10 mile madness - 9 guys fighting for prize money positions miss turn, DQed

For anyone interested in checking where he missed turn was, it can be seen on my Strava (Griffin Bohannon).

If you zoom in near the bottom left of the route just below Miller Rd, you can see where it happened. The guys continued on Colchester instead of turning right onto Hawthorne.

Sucks for them. Races should mark their courses better. Still, that's why I memorize the course of any race I'm halfway serious about.

my 2c wrote:

Sucks for them. Races should mark their courses better. Still, that's why I memorize the course of any race I'm halfway serious about.

If a race has more than 4-5 turns, I can guarantee you I couldn’t commit it to memory. Impressed by those who can though.

What day is it? wrote:

my 2c wrote:

Sucks for them. Races should mark their courses better. Still, that's why I memorize the course of any race I'm halfway serious about.

If a race has more than 4-5 turns, I can guarantee you I couldn’t commit it to memory. Impressed by those who can though.

I agree. I can hardly remember my name in the last few miles of a race. The sport is running, not orienteering. Courses should be clearly marked.

my 2c wrote:

Sucks for them. Races should mark their courses better. Still, that's why I memorize the course of any race I'm halfway serious about.

This course actually has a solid blue lane painted permanently on the road that marks the entire course. No, I am not kidding. I will admit that I don’t watch the ground the whole time I run, but the line is there. Some of the guys are now reporting that a volunteer led them the wrong way.

So what’s the problem?

Ten or eleven guys are disqualified for accidentally running off the course. That’s how things work.

cookie bear wrote:

So what’s the problem?

Ten or eleven guys are disqualified for accidentally running off the course. That’s how things work.

No problem. I was just hoping someone who was in the group would see the thread and chime in. I’ve heard conflicting reports of a truck blocking the correct route, a volunteer pointing them off course, etc, etc.

Didn’t post that originally in hopes of gleaning facts from those involved. I’m not personally upset by the developments.

Having run this race many times, I couldn't imagine going off course unless something fishy happened at that turn. Even inexperienced race leaders should have zero trouble navigating.

I always run in the middle of the pack.

I never stray off course because I just follow the runners ahead of me.

which is clearly a mute point since *all* of the pack of runners in question went off course (or were directed off)... thanks for your contribution to the thread though.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

I always run in the middle of the pack.

I never stray off course because I just follow the runners ahead of me.

amkelley wrote:

What day is it? wrote:

If a race has more than 4-5 turns, I can guarantee you I couldn’t commit it to memory. Impressed by those who can though.

I agree. I can hardly remember my name in the last few miles of a race. The sport is running, not orienteering. Courses should be clearly marked.

This makes me giggle because my daughter is notorious for getting off course even on courses she knows well and has done repeatedly.

A couple thoughts from someone who was in the group:

- There were volunteers at the turn where we went the wrong way. They did not stop us from going that way, though I cannot confidently say that they actively led us in the wrong direction. I do not remember a truck blocking the correct route.

- It's not like 5th-15th was all running in one big pack, which seems to be an assumption above. We were broken up into multiple groups, which means they didn't stop subsequent groups after the first group went astray. At one point I saw a volunteer say something to someone in front of me and saw that runner react (now in hindsight, it clearly was "you went the wrong way back there") though for some reason they didn't even say anything to me when I went by after that.

- I actually didn't even know there was a line marking the course and didn't see it during the race. That doesn't mean it's not there (I'm sure it was), but it means this was not sufficient for expecting people to navigate the course. Either the existence of the line should have been communicated to the leaders or there should have been additional measures.

- "my 2c" - look at the course map for the Crim then let me know if you still feel confident about knowing exactly where every turn on the course would be.

- There was poor communication before the race (took multiple emails to get any responses), during the rain delay (going 30+ minutes at a time with no updates), and also during the race (as shown here). It was very surprising for a race of this size that has been run for this long.

You meant to use the word moot instead of mute. Mute is without sound and moot is of minor significance. Moot originally meant debatable but the definition has evolved. The definition of mute has remained constant and the words are not pronounced the same.

The blue line is curbside, maybe 5 or 6 inchs wide, and it doesn't go across the intersections, but it's very visible throughout.

Thanks for the input. This is what I was hoping for - firsthand info. Agree that the existence of the blue line is not well communicated. I only knew about because my wife is from the area and I run there often. It definitely wasn’t mentioned at the event. I also agree that communication was lackluster although I hate to complain too much as the amenities were great for me. I’m only a 2:30 marathon guy and am not used to free lodging, free entry, hospitality room access, etc. That stuff was great.

Bummer about the lackadaisical volunteers. That sucks and needs to be addressed by race officials. Thanks again.

I think courses should be well designed, marked, and guided. It's our job to run the course, not memorize every turn beforehand. It's the organizers' (keyword) job to make sure people go the right way.

Grammar help wrote:

You meant to use the word moot instead of mute. Mute is without sound and moot is of minor significance. Moot originally meant debatable but the definition has evolved. The definition of mute has remained constant and the words are not pronounced the same.

Or maybe he should have said a moo point.

CRIMinal minds wrote:

- "my 2c" - look at the course map for the Crim then let me know if you still feel confident about knowing exactly where every turn on the course would be.

I did look up the course map. Nothing about it struck me as a challenge to memorize, but maybe I'm odd. For a goal race that's not local, I'll study the course map until I can completely recreate it from memory using onthegomap.com or mappedometer.com, usually both. Then I'll go over the course several times virtually using Google Maps's Street View and Bing Maps's Streetside feature so I know what all the turns look like, where the mile markers are, and how far from the finish I am over the last 1-2 miles.

This may not be the right approach for a lot of runners, but it suits my style, and it also gives me a competitive advantage. I can anticipate turns and follow tangent lines while other runners are blissfully following the center line on the road, or swinging wide on turns because they can't see which way to go until they're right on the turn. If you watch for it, you'll see that even a lot of fast runners just plain suck at running tangents. All that extra distance adds up over the course of a race. It may not be everyone's cup of tea to memorize the course, but shaving off distance and time has meant money in my pocket more than once when I really shouldn't have expected a podium finish.

I'm sorry about the useless race volunteers and poor course marking. I'd be pretty upset about it if it happened to me. I'd complain mightily to the RD. If it's important enough to you to prevent it from happening again, you do have options.

Stopcecil! wrote:

I think courses should be well designed, marked, and guided. It's our job to run the course, not memorize every turn beforehand. It's the organizers' (keyword) job to make sure people go the right way.

stick to running2win you noob