Large road race, which stiffed me in 2017, is being held again in 2018. Solliciting ideas for relatively harmless payback.

To do before anything else at all:

Contact the other two who were in top 3. Did it happen to them too, or just you?

Second thing to do before anything else:

Make sure the race is run by the same people now as it was back then. Race organizers shift. Races are even sometimes sold to continue under new management.

Sometimes race directors and data measuring crews are hired in for the week, and the permit owners then don't even look at the page for months and months. Kinda like people do with their vacation plans, but from the other side.

So...the conclusion I’m inching toward is that the only thing OP was “stiffed” out of was a plastic trophy. He’s been harassing the RD over a plastic trophy. That would explain the non-response. RD probably thinks he’s a nut job.

Ask for an elite bib, then hobbyjog it with a FuelBelt on. Then, post a pic of your finisher medal on the 'Gram and call it day.

Resentment ultimately leads to genocide. Just keep stewing.

RE: Charles Broson and Smoove:

At no point did I ever state that I know there to be a cash award that I'm privy to. Nor did I say that I expect there to be cash. I DID say that I expected something worthwhile given the caliber runners that have placed top-3 in this race in year's past.

Truthfully, while I typically don't even take finisher medals or other plaques/trophies/awards from smaller races, I was kind of proud of this race result. I beat some quality local/regional runners that I hadn't before. I'm not ashamed to admit that a trophy or plaque from this race would have meant something to me. I'm sure there are many of us that couldn't care less about non-cash awards, but still have some "hardware" that they are proud of.

But, ultimately, this is less of a "I want my damn plastic trophy so I can show my non-running friends who most assuredly won't give a crap" issue and more a matter of principle. This company advertised awards for top-3, did not provide, and then will not provide any response.

MY response to their non-responsiveness is to do something that might have them think, "Touche. Maybe we won't be dubious in our race details anymore." I'm not taking them to court, I'm not losing sleep over this... I just thought it would be a funny thread to start. There have been plenty of responses that have made me laugh and I also learned of examples where people have been screwed much moreso than I.

Email the race director and say you are representing a large business in the area and want to be the title sponsor for the race. Go into all the things you'll provide and the money you will back the race up with. String him a long for a few days and then pull out, stating that you can't move forward as you found some bad press online about how the race doesn't follow through with their awards and your business can't be associated with such a race.

I still think two things:

you are over-reacting;

you should sleep with the RD's wife.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

How about you make the world a better place and let it go?

That doesn't make the world a better place.

OP, if the 'awards' were $ awards I would continue pursuing the matter. Continue via social media, especially twitter using a hashtag of the race name and a polite question asking if you will receive your award from last year.

Sure it does. Those awards were not monetary awards, or he would have said so. Fair to try to go get that (but not do some sophomoric payback), but to come up with some payback for a trophy or medal? Meh. Giving "payback" is almost never warranted and almost always done without full knowledge of why the bad thing (in this case not shipping some stupid plastic trophy) was done to begin with. Sometimes there's a good reason. Even if not, payback in this case in any way is petty and small. Best to forgive and forget. That DOES make the world a better place, especially for him.

The responses to this post have been most amusing, which I think is what the OP was after.

The only time I got stiffed out of an award involved taking second place in my (female) age group and then discovering that the "winner" was a guy. I suspect it was a completely inadvertent mistake, and most likely the guy never knew he had been credited with winning the female age group. They corrected the online results a few days later. I never bothered to try to exchange my second place trophy. It looked just like the first place trophy, just a bit smaller.

Seduce the RD's wife?

Smash the RDs face into a car windshield, then take his mother out for a delicious seafood dinner and then never call her again!

pie day wrote:

I've seen a Russian (?) guy run 2:28-ish at the Rocket City Marathon wearing Crocs. Are you he?

https://www.runnersworld.com/masters/the-croc-runner

It has to be him. How many Russians do you see running in Crocs?

Hmmm..... wrote:

Email the race director and say you are representing a large business in the area and want to be the title sponsor for the race. Go into all the things you'll provide and the money you will back the race up with. String him a long for a few days and then pull out, stating that you can't move forward as you found some bad press online about how the race doesn't follow through with their awards and your business can't be associated with such a race.

^this is the number one answer so far.

Smoove wrote:

I still think two things:

you are over-reacting;

you should sleep with the RD's wife.

That's a scumbag move. I'm amazed that you would say that. Would you like someone to sleep with your wife, Smoove? Oh wait, maybe you are in one of those loveless marriages. Maybe you have the hots for one of those girls you coach. Even Eminem knows that you don't mess with another man's wife.

First, I'll agree with those who have said that if there was money, it would almost certainly have been listed on the website. If it only says "awards," usually that means utter crap -- an extra finishers medal or a water bottle or something. Occasionally you get a nice surprise and get a few hundred dollars worth of gear, or shoes, but usually non-specific awards means nothing. Just because fast people have run there in the past doesn't mean the awards were good. I used to be reasonably fast, and sometimes ran rinky-dink races to get a hard effort in or to support a local event.

Second, was there an awards ceremony, and if so, did you stick around for it? If not, you're definitely out of luck. I always found that a big dilemma -- if I placed at a race where the awards ceremony was scheduled hours later, and had no idea if there were decent prizes, would I stick around for the ceremony? In the end, if you don't, you're out of luck. They're not going waste postage money to send you crap.

However, you're absolutely right that one way or another they owe you a response. Annoying situation.

really??????? wrote:

Smoove wrote:

I still think two things:

you are over-reacting;

you should sleep with the RD's wife.

That's a scumbag move. I'm amazed that you would say that. Would you like someone to sleep with your wife, Smoove? Oh wait, maybe you are in one of those loveless marriages. Maybe you have the hots for one of those girls you coach. Even Eminem knows that you don't mess with another man's wife.

Smoove is a wise man. You should listen to him. If the RD stiffed you out of $250, then you stiff his wife. Them's the rules.

With a bit of social engineering, document production and creativity you can cancel their race!

One time personnel in the leasing office at an apartment complex screwed up so badly but the corporate offices refused to do anything about it. The lady in charge didnt have her head screwed on right and was a total nusiance to the tenants. So this guy I knew had enough one day made official looking job advertisement flyers with phone number/email tabs (for this woman's job), posted them on several convenient college bulletins (in the business schools, etc.) advertising pay slightly less than hers and had the job inquiriers e-mailing their resumes directly to HR in the corporate offices.

We had a new face on the premises shortly after. This is not a troll post. Take a page from that book.

It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.