OFFICIAL - What Did You Think of the Philadelphia Marathon??

The organisation was a joke. That was obvious from the website - originally saying the start was at 8:30am, then chaning to 8:00.

The race information booklet had nothing in it - no map, no real tiemtable, no layout of the finish area etc.

Saturday night my expctations were EXTREMELY low, so I was not dissappointed.

I expected 1) some water 2) a time and 3) a place to take a dump along the course if need be. I got 1 & 2, and had to improvise #3.

This is a regional race organized and funded to a regional level. This event is not commercial or well organised enough to "take it to the next level". That being the case, though, it is a pretty good LOCAL race.

as an after thought and as a spectator, what were the qualifications to be in the "elite" field? there really didn't seem to be that big of an "elite" showing in the marathon. although, the mckeeman kid (or whatever his name is) finished up pretty strong looking at the splits. does he have a UNC tattoo on his arm? what's his story?

Wasn't there a top DII runner entered in this? How'd he do?

Men's Elite was sub 2:35 I believe.

From what I've heard though, the whole "elite athlete organization" was a complete joke.

Where do I start. Had to have a friend who was running the 8k check my bag because of the long line. Should never have a single line for this. Could not hear any annoucements before the start. The start was about seven minutes late. There was no sound to start the race I just heard the chips going off. The early mile markers were off. I think mile 3 was at 5k. The mile markers coming back onto the west river drive were confusing. Not knowing were the water stations were made it a guessing game to take a gel pack. Having the carpet before the 20 miler mark was strange. I think they also had it a weird location around 10 miles. My friend who ran the 1/2 said the finish was screwed up. They had to make a 180 turn. The food and refeshment were embarrassing. I think the only positive i can come up with were the volunteers were great. When I went to get my bag the girl had it ready. Maybe I just got lucky the girl said they trying to be the best organized. The course and weather and location are the only reason I will go back. Philadelphia is a slum.

JimG wrote:

1. Janis Pierce works for the city handling numerous functions, of which the marathon is just one. Today she is busy w/ the Thanksgiving Day parade, and right after that it's on to Christmas stuff. So she is not a full-time RD.

That's great that she has such a busy and challenging life working for a burnt-out shitheap of a city, but not only wasn't she a full-time RD, she wasn't even a part-time RD or a titular RD or an RD emeritus; as far as I can tell, she wasn't affiliated with the race and its functioning at all. She did not reply, as far as I know, to a single e-mail sent to her by anyone needing information, and I've spoken to a number of entrants. And her lack of effort was reflected in the way the event stone cold soiled itself this year.

She did, however, find time to stand around at the finish while a loud and unusually brain-dead announcer (who was apparently trucked in from Colorado to make witty remarks like "don't you wonder about those male half-a-thoners in their pink race bibs, ha-ha winky-winky") sung her praises. He may as well have been congratulating her for her help with the Apollo missions or the spirit she showed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

On the technical side, the results, to be gentle, are screwy beyond relevance. Not only was the site a mess during and right after the race, it's still riddled with errors. I have to think they put the chip mats in places they originally didn't intend to put them, because the "10 mile" split was really at around 10.25, the "half" at around 14.3, and the "14 mile" at around 13.85. At least "finish" actually corresponds to runners' 26.2-mile times (I think).

The irony was rich as the announcer-hole continued insisting as marathoners streamed in that Philly was no longer in the minor league of big marathons. Maybe he was correctly asserting that it had been demoted to City Men's Thursday-Night Beer League status. Or to tee-ball standing. And piss on poor AMEX, which doesn't need to be affiliated with a colossal failure like this scrape of a road race when it already has problems.

I heard from a runner that was running near her that the women's winner (Bychvova) cut the course with the half-marathoners (saving about 90 seconds-2 minuts...which is about the amount she won by). If you look at her splits, she apparently ran the four miles between miles 10 and 14 in 22:10 (so about 5:30 pace), despite running 6:07 pace for the whole race. Any confirmation on this? They should have chips during the half-marathon "short-cut" that would prevent this. If this is true, if makes the whole race a total joke.

jg205 wrote:

you look at her splits, she apparently ran the four miles between miles 10 and 14 in 22:10 (so about 5:30 pace), despite running 6:07 pace for the whole race.

See my post above. The split given for "10 miles" was closer to 10.25, and the one for "14 miles" more like 13.85. 22:10 for about 3.6 miles is about 6:09 pace.

I would probably defend her for this. She is probably use to running in more professional events.There was one sign that I notice where we split at 10 miles. I was nervous that I went the wrong way. At the split right before 13 miles they had the guy yelling into a mega phone for the 1/2 thoners to go right.If you don't speak english how would you know. Anything to do with Philadelphia is usually screwed up.

