Race wants prize money back

Very on point except maybe add the postlude where Bob cant let it go and gets called out for trolling the board as a CPA, personally attacking anyone who disagrees with him and then pretends to be runners singing his own praises!

LOL!!!

PEDS?

PEDS? wrote:

PEDS?

nope.

It was Marley's ghost that was singing Scrooge's praises. Found a pic.

http://media.masslive.com/entertainment/photo/3marley-appears-to-scrooge-michael-haleyjpg-d9592c0c9825d1d9_large.jpg

The story that won't die. RunnersWorld just published this article on the incident.

Not what you would call Pulitzer prize winning Journalism/

Someone commented on here and now on the RW article comments that the race paid out the same in previous years as in '15. In the RW article comments, Bob says that's not true, referencing previous years' google cache of the race website.

Anybody have that cache handy? Still no one has explained what exactly was done in previous years. Is Bob saying it was $900 each in previous years and advertised as such?

My guess is that they intended to pay $1800 to each winner but added it up wrong, failing to multiply by two genders. The $1800 wasn't the mistake, the $15,000 was. When they saw the balance sheet, that along with the fact that may runners took advantage of the half-price deal (or was that only for '16?), they went "uh-oh" and started going after the winners for money back.

Wow, just read the article and comments. Bob really can't let it go. He's already up in the mix in the comments on the RW article. A perpetual hero/victim in his own mind!

slo-twitch wrote:

Wow, just read the article and comments. Bob really can't let it go. He's already up in the mix in the comments on the RW article. A perpetual hero/victim in his own mind!

Bob in the comments:

"These runners all got paid. I'm the one that is taking responsibility for a human error. It's costing me $9,500 out of my own pocket. You don't hear me complaining."

"don't hear me complaining"? Really?

Bob is the best.

OK, via a runner and Bob commenting on the RW article, finally got an answer to the difference between '14 and '15. Here's what the website said in '14 and '15:

2014:

10K PRIZE MONEY: MALE & FEMALE

1ST PLACE – $1,400

2ND PLACE – $1,000

3RD PLACE – $700

4TH PLACE – $600

5TH PLACE – $400

2015:

10K Total Prize Money: Overall Make & Female

1ST PLACE – $1,800

2ND PLACE – $1,000

3RD PLACE – $700

I'll let Bob summarize (quoted from the RW comments);

"Big difference in the way the prize money was structured as you now see, And thank you for posting this."

I'm sure it's clear to all of us now why the first place winner was awarded $1400 in 2014 and that was consistent with what the website said while awarding $1800 in 2015 was clearly a mistake and not at all what the website intended. As Bob said, "Big difference...". Glad we got that cleared up.

That's so obvious that money was supposed to be split between genders. The runners are so stupid for not recognizing that. Good thing we've got an amicable fellow like Bob coming into our sport and setting us straight on how prize money should be listed.

to hear that Bob won't be paying whiny runners big prize money in the future. Everybody can blame Bob for the way the mistake happened and how he handled it. But the future race winners won't be getting the big bucks in the future because of that. No, it'll be because 2/3 of the whiney winners refused to do the right thing and return 1/2 the money the were mistakenly awarded.

Good job guys. You're making the semi-professional running community look like a bunch of self-centered a-holes.

Many people went out of their way, took on extra traveling expenses, and gave up doing other races because the prize money distribution was listed incorrectly. He should own up to what he promised plain and simple.

Bob's story. Something about this smells fishy from the start. The prize listing for '15 is almost identical as for '14 but he claims that it's completely different. His story doesn't add up.

From the RW story:

"The language was confusing enough that, on the day of the event, a race volunteer looked at the website and wrote out big checks for the prize winners to pose with for double the amount intended.

Nichols made the same error when he wrote the checks he mailed to the prize winners, most of which went out in early November, after he received their W-9s."

If you have it in your head all along that it was $900 to the winner, and in fact lowered the winning prize from $1400 the year before, why would wouldn't you catch it on the big checks? And why would you write $1800 later when you're sitting with checkbook and tax form when the $1800 was never the intended prize?

It's more logical that he screwed up in calculating what the total prize purse would be and tried to get some back when he realized his mistake.

rule#1- Bob doesn't make mistakes

rule#2- when Bob makes mistakes it's the evil elite runners' fault

Rule#3- when Bob gets crazy it's everyone else's fault for hurting his feelings

Dude can dish it out for sure

rule#4- do the math

Here is one way to look at it....

The RD was wrong but at the same time the elite runners could have handled this much different.

Here is the outcome now......

The race will go on without any elite's and not missing a beat. The saddest par to me is that elite's haven't figured out that 98% of events don't need them and there is no value added.

Elite racers need to find a way to add value to the community and road races or payouts will become extinct.

rule#1 wrote:

rule#4- do the math

Rule #5 - As an RD - when you have got it wrong and come clean, manned up and done the right thing, don't undermine all that good work by trolling.

Onefastrun wrote:

The race will go on without any elite's and not missing a beat. The saddest par to me is that elite's haven't figured out that 98% of events don't need them and there is no value added.

elite's what?