Biggest complaint to race directors

1. Accurate course.

2. well marked course-includes volunteers giving directions

3. porto johns- lots of 'em

4. water, cant have too much of that both on the course and after

5. timely awards ceremony. No I do NOT want to spend most of a Saturday dealing with your race.

6. useful awards i.e. gift cert., running socks, running gloves, beach towel ANYTHING but a trophy or plaque.

OldGuyStill Running wrote:

Lack of any system to guard against cheating, i.e. course cutting, etc. No timing mats are placed anywhere on the course to ensure that everyone runs the same course.

Random mats along the course would make it harder to cheat.

It is a 6 ounce Dixie cup, not a bowling ball, keep your fingers OUT of the inside of the water cups at aid stations. I neither want nor need the bugger sugar or butt crack grease off of the volunteers dirty little hands. No wonder so many people get sick after a marathon, they've been drinking fingerjuice for 26 mismarked miles.

High Entry Fees

Lack of Rossi mats.

Flamethrower wrote:

Get your course USATF certified. Nothing irks me more than a short course.

I tend to look at course certification fees as just one more way for USATF to try to get their mitts on the people's money and to attempt to assert authority. People held races before USATF and will do so long after USATF has been swept into the dustbin of history. Race directors can measure accurately without USATF telling them they did.

Of course, context matters. If I'm paying a significant fee, sure, I want an accurate course, mile markers, etc. If it's my local Turkey Trot to benefit the food pantry, I'm not concerned about that stuff. At dinner that afternoon, nobody will want to know that I think I ran my fifth-best four mile time ever, but I am not sure because the course was not certified.

This list is pretty darn good...

I will say that even USATF certified coursed occasionally put the mile markers slightly in the wrong place for maybe some flimsy reasons like repaving, losing the marks etc...I don't mind that so much as long as I know the course from start to finish is accurate..

The splits could be just slightly off though.

Big huge goofy race number bibs. Most of us runners are pretty skinny. We don't need a race bib that wraps around our waist.

mellow seeds wrote:

Make sure the course is accurately measured (certified) and that the certified course is what is actually used on race day.

Yes. Accurate course is #1. And, accurate mile markers, too. Serious runners care about this but hobby joggers don't...

1) Show up for the race. I ran one race where the race director never showed up and no one knew what to do.

2) Don't decide one hour before the race to start the race 15 minutes earlier than the published start time. [I missed the announcement that the race would be started early. I and many other runners missed the start of the race.]

3) Don't show a map of your race route on your website and then the day of the race decide to use a different course.

4) List the actual race distance on your website. I am OK with a half-marathon course being 12 miles long, but list on your website that the length of the course is 12 miles and not 13 miles.

5) Respond to emails when someone needs more information about the race.

6) Don't collect money for a race, cancel it at the last minute and keep everyone's money.

poorstudent wrote:

high registration fees

I was planning on going to a meet this weekend, then found out it was a $55 entry fee, for just a local track meet.

port-o-potties and better podium prizes. This may be the equivalent of a first world problem but when I finish top three at a race I'd much rather just get $100 than a pair of shoes I'll never wear.

Top Noticer wrote:

More amenities for your top runners.

For any RDs reading this...even something little like a partially comped entry or an elite bib or something goes a LONG ways towards conciliating yourself with high-level runners in your area.

Original SWAG. No more cheapo tshirts. Belt buckles are cool but getting more popular. Think outside the bix and make it original to your event. At least make typical shirts and medals optional at a different cost.

Last two posts only lame ones.

Amenities for elite runners...These guys are the ones that always just gotta leave early and just don't have the time to wait for an awards ceremony. So an RD has to interrupt what he is doing with runners still on the course many times to take care of these runners..Happens 99.9 percent of time.

We finally did everything we could to keep elite runners away.

Award complaints are the worst.

Keep up the great responses though like the first dozen or so that are here.

Make the course markings painfully obvious to someone who is running as fast as they can with sweat in the eyes. If you can't do that, make sure to have volunteers at every turn that know which way to point. I once ran a road race with arrows drawn on 3x5 index cards stuck in the ground with popsicle sticks as the guide to the course. This wasn't good.

Green Mountain Boy wrote:

Don't stop a late Spring race because it gets a little warm.

Yeah. I'm looking at you Vermont City Marathon.

Looking back at you GMB - I'll invite you to join the Race Committee and make sure we get everything right next time. Hit me on my email.

Publish the course. Use the course that you publish and make sure volunteers know which way to send people if there is any doubt. I was running a local 5k. I had had studied the course since was first time running this race. Somewhere just past the 2 mile mark the lead group passes a volunteer and we continue on the correct course which went straight, took a left hand turn then another left hand turn. As we get to the cross street where we had passed the volunteer the few blocks over he had started telling people to turn left instead of going straight. So, they cut off a big chunk of the course some had ended in front of the lead group. The results were so messed up.

always have ice cream at the finish line BOOM