NYC Marathon Meeting With Pros At 11 am Today

YouKiddingBro? wrote:

A lot of the elites were poor, poor people who now run for a living because that was the only job they could get and their other choice was living in abject poverty in Africa. Can you really frequent this site and not be aware of that? Or are

you just that stupid?

This, and may I add that how dare all you selfish yanks rabbit on about yourselves when by far the worst victims of the tragedy are in places like Haiti where people genuinely are getting sick, going without clean food and water and the like? Hardly comparable to having to live in a shelter for a few weeks.

Why should elite runners who earn alot less lose out when the New York Giants players are still rolling in it?

And that is why elite distance running today has become a PED riddled bore fest of pathetic individuals devoid of any personality who are easily manipulated by corrupt agents and coaches from developped nations. Elite distance running would be 1000s of times more popular and interesting if elites sucked it up and got a real job as Yuki Kawauchi did.

Imagine if your boss told you in June that he is going to pay you $20,000 to give a presentation in October. You work hard on this presentation for six months then there is talk that they will cancel the presentation the week before, but then he tells you that it definitely is going on, then two days before they cancel the thing entirely. I'm sure you wouldn't be pissed about that one bit.

Wittenberg is a pleaser and not a wartime Consiglieri

My point was not to minimize the suffering of those affected by Sandy, but to suggest that this doesn't suck for elites also in such a patronizing way as "poor, poor runners who run for a living" just struck me as really idiotic. My heart goes out to everyone hurting from Sandy, but come on man these guys are just trying to make a living. And running marathons for a living isn't exactly the cushiest job in the world. Just because a lot of us would love to do it doesn't mean it's easy and even if it were, they shouldn't be expected to lose 1/3 to 1/2 of their earning capacity for a whole year and be cool with it because some moron(s) think running for a living is a sweet deal. Ok rant over.

ranbarts2 wrote:

What about my $260, Wejo? I am dead serious, please try to get some answers about our entry fees. Are they going to charity? Are they going to be rolled into next year's race? Can we run for free next year?

Please look into this as it is a big deal to me, that is a lot of money to some of us and, personally, I hope it goes to charity if they cannot return it.

Does it not seem odd that they would just keep the money? That does not seem right.

I feel your pain as $260 is a nice chunk of chnage but if you take a look and learn the facts I think you'll realize it seems right and is standard for all races.

The answer is very simple. You will not get a refund but your money will go to charity.

You won't get a refund as the NYRR doesn't have $10 million plus lying around to give back to everyone.

But the good news is your money will go to charity. For starters, the NYRR gave $1 million and it's partners $1.6 million ($2.6 total) to the relief effort. So if Entry Fees are roughly $12.2 million (47,000 * $260), then 21+% of that fee is now going to relief effort. If you are just looking at the NYRR directly, then 8.3% of it is going to Hurricane.

Moreover, the NYRR is itself a not for profit charity. So the rest of your money goes to help promote the sport of running and pay expenses. So yes, it's going to next year's race. It's going to keep the NYRR solvent. If they had to give back $12 million but also pay their expenses, they'd likely be facing a potential bankruptcy.

Contrast that to say if you were at Rock N Roll race, which is owned by a hedge fund, your money would go to pay expenses and then line the pockets of the investors.

Great post. Thanks.

Did you get a sense if any of the elites would be entering other fall marathons?

NYRR has way more than 10M to give back, it kills me that you have been so insensitive and still do not get it.

Go look at their payroll, they have over 20 people with 6 figure salaries

Your fundamental lack of knowledge astounds me

Who cares that 20 people did not get a pay day, really? Do you still not frigging get this?

Maybe, maybe some people think like you do and shame on them anyway.

Eever see the demographics as to who runs a marathon out of 40K+ people?

Do your homework, it is not a thing done by the inpoverished

I completely agree with Robert. When you enter a race, the terms are clearly spelled out regarding entry fees being nonrefundable. It sucks, but those are the rules.

True. There is a check box that says, "I agree to the terms and conditions." There is another check box that says, "I do not agree with the terms and conditions."

If you don't check the "I agree" box then you're not able to go to the next page and type in your credit card number.

I believe there is something in there about not being able to sue. This may be only if one gets injured or dies during the race.

rojo wrote:

You won't get a refund as the NYRR doesn't have $10 million plus lying around to give back to everyone.

Rojo I don't know where you get your facts but this is simply not true. I wasn't able to find numbers newer than 2009 but back then they had > $10 million plus lying around.

Since pretty much all their races since then sold out, I'd imagine that number is much bigger right now, probably > $20 million.

rojo wrote:

ranbarts2 wrote:

What about my $260, Wejo? I am dead serious, please try to get some answers about our entry fees. Are they going to charity? Are they going to be rolled into next year's race? Can we run for free next year?

Please look into this as it is a big deal to me, that is a lot of money to some of us and, personally, I hope it goes to charity if they cannot return it.

Does it not seem odd that they would just keep the money? That does not seem right.

Moreover, the NYRR is itself a not for profit charity. So the rest of your money goes to help promote the sport of running and pay expenses. So yes, it's going to next year's race.

LMFAO. A bunch of thiefs are running the NYRR.

I don't understand how NYRR can get away with not offering a refund. For example, if I buy concert tickets and the band can't play for one reason or another, then I would get a full refund or, at the very least, the ticket would be honored for a future, rescheduled show. I imagine similar terms and conditions for a race, if not the exact same ones. You can't keep money for an event that never happened.

There could even be an option to receive your full refund or donate part or all of your fee to the relief effort.

Mary Wittenburg also gave herself 500,000 dollars of that money.

not getting my money or time wrote:

Why would any runner from outside of NYC want to help with the recovery after many of the city's citizens threatened to spit on, throw rotten food at, trip, boo... you get the picture... marathon runners? This was the real reason the race was cancelled. The city was worried that some crazy, nut-jobs would assault the runners and open up the possibility of major lawsuits, against the race and city, since they should have seen it coming.

If I have any money to donate to suffering people, it's going to Africa, or somewhere where the affected aren't entitled, whiny brats.

I'm currently in NYC for this debacle and this is exactly how my friends and I feel. We were much more likely to help out before the marathon was cancelled. Now we're just going home early. Thanks a lot NYC.

Do I get to claim that donation on my income taxes?

Is there a box on the entry which states: I agree to the RD misleading me about the chances of the race happening as advertised only to pull the rug out from under my feet at the last moment?

rojo wrote:

You won't get a refund as the NYRR doesn't have $10 million plus lying around to give back to everyone.

Perhaps these figures might give a closer indication to the actual amount they might have lying around.

Asset Amount $41.2 Million

In the case of the pro field, there needs to be a clause in the requirements for inclusion in the WMM, that the marathon must honour it's appearance contracts with the elite runners.

long sox wrote:

rojo wrote:

You won't get a refund as the NYRR doesn't have $10 million plus lying around to give back to everyone.

Perhaps these figures might give a closer indication to the actual amount they might have lying around.

http://non-profit-organizations.findthebest.com/l/216794/New-York-Road-Runners-Inc

Asset Amount $41.2 Million

In the case of the pro field, there needs to be a clause in the requirements for inclusion in the WMM, that the marathon must honour it's appearance contracts with the elite runners.

___

Isn't that $41.2 million including real estate? They have some very price real estate, which is an asset but not cash.

It's my understanding that's there's very little unconditional appearance money ( maybe I am wrong) most people have a time they have to hit in order to get the bulk of the money.