Over all the race went well. On the other hand the orginaization was awful. Let start

1, Larry never replied back, for elite runners

2, Dropped elite water to expo, left my cell #, never received a call

3, day of race water was left out

4, mile split was off

5, water station not were expected

6, At end no attention to the top finishers

7, no body wrap at the end

the results are still not up on their website. weak. who won the marathon and 8k?

The mile markers were way off, the most annoying being mile 3, which caused me to speed up for the next several miles and then hit the wall much later on.

The first half of the course is great, but the second half is awful. 12 miles out and back. They should change the course, or run it exactly backwards. I would rather roll through town in the second half.

There were no fans worth talking about in the second half of the race.

The splits online are way off, too. Everyone ran 14 miles faster than they ran a half.

The philly marathon has a lot of potential if they had more imagination. Play up the whole Rocky thing, get more of the colleges involved, have it be more of a historical tour. And skip Manayunk.

2nd timer wrote:

The mile markers were way off, the most annoying being mile 3, which caused me to speed up for the next several miles and then hit the wall much later on.

The first half of the course is great, but the second half is awful. 12 miles out and back. They should change the course, or run it exactly backwards. I would rather roll through town in the second half.

There were no fans worth talking about in the second half of the race.

The splits online are way off, too. Everyone ran 14 miles faster than they ran a half.

The philly marathon has a lot of potential if they had more imagination. Play up the whole Rocky thing, get more of the colleges involved, have it be more of a historical tour. And skip Manayunk.

First, the only mile marker that was off was the 3. I took note as most of the subsequent miles and the clocks were right next to the spray-painted marks that had been put down by the course certifier. And if you were that naive to believe you'd slowed down that much by the third mile of the race and sped up to compensate, you'd better sign up for remedial Marathoning 101. When stuff like that happens you've got to roll with it, at least for one more mile.

Second, maybe you were having a bad race, but the crowds in Manyunk were as deep as almost anywhere on the course, and definitely as loud. I was kind of dreading that part of the out and back stretch myself, thinking back to how desolate it seemed 10 years ago, but was pleasantly surprised. I'll agree it would be nice to run the course in reverse, but that would mean tying up downtown streets for an additional several hours, and that's not gonna happen.

Anyone know how to claim age group awards? After the race, we hung around for a few hours, but no results were posted and no announcements made (that I heard). I've e-mailed Janis Pierce without reply. Also tried calling the phone number and got an answering machine with a full voicemail box.

I am in the same situation. Does anyone know what to do to get in touch with someone to claim an age group award?

I got mine at the race. They claim that they will not mail them.

They also didn't have anything on the otherwise awesomely informative race website about when the awards would take place -- or any other helpful info, for that matter -- and there was nothing in the colorful, top-notch joke of a local fitness shitrag doubling as the "official race program" about this either. Now, I'm the furthest thing from a cynic you'll find, but I'm guessing that the accommodating and mercenary race organizers were well aware in advance that the fraction of paying customers who would earn prizes of any kind was on the order of one percent, meaning that they and their concerns could be safely ignored. Race director Janis Pierce, reportedly as busy as a bee on Dexedrine with pre-race duties she entirely ignored, should be commended for this inexcusable lapse, just as she should be held accountable for the countless other shit-ups that plagued a genuinely immaculate triad of road races.

While I will duly acknowledge the bang-up job done by this crew of highly motivated brain-lesion victims on Sunday, it appears from where I sit that Philly has quickly become a crippled, profit-first crapathon in the spirit of the highly popular Rock 'n' Roll series of amped-up, worthless walkathons for ugly lardasses whose only crime is getting off the couch and making a go at health and fitness. The trivial but major difference is that Philly lacks R'n'R's numbers.

What mile markers were off besides mile three? Every other variation in mile splits that I had could easily be accounted for by an uphill or downhill stretch. It sounds like you are way too uptight. Common sense should have told you that the mile marker at 3 was accidentally placed at 5k. If you were concentrating so hard at this point in the race to keep pace that you couldn't figure that one out then your race was doomed well before you hit mile 3.

You have awfully low standards for "post of the year, maybe the history of the board."

Obviously I don't know anything about Yuot's motivations. My point is: he could have run at least 3-5 minutes faster if he had run a marathon next weekend. No doubt he could have run 10 minutes faster if he had waited until, say, Houston, and given himself a couple weeks of training geared specifically towards the marathon.

But instead he has achieved demigod status among letsrun posters because he picked up $1000. That will pay the rent in Philadelphia for maybe a month and a half. Hopefully he'll be ready for another marathon soon.