Philly Marathon

It's not like you need to make things up to complain about. The men's half was won in 1:05:33, and the women's in 1:14:43. The men's 8k was won in 24:18, the women's in 26:24. None of those is especially slow.

How about the awards? They were all inscribed with, \"Presented by MAYOR MICHAEL A.. NUTTER\". I mean, who cares who gave the award? Bill Rodgers was a co-presenter,yet no mention of him.

This was another crossover, which they will eliminate by shifting the 8k to Saturday. Those of us finishing the HM in the 1:10-1:30 range had to steer through the 8k participants, who were coming through at a rate of 50-100 per minute. It was odd to be running basically alone and then have to navigate through the throng as I merged from the right and was directed to a chute on the left.

LetsRun4Fun wrote:

1) The announcers had NO CLUE what was going on. The half marathon winners were never announced - even though it was a really exciting finish - if you happened to be paying attention - unlike the announcers ... they were too busy cheering on the people running 8:00/mile in a 5 mile race than bringing home guys running 5:10/mile in a 13.1 mile race.

i was top 10 in the marathon and basically had a "biker assigned to me for the last section. it was terrible. definitely slowed everything down 10+ seconds from all the weaving.

The only way this will not happen again is if people respectfully complain. Unions are good at complaining in Philly to get their way so lets form a Philly Marathon Union to insure the big bosses don't allow this to happen again. Go here http://www.philadelphiamarathon.com/page/contact-us and respectfully let them know what you think.

Agreed. I was stunned at how poorly this race is organized. I was there giving support for one of the elites and couldn't believe that the raace organizers allowed the half marathon and marathon fields to merge shortly before the finish. Insane. The top finishers in the marathon had to dodge and weave through hoards of joggers who were finishing the half marathon in +2 hour times. If Philadelphia wants to have a national class marathon, the first thing they need to do is drop the half marathon (or at least find a way to keep the half marathon field out of the way). Moving the 8K race to Saturday wouldn't be a bad idea either. Fianlly, they need some real prize money.

Actually it is good to first butter them up with what you liked about the marathon before you explain your frustration with the finish. For me a positive was the name on the bib number. It was really great to here people cheer for you and say your name. Also, the course gave you a nice taste of the city and their volunteers did a good job of handing out fluids and gels. Good stuff like that.

Did anyone else see a discrepancy with the timing? I crossed the starting line WELL after the 60 seconds that the posted results suggest. Consequently, my posted chip time is WAY off from what my stopwatch says I ran. (My watch is accurate.)

philly thoner wrote:

The only way this will not happen again is if people respectfully complain. Unions are good at complaining in Philly to get their way so lets form a Philly Marathon Union to insure the big bosses don't allow this to happen again. Go here

http://www.philadelphiamarathon.com/page/contact-us

and respectfully let them know what you think.

Complaining, respectfully or otherwise, wont do a bit of good. The bottom line is money and the race organizers dont care about the few serious runners, all of whom will encounter serious problems in this nightmare called Philly. I ran this thing 3 years ago and saw the same complaints then. "Some things never change." Philly is definitely on my DNR (Do Not Run) list. Many marathons are in the same boat or headed there. Personally, I wont run any big marathons. 26.2 is the same mileage in Podunk, Iowa as it is in anywhere else.

hey watch it

broadstreetbob wrote:

If Philadelphia wants to have a national class marathon, the first thing they need to do is drop the half marathon (or at least find a way to keep the half marathon field out of the way). Moving the 8K race to Saturday wouldn't be a bad idea either.

As I understand it, moving the 8k to Saturday is a done deal, but the main reason I have heard is to allow more marathoners/half marathoners on Sunday. I have read a few pieces about the change and have not read anywhere that the change is "to improve the marathon experience" or something like that.

It's not unreasonable for Philly to have both a half and a full on Sunday, and they should be able to co-exist if properly planned. The key to avoiding having faster marathoners have to do the bob and weave through the slower half marathoner at the finish is to have the half marathoners start an hour before the marathoners. Even a 45 minute gap would probably do it. An hour lag means that when a 2:20 marathoner approaches the finish he will only have to avoid 3:20+ half marathoners. That's about 14:40/mile pace. I would think the number of half marathoners in the 2:20-2:50 range would be significantly higher than the number in the 3:20+ range. Have not looked at the slow end of the Philly results to confirm that.

