GAMAN wrote:
Let me give you a piece of advice. Why don't you shut your pie-hole about something you don't know anything about. I can't speak for the other guy who ran Dallas, but it sounds like he was a one and doner like me. I haven't run GA since because of the horrible logistics of simply getting a bib. But, for some reason, you assume I had. In fact, the GA Marathon that year had stated that there would be race day packet pick-up and then retracted that statement a few days before the race. So, again, you are incorrect (are you beginning to sense a pattern here?) that I knew there was no race day packet pickup at the time I gave them my money.
Also, indeed, I did contact the race committee about the logistics of getting a bib once at the expo and also of having a small window (a few hours) to get the bib. They have since changed it (last I heard) to have the ability to pick up on a couple of different days before the race. Perhaps, I had something to do with that.
Don't start spewing crap about things you clearly have zero idea about. Just keep posting on the Mike Rossi thread. You seem more at home there.
Maybe you should unbunch your panties and pay attention to what I said. To reiterate the RD's responsibilities are to advertise what they deliver, and deliver on that. If indeed they advertised race day pickup, and then did not deliver on that then the RD did not meet their responsibilities. I didn't assume you ran it more than once, but I did assume you reviewed what the race was offering before signing up the first time or at least should have (many don't, but still complain). I would say you did the right thing by contacting the race director, but you failed to mention that (and the lack of delivery) in your comment. Your failure to mention makes it perfectly legitimate that I assume you're just another whiner who plunks down their money anyway.
As far as the Mike Rossi thread it's your turn to be incorrect, if I did comment there it was months ago and probably was a joke. So maybe you should pay better attention.
Now to the other comments; As far as directing races I've done quite a few, and yes it is that simple. For sure, there's much logistics involved, but I'm always amazed as how many events don't do the basics. I'm also amazed that runners continue to frequent events that don't. If a restaurant serves food you expect to know what type of food that is, what their hours are, and some idea of pricing before you go. If they don't tell you and you go anyway then you really don't have much to complain about. If their food is bad, you don't go back. If you got bad food and continue to go back then don't complain about the bad food.
My idea of customer service is delivering on expectations. In the business of project management it's called managing expectations. Deliver your service at the level you said you would on-time and on-budget. Races need to do the same and runners need to stop going to races that don't.
This isn't an "anger" thing, this is a doing the right thing thing. As runners we want well run events, as a race director my expectation should be if I do a poor event I won't get repeat business and if I don't set the correct expectations before hand I won't get any business. If I do a bad job participation should suffer. That's not what I see happen, and it's actually quite disheartening when I hear event organizers blow off screw-ups with "they'll complain but they always come back".
As a runner going in you should know when and where the race starts, where to park, what the course is, where to register, when and where packet pickup is, when the awards ceremony is, all your expenses, what you get in terms of shirt and/or medal, how long the course is open, etc, before you lay down your hard earned money. All the stuff about bands, munchies, etc, is cool to provide (provided it's advertised) but that's above and beyond the blocking and tackling. It doesn't matter that they have members of the Swedish Bikini Team every mile if they start late and lose your registration information.
Runners shouldn't be enablers of poor performance, but they also need to have realistic expectations. Races aren't in the business of simply annoying runners, they are responding to demand and logistical realities. Bunches of people want pre-race pickup, so it's offered. For the majority it's a convenience and it's better for race organization. At a certain point more people are doing pre-race than race-day, so race-day becomes logistically inconvenient and goes away. There isn't some scheme afoot piss off people for profit.
It's better that a race not do something than do it poorly, as long as they don't do what the GA race apparently did and say they would do it, then not deliver. If you're sensing a theme or pattern, you'd be correct. Races should be well run and logistically easy for their target participants, runners should vote with their dollars to encourage the good and discourage the bad.