Indy Wants 40,000 People at Inagural Marathon

Well, they've now put up a postcard from 1955 on the course page. That gives it a real air of legitimacy!

http://www.indyclassicmarathon.com/course_information.html

Any Indy Runners know anything more about this race?

Yo to all clueless about other national and international sports out there.

1. The Indy 500...well over 400,000 in attendance. It has and will be the largest single day sporting event in the World. Not the World Cup, Superbowl, World Series, Boston Marathon, Olympics (wherever). All these events pale in comparison to the crowd at the brickyard.

2. NCAA HQ--home of the final 4 most years not to mention rabid H.S. B-ball fans. It is quite amusing to watch highlight shots of future D1 and NBA potential from the big cities and only a smattering of fans in the grandstands. The High School where I teach has an enrollment of 1100--our avg. home game tops 3000 and our school usually finishes mid-pack in our conference. And when the Pacers play stuff gets busted and people get hurt.

3. We have a football team nicknamed "the Colts". Our stadium is the most difficult for visiting teams due to the "Metallica-like" noise level. They just won the Superbowl.

4. The entire sports complex just west of downtown was built for the Pan-Am games and is still utilized and well attended for Tennis, Track and Field,etc.

5. In the end our friends at the IRL and mini need to keep the spring race. It is one more compliment to the storied tradition at the brickyard. We just need more Hoosier kids to make the transfer from karts to Open Wheel cars. The steeple and 10,000 are not the only types of races where U.S. citizens have little chance. Let other cities have the autumn marathons. Keep the half in Indy.

Wolfgang Grajonca wrote:

Well, they've now put up a postcard from 1955 on the course page. That gives it a real air of legitimacy!

http://www.indyclassicmarathon.com/course_information.html

Now if they could only spell "Marathon" right...

?????

The Classic Challenge? I'm not quite sure what this all means. All you do is run a race earlier in the season to qualify you for a random drawing for the prizes? What does that accomplish exactly?

Oh yeah - they are also offering "marathon results on CD" for $8 on the registration page. WTF?

http://www.indyclassicmarathon.com/TheClassicChallenge.html

By participating in any Official Marathon, Half Marathon or 5K within the state of Indiana in 2007, you will automatically qualify to take The Classic Challenge!

What is the Classic Challenge?

The Challenge is simple: Once you have completed another event (26.2 Marathon, Half Marathon, or 5K) in Indiana during 2007, and enter an equal or greater event in the Indy Classic Marathon, and provide ICM with your Official time sheet from the other race, you are eligible to take The Classic Challenge.

When you register for the Indy Classic Marathon simply put in the comment section that you are up for the challenge and plan to participate, or have already, in at least one other Indiana Marathon prior to the Indy Classic Marathon on September 8, 2007. To finalize your Classic Challenge entry you will need to bring your official time sheet with you for verification when you pick up your packet.

The Indy Classic Marathon also welcomes your registration without participating in The Classic Challenge.

The Prize:

Indy Classic Marathon is presenting $250.00 to the top five (5) finishers of each category who have entered as a Classic Challenge participant. They will also be registered for the 2008 Indy Classic Marathon for FREE!

did I miss the point of this post? I re-read it at least 6 times and couldn't find what the heck was the point. Are you for or against this race?

NYE 5K wrote:

Yo to all clueless about other national and international

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sports out there.

Keep the half in Indy.

I noticed on their registration page that they used to have April 2nd as their deadline day for early registration and after that the fees went up. Now it says May 14th is when the fees go up...

Hmmmm....anyone think they are struggling a bit to keep pace towards their goal of 40,000 participants?

:)

Did they get a high schooler to design that website? Using Cheap MS Word clip art? Please.

Alan

"The Prize:

Indy Classic Marathon is presenting $250.00 to the top five (5) finishers of each category who have entered as a Classic Challenge participant. They will also be registered for the 2008 Indy Classic Marathon for FREE!

