I have 2 beefs with how the big marathons are operated.
1) the camera carts and motorcycles are HORRIBLE. there is no way that a loud, exhaust-emmiting motorcycle 6 feet in front of the athletes is NOT distracting or unhealthy. The one motorcycle generally obscures every other possible camera angle all the way up until about 50 meters from the finish. I can't imagine how annoyed I would be, especially when the motorcycle gets in the way of the athletes, possibly altering the eventual outcome of the race (more frequent than we probably think, athletes just arent allowed to bad-mouth the people who host the marathon). It can't be that hard to just ride along on the other side of the road and zoom in on the athletes.
2) Finish lines. How many times have we seen the elite finishers either not know where the finishing chute is or go through the wrong chute? This might be the worst... but this was the athletes fault, somehow not knowing that if you're winning, you should break the tape?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulua1gT_WMc
I watch these replays and wonder if the elite coordinators ever think about going over with the athletes exactly how the finish works IE which chute is their finishing chute, the fact that you should run THROUGH the tape and not next to it, etc. It's frustrating seeing our sporting heros look like idiots, and both parties are probably at fault.