txRUNNERgirl wrote:
I didn't say I'm on his side. I'm trying to be neutral and see both sides. I think it's bad publicity if your winner is disqualified for something like this. He ran the entire race with an official bib number that someone paid for. I started the thread for input as to what could have been done or can be done differently in the future. The obvious solution is the guy should have registered himself, but I don't know his circumstances.
I think it's good publicity when your winner is DQ'd for something like this. It means they stand by their policies. It would be worse if they go "well, we enforce our stated policy except in cases where you win". So the guy didn't follow the rules, he was DQ'd as he should have been, and now it's less likely that others will follow his lead due to the publicity. Good deal all around.
While I think some sort of transfer policy would be nice, it is an incredible hassle and likely would be misused more than what happens now. Everyone says "Oh, it's just a little change on the computer", but it's really not. You need to get new waivers from the transferee, and what do you do about full races? You want to start getting around race limits by having people register early then transfer to their friend, or should someone on the waiting list get it instead? How do you deal with the fact everyone decides to do the "transfer" at the last minute? What do you do about someone that registers early then "transfers" after the price goes up?
Having been on the administration end of a transfer/refund policy for a small race I can't imagine how hard it would be to deal with it for 9000 participants. Starting one really opens a bag of worms.