Detroit Freepress half marathon screws over OTQ

AngryRunner wrote:

I just found about this today and am blown away. I am sure It's too late to do anything now, but apparently a runner qualified for the trials in 2014 in the half marathon. There is an article written about her qualification here:

http://www.hometownlife.com/story/sports/running/2014/10/22/rachel-mcfarlane-us-marathon-trials-detroit-half-marathon/17705755/

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That's pretty ridiculous. What's the point of having a large-scale marathon with good athletes if you aren't willing to certify the course for them? Really would impact the draw to how up again next year I'd think...

The Free Press Marathon/events is a complete joke. They aren't even willing to put up real money for winners. A couple years ago you could win the same amount for winning the half as you could winning the full. How does that make sense? Especially if the winnings are only 3 grand? They are notoriously cheap and lazy.

Detroit has always been satisfied with just attracting weekend warriors, unwilling to pony up and make this marathon matter to elites. No wonder the city is going to the crapper with organizations like this.

The Detroit half marathon is weird because there are two courses. One of them goes under the tunnel to Canada (as does the marathon course) but they offer one that stays on US soil (for people who don't have a passport). I am guessing maybe one was certified and the one she ran wasn't, hence the confusion?

Above was mentioned in another thread last year(http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6794885). It is a complete joke to me that a race so large won't throw out a few bucks for certification. Detroit is a horribly run event and after doing it a few times I won't be back. They have cut prize money significantly in the past few years.

since when does it cost 10 grand to certify a course? I honeslty have no idea about these kinds of things, so does it really cost that much? that's insane if so.

There is a USATF certified Detroit Marathon course:

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/search/searchResults.asp?embed=&courseID=&distance=&distanceUnits=&distanceComparison=&city=detroit&state=MI&courseName=&courseStatus=A&courseType=R&drop=&dropComparison=&separation=&separationComparison=&certificationYear=&lastName=&format=view&submit=Search

Did the race not follow the certified course?

trutherer wrote:

since when does it cost 10 grand to certify a course? I honeslty have no idea about these kinds of things, so does it really cost that much? that's insane if so.

That's way too much.

There are USATF certified half marathon courses for 10-10-11 to 12-31-19

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=MI09001MN

for 6-OCT-2012 to 31-DEC-2019:

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=MI09071MN

for 3-JUL-2014 to 31-DEC-2019:

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=MI09073MN

and for 8-SEP-2013 to 31-DEC-2019:

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=MI09072MN

Did the 2014 half marathon not follow one of these?

* this is a well known fact to the Michigan running community. This was an absolute travesty and I do think that national press is necessary here. This thing is the course is certified but not sanctioned what sanction is basically amounts to USATF getting it cut a percentile of the money made.

What a travesty it is that the Detroit Freepress denied a hometown girl the chance to run at the trials and actually pursue a dream. All because they are/were too cheap and don't care. Livonia and the Michigan running community is deeply saddened and outraged that something like this could happen. Runners should not support this race. I hope we can get this to go national and Rachel can get the justice she deserves!!

I am looking into this and have received an email from Rachel.

People who are saying that it doesn't cost $10,000 to certify a race are correct. I just randomly called up a certifier and he told me it would probably cost about $1500 to certify a half-marathon.

So it appears the issue is that the race wasn't USATF sanctioned. I just found a page where it lists how much it costs to get a USATF sanction. The sanction does indeed cost almost $10,000 in Michigan. It's based on the number of participants but with races with more than $15,000 partipants the fee in Michigan is $9950 as explained here:

http://www.usatf.org/events/sanctions/application/download/info.asp?associationNumber=19

Sanctioning does give the race one key benefit in addition to being able to count for record purposes - liability coverage - as explained here:

http://www.usatf.org/Products---Services/Event-Sanctions/Sanction-Benefits.aspx

Maybe the FreeP got insurance elsewhere? Event directors, how much would it cost to get liability insurance for a race with 19,000 entrants if you don't sanction it and get USATF's insurance?

