Two guys walk into a bar. You think the second one would have ducked.
Race director has to take some responsibility for this! I know runners should know the course, but pretty hard to go over an entire half marathon course prior to the race, marathon course would obviously be even more difficult. If the pace car was only supposed to lead runners to a certain point, then a biker and/or course officials and signage need to be in place. As a race director myself, this situation seems unacceptable from an organizational standpoint. Feel bad for the runners that got screwed!
I gotta put this on both the runners and the RD.
RD has to communicate the course specifics and what the pace car is going to to do to the elite runners.
I can't tell you how many times I've been directed off course in races. Marshals just aren't ready for the first runners most of the time. Unless this was their first road race, the elite runners in the field know the marshals won't be prepared for them and they need to know the course.
Would you say the same for a marathon? If a runner ran a marathon on Sunday and had to rerun the exact same course on Monday with no pace car, signs, painted lines, course monitors, etc. would blame that runner for not being able to complete the course? Would you still say he or she should have known the course? A lot to ask even for a half-marathon. 5% runners fault, 95% race director and course officials fault!
I have respect for Marley. Pretty decent time, and smart enough to not follow the sheep.
According to the article, this happened towards the end of the race. I've run the half before - if you can't figure out how to get to the finish in the last mile then you're not too bright. It's a straight shot with a fence on both sides of the road (from what I remember) the last .5 mile.
Even as a relative hobby jogger I've learned to familiarize myself with the last mile of a course.
almost certainly entirely the race directors fault. You people saying the runners should be familiar with the course are idiots. for a hometown 5k, ya, maybe. For a marathon that they probably drove or flew in friday night for, no. What were they supposed to do, happen to know all the little intricacies from a poorly put together map? go out and run it the day before?
Edward Teach wrote:
almost certainly entirely the race directors fault. You people saying the runners should be familiar with the course are idiots. for a hometown 5k, ya, maybe. For a marathon that they probably drove or flew in friday night for, no. What were they supposed to do, happen to know all the little intricacies from a poorly put together map? go out and run it the day before?
This is the correct answer. It's typical on LRC that most people rush to bash their fellow runners. It doesn't make any sense at all.
It happens. I also feel the 4th place guy should've done the right thing and split it with the other 3.
In this case the RD is to blame. No one else.
I ran in the 20k championship, and watched two guys run off the course. The cop said "I was telling traffic where to go, I have no responsibility for the runners directions, just their safety."
He is right!!
And in that case, it was the runner's faults. they admitted, like fools, that they were not paying attention during the course tour. Because I saw them, and I knew to turn right. why didn't they?
Why? Because they were not paying attention!!
Two scenarios.
The Mercedes Marathon is a professional organization, I hope they would correct the wrong and pay those 3 runners their due prize money? Then again, reading the article it sounds like they are taking none of the blame, very unfortunate.
RD fvcked this up, big time.
All of the local yokals are on the offensive calling the runners dumb. One of the runners said that he was confused by the fact that no one from the pace vehicle ever stopped to tell them to move to the other side of the road. Several pace vehicles kept driving and even commented on the television coverage that they were off course. This went on for a mile. Had ANY of the vehicles stopped at any point during that mile the problem would have been corrected.
This happened in Alabama, right?
'nuf said.
I was in this race. I ran closely with the top women. I was confused at certain points, as were the women around me. Once we got into downtown and made the turn onto 20th street (which is I think the turn the men missed), it was rather clear how to finish, but I was somewhat surprised that with this kind of prize money and pretty decent caliber runners (many of Brooks-Hansons came down) that there wasn't more organization in the last miles. Lots of long stretches with nobody telling you where to go and not always the most obvious markings.
I just watched the local coverage. I see what happened. The marathon is two loops of the same course. at around 11-12 miles, they split the road--half marathon on the left, full on the right. Definitely a sign there but no human. It's easy to jump to the other side of the road in the time after that sign appears, especially if you are cutting tangents. 1/2 mile from the finish, as you go up 20th, you have to go left or right around the square. You HAVE go left to get into the 1/2 marathon finish area (all contained by barriers). But from what I remember, there weren't a bunch of signs at that juncture and no official there telling you that. If you read the course map before hand as I did, you knew about the split and to stay left. But that's still not a reason to blame the runners. I caught up to the top woman at 12.5 and I saw her veering towards the right and looking confused. She was fading, as you can imagine. Fortunately she stayed on the left side of the road, but there certainly wasn't an official standing there telling her to do that, or any official for that matter that recognized she was the top woman. I don't know if she simply followed me as I passed her or she just figured it out.
Anyway, this explains the slow times. Luke Humphrey ran in this race and now I see why the finish times were what they were.
I too saw on the map to stay to the left. If you are too dumb to not read the course map before the race, you don't deserve the money.
(I dont deserve any money because I was 10 minutes back of the winner)
another guy in the race wrote:
I too saw on the map to stay to the left. If you are too dumb to not read the course map before the race, you don't deserve the money.
(I dont deserve any money because I was 10 minutes back of the winner)
Maybe if you weren't jogging the course then you would understand that it is not always easy to think clearly towards the end of a race?
I was an elite in this race, to be fair, the RD sends out this to all elites:
"A few other details:
• We do not offer a course tour. If you have questions about the course please stop by the Birmingham Track Club booth at the Expo and they can answer your questions. You are responsible for being familiar with the race course.
• Please make sure, , if you are running the half marathon, that you are aware of the “split” in the course. If you miss the split for the half marathon finish line you will be back on the marathon course since our course is a double loop. "
I found the signage to be completely adequate, multiple instances of "Half Marathon this side" for the last 2-3 miles.
That being said, if you don't know the course I can understand following the lead car, BUT we were warned about it specifically.