As a runner and a race director, I actually mostly agree with Keith Stone.
The for-profit races advertise expos and get lots of consumers. When you go to them, you support them.
The cheap, club, non-profit races are smaller, more convenient, and lack all the swag. When you go to them, you support them.
Go to the ones that align with your philosophy.
As a runner and a race director, I actually mostly agree with Keith Stone.
The for-profit races advertise expos and get lots of consumers. When you go to them, you support them.
The cheap, club, non-profit races are smaller, more convenient, and lack all the swag. When you go to them, you support them.
Go to the ones that align with your philosophy.
Question to the OP and others who agree that this is a problem: Are a large percentage of small races (races of up to a half marathon with less than 2000 runners, or races of half marathon+ of up to 1000 runners) in your area NOT offering day of packet pick-up? If so, where do you live? I'm curious if this is a regional thing.
Also, d2xccoach, has your organization always done race day packet pick-up for your marathon? And how many people utilize that option? I shudder to think about trying to do that at the largest race I direct...
Art Vandelay wrote:
Just about every race now has day before packet pickup as an option, if not a requirement.
I don't get it. I can see it saving the race organizers time on race morning, but isn't that offset by having to commit more volunteer time before race day, usually during working hours?
As a runner, it makes no sense to go out of your way to make a special trip to pick up a packet versus getting it race morning when you're already on site anyway. It is NOT a convenience.
Help me understand.
So when you get to the race late, and you have just enough time to either crap or get your BIB you don't end up shitting your pants on someone's lawn.
Anyway, seriousness time, many races outside the US require BIBS be picked up well before the day of the race. One race even expected BIBS to be picked up two weeks beforehand without notice of whether BiB pick-up was available at all day-of-race. So don't complain.
But it is fricking stupid. I think there definitely needs to be BIB pick-up by order of seed-time. Actually, local races need to start seeding people by times in the first place. Road races are just a pain in general. Does it make sense to make someone who needs to warm-up for 20 minutes wait in line for 20 minutes before the race starts to pick-up his BIB? Especially, behind people that plan to walk across the finish line.
LOL I TROLLED ALL YOU WITH DIS THREAD!!!
anon87123 wrote:
As a runner and a race director, I actually mostly agree with Keith Stone.
The for-profit races advertise expos and get lots of consumers. When you go to them, you support them.
The cheap, club, non-profit races are smaller, more convenient, and lack all the swag. When you go to them, you support them.
Go to the ones that align with your philosophy.
Hi Keith. You only needed to post this once.
This thread illustrates some of the reasons why, after 25 years of road racing, I almost exclusively run small races. If a race is big enough to have corrals or an expo I usually skip it. Too much of a hassle when I just want to show up, run a 5k, and go home. If the race offers no t-shirts and an entry fee of under $20, even better. I got burned out on the mega-party races.
old man shuffle wrote:
This thread illustrates some of the reasons why, after 25 years of road racing, I almost exclusively run small races. If a race is big enough to have corrals or an expo I usually skip it. Too much of a hassle when I just want to show up, run a 5k, and go home. If the race offers no t-shirts and an entry fee of under $20, even better. I got burned out on the mega-party races.
What, you don't want to run while throwing color power all over the place and having your tax dollars clean that mess up?