Kansas City Marathon 10-18 - Anyone here running it?

I saw Dick Beardsley is speaking tomorrow at 10:15 am at the Expo. Should be interesting.

That sucks. The suggested cones and marshals splitting the course wouldn't prevent the cheering you tout. Probably wouldn't cost you anything, either. Do you even have separate finishing chutes for the marathoners and the half-marathoners? It just makes things easier for everyone, especially those who are racing the marathon as opposed to loafing along in the half. It's an easily-anticipated issue with an even easier solution. Why race directors today think so little of the actual competition taking place is a mystery. They'll bend over backwards to cater to the charity walkers, but couldn't care less about ensuring a quality race.

Mike Lundgren wrote:

The course won't be split in the final miles for the 1/2 vs. the marathoners, so you'd need to be on your guard once you have merged back with them. The upside to that, from what I have seen in other races, is that the people at the back of the short race will often cheer on the frontrunners of the longer race, as long as the frontrunners don't behave rudely to them.

Given the size of the roads, the number of volunteers, police expectations for managing traffic and so on, this is the best that can be offered for this year and we'll do our best with it. If the race continues to grow and with it the volunteer base (which is always a challenge) things will continue to improve. Hope you all enjoy a great race and what looks like ideal weather.

I hope you will find that there's been a lot of work done to make the race safe for everyone and hope you have a great experience with it. There should not be many 1/2 marathoners at their 8 mile mark when you merge in with them at 21.

I would certainly encourage feedback to the race committee afterwards, and I know they would welcome not only input, but also any volunteer help to help improve the event in coming years. No race occurs without a lot of people power. Best wishes!

Mike Lundgren wrote:

There should not be many 1/2 marathoners at their 8 mile mark when you merge in with them at 21.

Go out there and watch, see for yourself I already know from experience that there are a ton of half-marathon participants (not really runners) in the 3-4 hour range. Just for that window that puts them at miles 8-13 at the 1:49-4:00 point. Those are 13:45-18:20/mile pace participants. That's walking pace and walkers tend to walk together, often in large groups and often side-by-side and often with iPods blaring away in their ears. At the same time you have marathoners coming by them at 5:11-9:10 pace for those five miles. Those are runners finishing in 2:16-4:00 for the full marathon. You really can't see how dividing the course down the middle for that section really wouldn't be an easy way to alleviate what obviously could be a situation that could be problematic for the participants in your race? Who exactly do you aim to serve?

This was a problem at White Rock for years, with even marathoners in the 3:00-3:15 finish range having to dodge through packs of half marathoners shuffling along at 13:00/mile pace. The RD finally got a new finish route for the half marathon approved for this year , so there won't be as much congestion the last few miles. Of course they did change the half marathon start time to coincide with the marathon, so now the start will be chaotic.

Is Peter Sercer going to defend his title? I think he won last year despite taking a duece in the middle of the race.

Thundering herd wrote:

This was a problem at White Rock for years, with even marathoners in the 3:00-3:15 finish range having to dodge through packs of half marathoners shuffling along at 13:00/mile pace. The RD finally got a new finish route for the half marathon approved for this year , so there won't be as much congestion the last few miles. Of course they did change the half marathon start time to coincide with the marathon, so now the start will be chaotic.

Agreed 100%. The Derby Festival Marathon and Half in Louisville was the same way until they fixed the problem. This makes such a HUGE difference to the marathoners at the end of their race. Weaving and dodging through walkers after running for 22 miles is not fun, nor is it safe.

I'm sure KC puts on a good marathon but this is an area where a small simple change can reap big improvements for everyone.

I'm trying to put that in the back of my mind, until I have to deal with it. I'm certainly not going to be blasting through in the lead pack, but running through 21 miles with 15 to 20 guys in front of you will definitely be a different scene than 1000 stragglers all over the course.

Kudos to KC. I was concerned about the combined finish and agree that a complete split might be better but I was right in the 3 flat range and it wasn't a problem. Was actually probably better than the combined hospital hill finish.

Great weather, accurate course, well organized, and much better support along the course than I expected. Pleasantly surprised!

who won and what was his time?

any results links?

I liked the course. Some challenging hills, and then a 3-mile gradual downhill to the finish. I didn't really have any problem with the half-marathoners, although they were walking in groups all over the place. I heard the women's finish went to the wire, and the second-place woman had to adjust around a struggling half-marathoner in the final few meters, so she probably wasn't happy.

The awards ceremony was kind of odd, held a 6 pm at the Power and Light District, which sounded like a good plan. I got to the gate, and the security guy tells me I can't get in because they have a dress code, and I am dressed in "athletic attire." I ask him why all those marathoner officials and runners over there are sorting through awards, all dressed in "athletic attire," and arranged for us all to show up here for our awards. He just gave me the by-the-book answer, but his supervisor over heard the conversation and let me in.

I won the Masters division check and trophy, but they persisted in giving me the trophy for winning the 40-44 group too, which i think is strange, as the age group awards typically bump down to the next guy in line.

Just a couple comments, first off, that I am in charge of the finish line crew for chip removal and the finish line set up of mats, as well as record keeping, and Invited Runners. So I am not the race director, but can pass on those comments, as well as you all can, too, on the website.

I actually missed seeing the men and women's marathon finish, so know nothing about that. I have already heard that we'll be making changes/improvements in the finish, since we have grown so much. I am glad of that, and cannot wait to see how that goes. For the constraints of the space, I thought things looked very good, too.

I personally do believe that the Master's winner is the age winner, it's only logical to not exclude, just as if the Master's winner is overall winner, you would not say they win one or the other but not both.

Wasn't that the best running weather ever for a race, though! As competitive as I am, I never once wished I had been running it, cause I was either a) sleep deprived enough to not worry or b) glad to feel like we put on a really good race, not perfect, but really good.

I didn't like the awards ceremony either, my wife won her age group and yet we missed it completely, getting there late after Obama's talk.

Mike Lundgren wrote:

I personally do believe that the Master's winner is the age winner, it's only logical to not exclude, just as if the Master's winner is overall winner, you would not say they win one or the other but not both.

Totally agree. Not allowing double-dipping (or triple-dipping) in the awards is akin to social promotion. If you were the 4th best masters female in the results then you don't deserve the 3rd place masters female award. Same for any other age group or overall placing. And if as a masters runner you win overall then you deserve the overall prize plus the masters prize plus any age-group prize.

Mike,

I agree with many here on the board that the race director needs to separate the half marathon course from the marathon corse. At the very least, the last few miles should have the road split in two. Any time two runners are racing for the finish, a disruption of pace by having to go around a walking half marathoner can make a big difference in the outcome. Marathoning can often times be about keeping contact and weaving through half marathon traffic could hampter someone from keeping contact. Although we cannot say for sure, the women's result may have been different if the second place finisher did not have to dodge a walker in the closing meters.

I don't know if you were there to see the finish, I was busy collecting chips and so I did not. I do know that the last several blocks were coned to separate the 1/2 and the full marathoners. Not that that keeps everyone separate, true. I do know that, at present, there has been no complaint from the 2nd place woman, so we cannot presume or assume she was impeded or had to dodge someone, or that her pace/race was affected.

I believe the course will change, given the growth of the races, so this will all be part of the attempt to improve them.