"

Explained: The top five (5) finishers get $250. Run two marathons in the state of Indiana in 2007, one of which must be the Indy Classic Marathon, finish in top 5 by combined time get $250 and free entry into the 2008 Indy Classic.

That's how I read it. Marathons in Indiana:

French Lick/West Baden April 17

Sunburst June 2

Lake City Sept 15

Indianapolis Oct 20

Tecumseh Trail Dec 1

I bet top 5 is no faster than 6:00 total time...7:00 pace. Just enter and do an easy long run.

Yep - that is exactly what I was thinking...problem is that is is so poorly explained, I'm sure that provides the event organizers with a loophole after the race to get out of paying up after they lose money on this thing...

They now have Health and Fitness Expo information up. It appears they have downsized their expectations as they now are offering the opportunity to insert something into their goodie bags - but you only have to supply 15,000 of that "something" - NOT 40,000. :) So we now have a new goal number as a frame of reference...

Oh yeah - and they finally figured out that the USATF mapping tool is available to them and now have their route maps on their website using that...

the people 'putting' this race on are not taking the necessary steps to make this happen. it will not happen. it is a huge joke among the running community here. just look at the race course!

Marathon guy wrote:

Do they have enough hotels to support this kind of crowd?

Are you serious?

Have you seen the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Wogten wrote:

Marathon guy wrote:

Do they have enough hotels to support this kind of crowd?

Are you serious?

Have you seen the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

he obviously has never been to indy. we have so many large events, it's retarded. anyone else going to the mini (35,000 entrants) this weekend. should be fun. i'm running to it (8 miles) and then after watching the race, i will be running home (another 8 miles). should be a fun day.

I'm skipping the mini again. Perhaps I'll tape the television broadcast and watch it later. I haven't run the race since, I think, 2000, whatever year that was that it was so hot. It's gotten too big and cumbersome for me.

Wow, this website is ridiculous. Some highlights:

-The fact that of the ten main sidebar links, one of them is for the Lost & Found

-The last line on the Lost & Found page: "Any items not claimed by December 31, 2007 will be destroyed." A similar sentiment is expressed in the Gear Check Section.

-From the Spectators page: "Whatever the reason, on September 8, 2007 many spectators will line the 26.2 mile course of The Indy Classic Marathon." For some CRAZY reason, people actually want to WATCH this thing!

-The Ridiculous Use of Capitalization Throughout the Web Site

-The terrible run-on sentences, misspellings, and other general typos that litter the site

-The fact that the registration page asks you if you also want to volunteer

-They may have corrected most of the mistakes of this variety, but:

The 26.2 Marathon will begin: 6:00am

The 13.1 and 5k Marathons will begin: 6:30am

-Also, the Registration page still lists a "Half Marathin"

-The difficult-to-read course maps, which are pretty much just enigmatic red dots on a Google Earth screenshot (the links to the elevation profiles give maps that are much easier to read, however)

-The marathon course can be described as such: go ten miles on one street, in one direction, do a 10-mile loop on 4 other roads, then go 6 miles back on the same road you started on; finish by making two of the course's six-and-a-half turns in the last quarter mile.

-The Merchandise page tells sponsors they need 15,000 samples for goodie bags, after saying they expect 40,000 participants. Also, they are expecting 100,000 spectators.

-The News page gives a link not to a specific article in the Indianapolis Star, but just a link to the newspaper itself

-The logo is three people holding balls above their head. Anyone in the know that can enlighten me as to what this means?

-The "HOME" link at the top points to a page called "indexREAL.html". I got my hopes up thinking it would be the REAL homepage for a REAL marathon...but alas, the link is dead and I was 404'd.

-The .gif at the bottom of the News page is creepy.

the race website is down. is it being worked on? maybe it's cancelled. i don't really care if it happens or not, but part of me likes the drama it's creating. for the record, i was thinking about running it.

Website seems to be working just fine...still think the event is going to be a train wreck though...