I can't believe the f***ing whining on this thread.

Yes, the finish wasn't the best ever, but so far as I'm concerned the rest of the event went great. There were hundreds of portapotties, the bag check was well run, the race started ON TIME, the mile markers were (largely) accurate, there were TONS of aid stations (with portapotties) along the course. The weather was utterly fantastic! I ran 2:4X and felt like a rock star, with all the people yelling "go Pete!" "looking good Pete!" or whatever. At the halfway point, I wasn't particularly fussed about the 13.1/26.2 split. I had to weave a bit through the crowd at the finish, but I didn't lose any time.

Glass half full folks. Jeezus H!

Yikes! We would be catching the HM walkers and joggers maybe 7-8 miles in the marathon and that would continue until we split off just before the finish. So instead of dealing with a few hundred runners, we would have to pass several thousand.It still doesn't solve the problem of the marathon course crossing itself, which means we would again have to deal with the 6 hour pace people when we finish.

marathon runner wrote:

It's not unreasonable for Philly to have both a half and a full on Sunday, and they should be able to co-exist if properly planned. The key to avoiding having faster marathoners have to do the bob and weave through the slower half marathoner at the finish is to have the half marathoners start an hour before the marathoners. Even a 45 minute gap would probably do it. An hour lag means that when a 2:20 marathoner approaches the finish he will only have to avoid 3:20+ half marathoners. That's about 14:40/mile pace. I would think the number of half marathoners in the 2:20-2:50 range would be significantly higher than the number in the 3:20+ range. Have not looked at the slow end of the Philly results to confirm that.

Dude its not the fact thaat something completly awful happenned but the fact that it is a major marathon and it was a rediulous decision to have all the races crisscross at a certain point. just becuase it went well for you and most. it is still not somthing that should happen and you should not have to worry about something so rediculous after running 26 miles. i trained 6 months for this race and long hard 100 mile weeks and the fact that some idiotic decision by race management to have a criss cross and be so unorganized isnt whining but a legitamate gripe, someone could get hurt etc.

There were many positives that you did mention, weather, support by fans, etc. Great, but if you are paying 100 dollars as many did, and planned for months, it should be a positve experience all around for everyone, It is a race, a race, and the winners of 2 of the races were neglected and many had no idea they even finished, that is embarrasing. This event was geared more towards walking and joggers, lets not forget why the event is here, it is a race, and who can win in this prestablished distance and course

So I pose a question to everyone on this board.

The marathon and half marathon have a common start and the marathoners cross through a mat at 13.1 miles even with the finish of the half marathon. Therefore should Karl Savage (3rd place in the marathon) be given money for a fourth place finish in the half marathon since he crossed the 13.1 mat in 66:50 a time good enough for 4th place in the half?

It is not surprising that there was yet another day full of cock-ups and idiocy around this marathon.

I ran it in 2006, and will NEVER go near this race again. The people running it are lokel yokel morons. They think it is something akin to the grade school bake sale.

I was in Tokyo and there was a race director from a North American marathon, there to check things out, meet w/ support vendors, athletes etc. I seriously doubt the organizers of the Philadelphia event venture beyond the East Coast of the US for ideas.

They are trying to be populist like the MCM, international like NYC, and they fail miserably at both. The race is a complete joke, and always will be.

This marathon has sparked a lot of outrage in the Philly running community. The half marathon is completely unnecessary as the Philly Distance Run is a great half and is only 6 weeks prior to the marathon. The half provides congestion to marathoners at the start, halfway and the finish. The half also causes confusion for marathoners as they are trying to maintain an appropriate pace, while being passed by half marathoners who would not be passing them in a marathon. There were a few Philly elite runners who were shut out because the race sold out well in advance and the elite director was not flexible on allowing a recent two time fourth place finisher and a one time third place finisher into the race. I couldn't even estimate how many others were shut out who would pay the $130 and bring their wallets with them on race weekend to help with our soaring budget deficit.

The day was perfect and the crowds were very supportive, but the city needs to wake up and realize that the same person who organizes the annual fourth of July fireworks might not have the ability to put on a marathon, and it needs to bring in a private group.

lets just be clear, PDR no longer exists....It is Rock N Roll Philadelphia. Didn't you get the thing in the mail with the white trash rockers on it?

I heard the race was disorganized. The wave starts were screwed up, and so were some times. True?