1. Races starting late, well after the advertised time.
2. Summer races scheduled for 8:30 or 9:00 am. It's freaking hot...start at 7:00 am.
3. High entry fees for rinky dink races.
4. Insufficient ports pots.
5. A costumed mascot or clown who just has to line up front and center at the start and jog a few feet at the gun, creating a hazard for the runners to dodge.
Younger runners who find lots of fault (usually on social media) with race directors and organization of local road races, yet have NEVER volunteered to help make the race better.
runr over wrote:
Younger runners who find lots of fault (usually on social media) with race directors and organization of local road races, yet have NEVER volunteered to help make the race better.
Why is it their job to improve your crappy race? There are tons of races to choose from, it is up to the race directors to put out a quality product if they want people to come back.
People who do sh!t that screws up the results. Examples.
1. Mom gives her 19-year-old son home from college her bib number, and he ends up "winning" the women's 50-54 age group. Good for you! People, stop giving your bibs to other runners!
2. Race features two distances. Runner signs up for the long race but decides that morning to run the short race, doesn't tell the registration table, and "wins" the 10k in 30 minutes.
teenage wasteland wrote:
4. Insufficient ports pots.
The worst. It's unfair to all the unpotted plants at the ports when there aren't enough.
No timing mats in the entire marathon except at the start and finish, and the race doesn't have the guts to DQ someone who finishes in an unrealistic time and shows up in none of the on-course photographs.
Everything about road races annoys me.
When the walkers start at the front of the race...
runr over wrote:
Younger runners who find lots of fault (usually on social media) with race directors and organization of local road races, yet have NEVER volunteered to help make the race better.
Make your races free and I'll agree with you. Charge an entry fee and I'm a paying customer and have every right to complain if basic expectations are not met.
I also hate when there is an early start for the walkers and very slow runners.
Seriously, who thought of this?
"I know let's have the slowest people in the entire race start 20 minutes early so that everyone else has to navigate around them."
Either keep the course open 20 minutes longer or have a reasonable time cut off.
Inaccurate race distances. I understand that not every course is going to be certified. But when a 5k is a quarter mile short, or long, you obviously just didn't care at all.
complainers
Julia Adult wrote:
I also hate when there is an early start for the walkers and very slow runners.
Seriously, who thought of this?
"I know let's have the slowest people in the entire race start 20 minutes early so that everyone else has to navigate around them."
Either keep the course open 20 minutes longer or have a reasonable time cut off.
I agree. This happened to me in a race this past spring. The police car leading the way is blocked by walkers taking up the entire road; the walkers finally realize there is a police car behind them and let the car through...then they go right back to taking up the entire road as the lead group catches up to them. Then there's a woman with a dog on a 20 foot leash taking up the entire road...almost trips the guy in 2nd at the time. It was freakin' chaos.
walkers wrote:
Julia Adult wrote:I also hate when there is an early start for the walkers and very slow runners.
Seriously, who thought of this?
"I know let's have the slowest people in the entire race start 20 minutes early so that everyone else has to navigate around them."
Either keep the course open 20 minutes longer or have a reasonable time cut off.
I agree. This happened to me in a race this past spring. The police car leading the way is blocked by walkers taking up the entire road; the walkers finally realize there is a police car behind them and let the car through...then they go right back to taking up the entire road as the lead group catches up to them. Then there's a woman with a dog on a 20 foot leash taking up the entire road...almost trips the guy in 2nd at the time. It was freakin' chaos.
Situations like this usually occur because the organizers are not runners and have no experience with running. Thus things like this never occur to them. I've found the best race directors are runners themselves because they already know what will work and what will be a disaster.
Idiotic course designs. Like a double loop course on a narrow trail where the leaders have to fight through a dense pack of walkers on the second loop. Or marathon/half marathon races where the marathon leaders have to pick their way through the half marathon walkers in the final miles.
Pretty much everything has been touched on. For me.
1) Start on Time
2) Slower runners in the front.
I went to a race recently where the RD said over the megaphone that fast runners should be in the front, and slower runners in the back. This should be done at every race.
A 5k I recently did had 2/3 of the starting line taken up by kids under 10 y/o. This is just a safetly issue.
No mile mark's.
when races are scheduled so they end at the same time. like winning a HM and having to battle through packs of 5k walkers down the finish straight instead of coming in alone. and then they announce the 2nd place person as the winner because nobody saw your finish.
Awards presentations that occur WAY after the race has ended. I'm willing to wait a reasonable amount of time for awards, but 2-3 hours? Nope, I'm out of there.
Not having a proper awards ceremony complete with champagne bottle spraying and smooches with smoken hot podium girls.