Boston Postrace Shitshow

I had no problems at the finish. They wrapped me up in the nice space blacklet thing with a hood and arm holes and velcro to keep it closed. That was nice. Much better than the older days where the space blankets would flap around in the wind and a piece of tape held it on that never worked. And the old days where you had to walk a long way and had to take your chip off your shoe.

I walked down the chute and they let me out right next to Chipotle. I got a burrito and they let me back into the chute and get the little bag of food and banana and other stuff.

The gear check is always a pain in the butt since most people finish near the same time based upon their number but the wait wasn't long and the entire chute area was not clogged like other years. Most people finished and got the heck out of the chute, which was nice. The last couple years when it was warm getting through the family reunification area was terrible. Everyone was standing around and there has been a big line of families trying to get in having their gear checked and a bunch of families trying to squeeze in where runners are supposed to be able to leave. Not much of a problem there.

It must have been pretty miserable for the volunteers all along the course and at the finish. But all of them were very eager to help. Where did they get such helpful people like that?

If you had no problems, that’s great. For you. I also was okay, but that doesn’t make it okay that others got hypothermia because of bad planning by the organizers. Your own experience is a single snapshot. There are still people in the hospital.

No issues wrote:

What are you guys complaining about?

I finished just under 2:40 and had no issues.

Hi Desi!

how about you stop running big city marathons if you can't stand the associated downsides?

The marathon itself was pleasant and I will run next year. There is no good reason for the postrun situation to be set up so poorly, so rather than shrug it off as an unavoidable consequence of a “big city marathon,” I’d rather petition for change before more people are unnecessarily harmed.

One of the problems was there were not enough volunteers in the gear check. I came in right around 3h there were 5 or 6 people trying to go through all the bags for wave 1. Runners were going into the area to find their own bags, I know this because that is what I did.

10/10

Pre-race: I'm sorry that runners just don't get it. You'd think that by the time you managed to get your BQ, as watered-down as it is even, that you'd be adult enough to understand how to dress yourself.

ALL you had to was get the stuff you were going to run in on, then put on a layer of sweats you no longer want, an an outer waterproof shell layer you no longer want. Put your flats in a waterproof bag, and wear some old shoes you can toss to the starting area. Bring GU or whatever, bring a cheap thermos of coffee.

Change into the shoes on the line with 3 minutes to go, get out of the shell and sweats, put it all in the bag that was holding your shoes, and toss it over the fence.

Run, hopefully wearing the sensible stuff addressed in the other thread. (Embro, folks, really.)

At the finish, get the heck out of dodge. Get yourself to your ride or hotel or whatever, keep moving. This isn't rocket science. This is competing in cold and wet weather, you didn't invent this. But ya'll sure know how to make life difficult. Jeebus.

ClusterForkAlso wrote:

If you had no problems, that’s great. For you. I also was okay, but that doesn’t make it okay that others got hypothermia because of bad planning by the organizers. Your own experience is a single snapshot. There are still people in the hospital.

Is this true? Still in the hospital? I agree with the OP. It was sadistic. They refused to give me a blanket until I walked a huge way.

In the words of Hunter S. Thompson "it never got weird enough for me"

No, it never got weird enough for me.

No issues wrote:

What are you guys complaining about?

I finished just under 2:40 and had no issues.

Yeah, don't come back you whining hobby joggers. We only want real runners.

Keep your charity horseshit for your local 5k.

mr wilson wrote:

The only worse sh!tshow i've ever seen was Yakov Smirnoff opening for the Spin Doctors at the Iowa State Fair.

LOL, that woulda been great...crazy F'n Russian has one joke. And spin docs one song! I would rather see the hog exhibit.

gear check wrote:

I think I have a gear check solution that solves the similar number/finish time rush.

Divide the groups by the last digits of the bib number, not the first.

So instead of 1XXX, 2XXX, ... 30XXX; you have XXX10-19, XXX20-29, etc.

This will spread out the runners a lot more evenly as they finish. This helps everyone get their bags quickly, from the fastest to the slowest.

This is exactly how they did it at the Paris Marathon a couple of weeks ago.

By all accounts it's the second largest marathon in the world with over 42000 finishers this year and I didn't even have to wait 10 seconds for my bag.

gear check wrote:

I think I have a gear check solution that solves the similar number/finish time rush.

Divide the groups by the last digits of the bib number, not the first.

So instead of 1XXX, 2XXX, ... 30XXX; you have XXX10-19, XXX20-29, etc.

This will spread out the runners a lot more evenly as they finish. This helps everyone get their bags quickly, from the fastest to the slowest.

I like this. That would work. I always thought it was a little insane when we would go to the buses and one or two buses were packed and the others had a few people standing there.

I agree that the gear pickup could be organized better but I found the workers helpful (finished in 2:52), one of the higher bib number tents volunteers helped me get into my dry clothes.

As one of the previous posters mentioned a table with hot drinks would have helped so much. My favorite marathon, twin cities, has chicken and vegetable broth at the finish and it always hits the spot and I really could have used some on Monday. Coffee too.

I've run Boston four times. Its the same every year. Money rules. The finish line and medical tents are jokes. I won't be back.

The BAA sent you not one, but two emails in the days leading up to Monday telling you the weather would be bad, you might get hypothermic after the race, and to have a plan about how to get warm. Do you expect them to be waiting with towels for you as everyone crosses the finish line? Take some personal responsibility, or have some resourcefulness. Or don't run marathons in the freezing cold rain. Sheesh.

johnnydj wrote:

I've run Boston four times. Its the same every year. Money rules. The finish line and medical tents are jokes. I won't be back.

don't let the back door hit ya where the good Lawd split ya!

You don't get it. What you suggest would work, unless you bonk, and a lot of people yesterday bonked, and bonked badly.

The start was alright, I don't think anybody had issues with that, beside the mud-fest that was the village area. The first 20 miles of the race were also fine for most people. Then you bonk hard and slow down, and body temperature starts to drop. Vision gets blurred. You stop at a medical tent, but it is full and you still don't look too bad. You shuffle to the finish in three hours and change hoping to find a dry and warm spot there. You can hardly walk as you cross the finish line, but sure, now it is over...

Not so fast. The tents are already overflowing and there is a line going around a block to get in a warm place. You would like to get the heck out of there and go back to the hotel that, if you can afford it, is only a mile from the finish area. Good luck finding a ride. At this point you can't even think straight and crawl to the hotel in 20 miserable minutes.

You get there and think...it was a beautiful day indeed.