The Barb and Gerry show wrote:
JustSomeGuyWhoRuns wrote:Just got a new email from Via. Basically - there's not going to be any change in official times.
On Sunday, September 11, 2016, Via Events, Inc. held its tenth annual marathon. The annual marathon is our largest fundraiser. The funds raised are vital for children and adults with disabilities. Your participation in the marathon results in children receiving therapy, adults finding and keeping jobs, and individuals participating in the Lehigh Valley community through recreational and volunteer activities. Our mission is to help the people we serve reach their full potential, and the Via Marathon plays an important role in doing so.
Some of our runners have been affected by an incident that occurred during the race involving a Norfolk Southern train crossing. Via relies on the coordinated efforts of many to ensure the safety and integrity of our race. In preparation for the marathon, Via met with Norfolk Southern Railroad officials, where race logistics, runner safety, and public safety on the course were discussed in great detail. On June 23, 2016, Via staff provided Norfolk Southern with documentation that included race date, time, and logistics information related to all rail crossings on the course. We were given assurances from Norfolk Southern that rail traffic would not obstruct the race. The safety of our runners is our primary concern. For those runners affected, we offer our apologies.
Because the Via Marathon is a Boston qualifying marathon, Via Marathon race officials have been in close contact with the Boston Athletic Association (the “B.A.A.â€) since the race. Based on the information provided by us to the B.A.A., much of which was provided by our runners, the B.A.A. has made the following determination:
“Unfortunately, after reviewing the information received from the 2016 Via Marathon, the B.A.A. is unable to accept adjusted finish times from -- or make adjustments to -- the 2016 Via Marathon. Official times must be kept intact and based on the course which each participant ran. The B.A.A. must stand firm in its Boston Marathon qualifier requirements which include accepting only adjudicated results. The B.A.A. will, however, accept adjudicated results from the 2016 Via Marathon which are official and have not been adjusted.â€
We appreciate the B.A.A.’s willingness to review this matter, and for those runners attempting to qualify for the Boston marathon, we understand your frustration.
We greatly appreciate your continued participation and support in this important fundraiser for Via. We regret any inconvenience, and we hope you will join us again next year.
Sincerely,
Gerry Yasso, Vice President of Development, Via Events, Inc.
Barbara McKeever, Via Marathon Race Director
Via Events, Inc.
336 W. Spruce Street
Bethlehem, PA 18018
events@vianet.org
Nobody who knows these two should be surprised by this response. It's wordy, and uses lots of tangents to try to deflect the reader from the subject. It reads like an annual report for a company going under: "some of our runners have been affected...", could be "corporate sales have been affected...". It's just like the Rossi response.
The real kicker is that it looks like they haven't communicated with NSRR since June 23, so the RR likely had 2.5 months to forget about something that was hardly important to them to begin with. If Barb or Gerry had reminded them a few times the week before, they probably would have held back their train. I suspect that Via staff did not contact them after June 23, because they probably would have bragged about it in this email.
This is the problem here, and it puts front-and-center the incompetence of these two: race management is a job of logistics and people. You have to be constantly checking in on those who are assigned jobs: cops, timers, USATF, town officials, entertainment, and so on, INCLUDING THE RAILROAD.
Another contradiction is "The safety of our runners is our primary concern." The letter starts out talking about fundraising, so I have no doubt that FUNDRAISING is their primary concern. If runner safety was their primary concern Yasso would have designed a course without RR crossings.
Bottom line is Yasso and McKeever dropped the ball, big time. They have nobody to blame but themselves. When you wrap up a huge blunder with a letter that basically says "tough $#it to the sport of running" and reads like a layoff notice from an HR department in another state, it makes sense that they and Rossi incur so much wrath.