saw this event online last spring, thought it was a great opportunity and began training, even adding the 8 weeks after the date change.I have ran 14 Indy mini marathons and thought this would be my best chance at doing a marathon without having the expense of traveling. I didn't see the red flags until the date change but never dreamed it wouldn't go off. At least I know that I have trained and could have ran it, I just didn't get the opportunity.

Where were they getting their volunteers? I remember they had some partnership with some military organizations, reservists perhaps? That might explain the sudden departure of volunteers. Also, certain volunteers you can count on more than others. Track and Cross Country teams, organizations, businesses, those people you can usually count on. If they were just taking random names then it's likely many of them backed out.

Alan