Pissant usatf and freep wrote:

* this is a well known fact to the Michigan running community. This was an absolute travesty and I do think that national press is necessary here. This thing is the course is certified but not sanctioned what sanction is basically amounts to USATF getting it cut a percentile of the money made.

It sounds like the course was certified but the race wasn't sanctioned. A qualifying time has to be in a sanctioned race:

Sanctioning the race would be by the local USATF Association, USATF Michigan. This is their fee schedule:

If I'm reading this right, the total fee would be $9,950 based on number of participants.

I can see why a race should be sanctioned - you don't want runners getting into the Olympic trials by supposedly running the West Wyoming Marathon - but the fee seems really excessive. I can't see that there's actually $9,950 in value there.

Watching this with great interest!

I just found about this today and am blown away. I am sure It's too late to do anything now, but apparently a runner qualified for the trials in 2014 in the half marathon. There is an article written about her qualification here:

http://www.hometownlife.com/story/sports/running/2014/10/22/rachel-mcfarlane-us-marathon-trials-detroit-half-marathon/17705755/

Apparently Rachel will not be running because THE COURSE WAS NOT CERTIFIED! In the past courses have been able to certify the next year, which retroactively has qualified runners, but in this case her appeal was denied because the Detroit Freep won't cough up the 10 grand to certify the course that they advertised as certified.

This is the biggest BS I have ever heard of. Hope none of you guys run this garbage in the future, screw these guys.

Editor's note. The poster thinks Rachel isn't running becaues the race wasn't certified. That isn't the issue. The issue is the race wasn't USATF SANCTIONED. The race is/was unwilling to pay the $9950 to be a USATF sanctioned race which is a requirement for Trials qualifying races.

rojo wrote:

The sanction does indeed cost almost $10,000 in Michigan.

That is a grossly excessive amount.

rojo wrote:

Maybe the FreeP got insurance elsewhere? Event directors, how much would it cost to get liability insurance for a race with 19,000 entrants if you don't sanction it and get USATF's insurance?

Someone pointed out to me that if the FreeP owns the race they may have a umbrella iability policy they wouldn't really benefit from the liability insurance that comes from the USATF sanctioning like a normal one off road race would.

Thus they figured there's no need to pay the fee for a handful of qualifiers.

Does anyone know what huge organizations like the NYRR and BAA have for insurance? Do they USATF sanction all of their races or just the biggies?

Well, I beleive the problem lies in the excessive sanctioning fees the local USATF tries to charge. I am told that it's just a few 100 dollars in other states. Look into the sanctioning fees paid at Chicago and New York. I beleive the problem here is once again the USATF.

She ran the correct course, believe me, she wouldn't waste her time if she wasn't trying to qualify. The bottom line is the Detroit Free Press Marathon and its supporters are too cheap to support the Elite Runners here in MI and no one should support their race ,, although the average recreational runner does not care and will pay their fee. This is a travesty, and a huge disappointment to a girl who worked her a** off to get the time.

Lookdeeper wrote:

Well, I beleive the problem lies in the excessive sanctioning fees the local USATF tries to charge. I am told that it's just a few 100 dollars in other states. Look into the sanctioning fees paid at Chicago and New York. I beleive the problem here is once again the USATF.

You can actually look it up on the USATF website. For the largest races, the national USATF fee is $5,000. The local fee is $4,950 in Michigan, $1,175 in Illinois, $1,500 in Ohio, $600 in Wisconsin, $500 in New York, so Michigan does seem very high.

To Rojo's point above, you are getting the insurance coverage based on the $5,000 that the national USATF charges regardless of what the local association charges.

What you get for the extra $4,950 you pay to the Michigan association in this case is unclear to me.

On the insurance point, the national USATF also says: "It is important to know that events that are already insured may choose to waive the insurance coverage and pay a lower sanction fee."

http://www.usatf.org/Products---Services/Event-Sanctions/Sanction-Benefits.aspx