Grandmas Marathon registrants go home DEVASTATED!!

tin can man wrote:

I work for one of the biggest road races in the country (a fall race that's not in jeopardy) so I know about the timing of expenditures for meet directors....Grandma's is basically stealing your money. They will get a refund for pretty much every expense they already made, and the vast majority of their expenses won't even get billed now due to the early cancellation.

Don't be surprised if you see the meet directors driving brand new luxury cars next time you see them.

-1

If you have anything to do with a major fall race you should know it's in jeopardy.

Twin Cities is now going to be my Minnesota race. What Grandma’s has done is out of line with other races which gave runners other options like Fargo’s rescheduled race or Cherry Blossom’s free virtual race and many other races with race deferrals. A decent race at least offers a race deferral for a small fee, or discounts at the local running store or asks runners to consider a charity donation. What Grandma’s has done is 1) cancel a race that is nearly three months away which makes everyone wonder when the race cancellations will stop and 2) offered a pathetic 20% discount for next years race. Sorry Duluth. You will lose future tourism dollars because of a race director who can’t manage cost and forgot who pays the bills.

This is what I received in response to a refund request:

Thanks for your message. We’ve heard from many runners, which we truly appreciate. Many have spoken directly to why this is decision is so extremely difficult for Grandma’s Marathon and it was not a decision we took lightly. In addition to our FAQ’s, I want to share a few more simple points from our team to help provide the full picture of our decision to not issue refunds or to defer entries to 2021:

The bottom line is there simply isn’t any registration money to give back. Specifically, the numbers are pretty simple. The finisher shirts and medals are ordered, along with all of our volunteer supplies, marketing and advertising is done, staff is paid for all their work on this year’s event, and it goes on to the tune of about $1.1 million in sunk costs since registration opened on October 1. Now we lose the revenue that was coming from Grandma’s Marathon weekend along with all of our sponsor revenue and contributions totaling right around another $1 million. Our registration revenue works out to just over $2 million. Refunding entry fees would literally be the demise of our organization, put 9 staff members out of work and put a huge economic burden on our local economy for years to come.

Some races can offer a deferment to the next year or a substantial discount because it drives more entries. It adds to the field of participants and revenue for their overall budget. Our races fill each year to a capacity based on our resources in our region. In a capped field of participants, deferring entries takes away from the revenue, decreasing the quality of our event and keeps other runners from being able to participate.

Some races are for-profit companies, and some can safely accommodate 30k runners or more. On a per-runner cost, we spend a much higher % on our runners and their experience without making a profit (we’re a 501c3 nonprofit) and without banking big money each year with an increasing field of participants. Our focus has always been on quality, not quantity. These are the things that have made Grandma’s Marathon so popular, but make it harder to recover from a loss like this.

As the numbers work out in our overall fiscal year budget, if we’re going to keep our staff and work towards the next marathon weekend at the quality runners have come to expect from us, we’re already out potentially close to $400K just by offering a 20% discount to over 18k runners that were registered so far, but at least it spreads out the damage into next year so we’re confident we can recover. And runners can still earn their medal, finisher shirt, etc. through the Virtual Races this year.

That's the important line: We’re confident we can recover, with the plan we presented. We understand your position, but we also have to think about an entire region of the country where our event has a $20.6 million impact, plus our 22 charity partners and our own internal charity - the Young Athletes Foundation. If we can’t return next year and our organization is no longer sustainable, the results of our actions will be far more damaging.

So ‘doing the right thing’ doesn’t mean the same thing at every event. There is nothing we can correct in the situation we’ve been put in. We’re just not like other marathons, for all the right reasons when times are good - but now things have been flipped. We have a great reputation for always taking great care of our runners, volunteers and our community, and the discount and plan we presented is genuinely the very best we can do for our runners under these circumstances. We’re worried about our future just like everyone else, but with support from our loyal runners like yourself in response to this crisis, we hope we’ll have the chance to try this again next year.

Thank you again for reaching out, it is appreciated.

They can go f themselves

It’s enough of a punishment to have to live there

Duluth depression

So much for ‘we’re all in this together’...it sounds like their 9 full-time employees have uninterrupted pay. Also, how is it that they didn’t make their sponsors sign a non-refundable contract for the $1 million in revenue? Only their customers get screwed...lol. What a business model...

lmb wrote:

I have directed quite a few races

sure, tell us which races

We can sue them but the courts will be closed?

Their response is BS, plain and simple. You don't need 9 full time staff members to put on a race the size of this one. If they are a really not for profit they should be using volunteers. And if there's no more race, those staff members SHOULD NOT BE PAID OUT OF OUR POCKET TO SIT ON THEIR ARSES FOR 3 MONTHS.

I don't buy their advertising costs either. He said they have a fixed # of entries they can allow...so why do you need to spend hundreds of thousands on advertising?

They were dumb to actually order the finisher medals already, especially since this coronavirus thing isn't a surprise - we've known since January it's going to mess things up. But at the very least, refund everything except the cost of the shirt and the medal (both of which are actually quite cheap when ordered in big quantities).

it's disingenuous to mention the 20.6 million impact on the area - Are they using my money to pay local businesses for their missed opportunities to price gouge hotel rooms?

F them. In a time where many are losing their jobs and health care expenses are skyrocketing due to this pandemic, they are screwing people out of money. People are hard pressed right now and that money is food for their family. It's sickening for them to be capitalizing on a crisis like this.

Do you work for a competitor or something? Fargo Marathon?

Mr Money in the Banks wrote:

I think that it's a pretty good business plan. I will start a new Marathon, schedule it for July, make a lot of free online ads on facebook group and forums, people will register because it will be the only event not canceled. Then I will cancel it on two weeks notice and keep the money without having spent a dime.

