Letsrun Faithful: What changes would you like seen made to road races

ots wrote:

Forget prize money.

Prize money for the most part just brings in the arrogant elite types who always and I mean every single time, tell the race director, (who is usually in the middle of trying to straighten something out) he wants his dough and has to leave early.

They always gotta leave early.

it's because the race director cant get their sh*t together and proceed through the results. seriously.

i traveled over two hours to a half marathon this weekend. won the half and they began the awards for the freakin 5k 10 minutes after i finished. in addition to the $100+ I paid to feed my family, support the local economy, and the $200 for a hotel room, i only had a few hours to hang out with the kids at the pool and YOU think I'M arrogant because I'm supposed to put my sweat down on your pavement and kiss your ass for two hours afterward?

child, please.

what, exactly, would you like us to do? hang around and be ignored? b*tch.

my two cents would be to paint the actual course. "How" exactly did you get to your distance? I love the idea of chalking a line as you measure the course. but for rain, it should hang out long enough to be visible for all to see. what tangents did you take, what loops, etc.

i had a cop car and a cyclist on my race this last weekend, the cyclist dropped back to me at roughly 5 miles and told me they measured the course curb to curb. Solid info and totally changed my mindset. I knew then i could sweep the course a little more and still be accurate.

Aquafina wrote:

We need to take a clue from biking, where you have certain levels of competition.

Yeah, because cycling races draw so many entrants and bike races are so prevalent.

How many cycling road races are there in your area? In my area, 2 (?), and they're both multi-day stage races, that's it. And that's within a 90 mile radius. They both pay decent money so they do have that going on. But I want to race a lot more than twice a year, and I don't want to have to drive 2-3-4 states over to get it done either-and I don't want to have to commit to racing 3 or 4 days in a row either.

Running, not too many weekends April-November where I can't find a road race within an hour's drive. How is the cycling race calendar better than that?

Some good ideas here (later races!!!!!) but wow, just wow. Some of this stuff tells me most of you have never been involved in putting on a race.

To answer the original question...a change I'd like to see made is more racers getting involved in producing races. Speaking as someone who is inside the business, we have too many non-runners producing races. That's why you end up with races that cater to the lowest common denominator of the running population and races with bells and whistles that no real racer cares about. If you get racers who are passionate and knowledgeable about the sport producing races you'll get races that really address what good runners want.

n*****s

Silly Old Fossil wrote:

More no-frills races with $5 entry fee...and no t-shirt.

Let's get back to kegs after races.

More getting back to core road-race distances....8km, 10km,15km (or their mile equivalents. This means fewer marathons and halves.

Less tying of charities to racing...enough already.

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QFE - agreed.

I second this!

Silly Old Fossil wrote:

More no-frills races with $5 entry fee...and no t-shirt.

Let's get back to kegs after races.

More getting back to core road-race distances....8km, 10km,15km (or their mile equivalents. This means fewer marathons and halves.

Less tying of charities to racing...enough already.

AMEN!

Cheaper entry fees (no shirt is fine by me) would be nice but if I could only choose one thing, START ON TIME and don't make me standing at the starting line for 15 minutes while you get excited that you're talking to a crowd and blabber on about nothing. Don't read us the rules, directions, or other things we should already know.

I also really hate it when the crowd of runners start cheering and clapping right before the start. If you could make that illegal and DQ any offenders, that would be nice.

more cheap team races... not the expensive 'corporate' teams, but i want to be able to make a team with a few other friends and see how we do, and this really shouldn't cost extra

Ditch age groups, instead go with competitive classes like cycling has.

Add net elevation loss standards to USATF course certification.

Andrew A. wrote:

Add net elevation loss standards to USATF course certification.

Huh? The elevation at the start and finish is already on the course paperwork.

hardset nipples wrote:

Ditch age groups, instead go with competitive classes like cycling has.

A guy 2 posts up just blasted me for the same idea. personally I like the idea that we could have competative classes. Runners would work harder to try and move from one to the other.

I like the idea of cheaper races and no t-shirt but sponsors like having that logo go on 300 T's that go out about town. I did a race and wanted to give out gloves, or a knit hat instead, but the sponsors wanted a t-shirt so they could be seen and recognized.

Better Racing wrote:

Describe your ideal road race and most importantly what are the biggest changes that need to take place in order to make most races better.

Thanks and hope this can benefit you all in the future

1) Require runners to at least co-direct a race before they comment on what would be ideal.

2) Require commenters to direct a race using their ideas.

May the best ideas win in the crucible of the marketplace.

Game on!

Excellent Post!! Illinois master..!!

IllinoisMaster wrote:

1) Require runners to at least co-direct a race before they comment on what would be ideal.

2) Require commenters to direct a race using their ideas.

May the best ideas win in the crucible of the marketplace.

Game on!

Perfect. There isn't some mysterious cabal keeping people from having their own "ideal" race. Don't like how races are run, quit your damn whining like spoiled children and organize your own. There's no reason existing events should cater to these whims. If the "ideal" race is ideal to everyone else they will go there.

IllinoisMaster wrote:

Andrew A. wrote:

Add net elevation loss standards to USATF course certification.

Huh? The elevation at the start and finish is already on the course paperwork.

I guess I meant tolerances (parameters, limits) when I said standards.

Mr. Debater wrote:

assless chaps

What other type of chaps is there?

IllinoisMaster wrote:

1) Require runners to at least co-direct a race before they comment on what would be ideal.

2) Require commenters to direct a race using their ideas.

May the best ideas win in the crucible of the marketplace.

Game on!

The ideal race (which many of us may already have put on in our lifetime): "Race you to the next mailbox. Last one there is a rotten egg!"

Simple. Clear reward system. Cheap to put on. Free entry. No t-shirt. Granted, usually no specific distance, but one can always measure after the fact. No awards ceremony, unless the negative reinforcement is literally carried out (although if that's the case, it's probably better to bet an ice cream cone or, depending on the runners' choice, a beer).

hardset nipples wrote:

Ditch age groups, instead go with competitive classes like cycling has.

Aquafina wrote:

A guy 2 posts up just blasted me for the same idea. personally I like the idea that we could have competative classes. Runners would work harder to try and move from one to the other.

I like the idea of cheaper races and no t-shirt but sponsors like having that logo go on 300 T's that go out about town. I did a race and wanted to give out gloves, or a knit hat instead, but the sponsors wanted a t-shirt so they could be seen and recognized.

And Tom Derderian above that agreed with us, his perspective probably weighs in just a little bit more than the random Letsrun knowitall loudmouth. It's far more competitive and sporting than the current free-for-all setup. Drawing the greatest raw number of entrants isn't my concern at all in a racing sport. There is actually a good amount of cycling races in my area. No, not as many as there are running road races, yet the cycling races are usually more competitive than the running races are. Just because cycling isn't popular in a certain area doesn't mean that it's entirely or even partially due to the competitive structure of the sport. But then I'm not one of those weekend warrior hobbyjoggers who needs to run 5k for charity races 2-4 times a month.