Just switch it to "virtual" and promise to mail people their medals so you don't have to acknowledge that you're not hosting the race.

Duluth is hurting worse than the rich idiots who registered for Grandmas

therefore they keep the money and tell people to go F themselves and run a virtual race

Are they going to pay the timing company? Are they not worried about the timing company's employees?

I'm sorry they might go out of business, but that is a risk you take when you go into business, even as a nonprofit.

As per usual, the nastiness and cynicism of the LRC boards is all too visible. I've run Grandma's some 14 or 15 times. The Garry Bjorklund half is an awesome race also. It's a great organization and Duluth and the North Shore of Lake Superior are wonderful places to visit.

I'm sure this was a really difficult decision for their organization. You have probably read the statement they put out, explaining their finances. Disregard it if you will; it seems some of you have. Who cares about facts these days, anyway? I'm sure the organization wishes this Covid virus hadn't come about. We all do,

For posters who say "they don't need 9 employees", etc. etc. who know absolutely nothing about Grandma's organization, what can I say about some random poster making cheapo comments with no insight or information about Grandma's situation. Why didn't you raise that point in past years, when they did put on the race? As per usual on LRC: somebody with no information making blanket negative statements.

I have, in fact, run a lot of the course, outside of the marathon, along old Highway 61, along the shoulder, always running against on-coming traffic. No, it's not a replacement for the marathon itself, but it is a sweet run. For those of you who don't know anything, which is most of you nasty, cranky posters, old Highway 61 is not the main road along the North Shore, so the traffic is relatively light and most of the traffic are people taking "the long (slow) way around" per the Dixie Chicks. It's a beautiful stretch of road, especially with the North Shore air of lake and pines.

As for the nasty cranky guys who are "gonna start your own race and rip people off" etc. etc., you 10 second investment in creative thought, which, I'm sure you think is brilliant (too bad the world at large hasn't yet discovered your brilliance), Grandma's Marathon has been around since 1977. Here's a nice picture of the Dick Beardsley - Garry Bjorklund battle in 1981. There's a lot of history along the old highway. I personally know every mile of it.

LRC gets so freaking old sometimes. Especially during this down time, I find the boards to be so hideously negative and cynical that I've been avoiding visiting the site, but I do love Grandma's and Superior's North Shore. I know it won't change any minds or the habitual nastiness of many posters, but I do want to speak up for the organization,- by the way, I have no connection with it. If I could, I do recommend getting out for a nice long run and try to clear your head and your mood.

Grandma's will be back, as will all of our beloved marathons. Their tradition will carry on, while nasty comments will wither away.

Take care and stay healthy, everybody.

https://kool1017.com/dick-beardsley-grandmas-marathon-record-holder-talks-about-memories-and-racing-in-the-marathon/

Agree that advertising & marketing should be minimal especially if race fills up quickly.

Are they refunding expo vendors?

Surely they haven't paid City of Duluth for services not yet rendered = traffic control.

They are giving refunds to sponsors.

Aren't many race services delivered on race day?

Can't they use race shirts 2021 with a quilting club crossing out zero in crayon and substituting with 1?

I'm no genius (no no, don't argue with me on this ), but even I came up with simple solutions pretty easy.

Also, don't they have cancellation insurance?

runnerdave wrote:

Grandma's will be back, as will all of our beloved marathons. Their tradition will carry on, while nasty comments will wither away.

Take care and stay healthy, everybody.

*applause*

tired of theft wrote:

Are they going to pay the timing company? Are they not worried about the timing company's employees?

I'm sorry they might go out of business, but that is a risk you take when you go into business, even as a nonprofit.

They wouldn't go out of business. They can very easily offer at least a 50% refund and they would be fine and people would stop complaining. But they won't because they are THIEVES.

Here's the problem, Dave. Because of this coronavirus, people are losing their jobs left and right. Unemployment applications are hitting all time highs every day.

The unemployment rate is soon going to be over 50%. Retirement accounts have 33% of their value and that's soon to be 50% too. People can't afford rent or food or health insurance. Things are so bad the government is literally sending everyone money.

This is when the kindness in people should arise. For example, many companies are starting to use nearly all of their manufacturing capacity to make masks, gloves, ventilators, and other vital items.

And this race is like "feel bad for us please have pity for us". Their entry fee could be food for a month for a family. Their entry fee could be the difference between getting evicted or having a house to live in. Their entry fee could be the difference between someone being able to afford life-saving medicine. I'm happy you enjoy that race but the meet directors are SLEEZY CROOKS.

I'm going to repeat some of what I asked in my other post as no one answered it and you seem to have some connection to Grandma's because their "explanation" doesn't answer one big question I asked. Okay, they aren't Boston and maybe don't have the reserves that some other races do. But if the race had been run and they use nearly all of entrants' fees to cover expenses, where do they get the money they'd have given to charity? I'm assuming that Grandma's, like pretty much every other big road race these days, drops a chunk of change onto "local" charities. Is that not true in their case and they don't give money to charities? But if they do give money to charities how do they manage that if nearly all of the money they've taken in goes to race expenses?

And how expensive are t-shirts and finisher's medals anyway when they're bought in bulk? I'd have to think maybe $25 for the two is pretty high but even if I'm grossly underestimating you're still nowhere near what the entryfee was.

Do you or anyone else know? I'm not keen on the nastiness here either but whenever someone takes your money in exchange for a future product or service that they then fail to deliver wanting your money back is a natural response and when the response is, "Sorry, we spent it all" people tend to get nasty unless there's a really clear explanation given.

you should all probably just start your posts with "I've never directed a race and don't understand everything that goes into it..."

...and then stop writing.