Joining in on the wrong race?
By ShepherdSpy
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
Omagh, Northern Ireland
December 2, 2012 1:53pm CST
A Nephew and Niece of mine in the US are keen runners and along with their Dad (My Brother) took part in a Thanksgiving Morning race recently. There was a 5k and a 10k event running together on the day,so the 5k runners dropped out half way through..but it turned out that some who had signed up for the 10k actually only ran the 5k,confusing the timekeepers and delaying the result calculations..I'm wondering since would that sort of thing happen often in race meets?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
2 Dec 12
If the race is well organized and the volunteers are briefed well, as well as having clearly marked start and finish areas for each race, this isn't something that happens often. Unfortunately, races are all over the board in terms of how well organized they are, and honestly as a veteran runner, you don't really know unless you've run an event before.
Local races can be REALLY good or they can be REALLY bad, depending on the budget, race director, the amount of volunteers, and the course itself.
We just did a 5k/3k yesterday as a fundraiser and we had the start together but the finishes in two different places. We had a volunteer at each finish line, the 5K recording the finish times and the 3K only calling them out. We did ribbons for the top 6 finishers of the 5K since we did not have a list for the people who ran the 3K.
If people were going to drop, they should have made sure to tell registration that before the race started to help avoid confusion at the finish. In a much longer race that offered shorter options (like a 50K and a 25K), it might be good enough to alert someone at an aid station that you were dropping and they could radio or call that info to the race employees at the finish ahead of time to adjust your information.
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
4 Dec 12
I didn't hear of any issues on the day about the marshalling of the event from my family members..Waiting for the publication of the results online,the event had a website which posted the issue about the delay.
1 person likes this
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
6 Dec 12
Yikes
...that's not a good thing to have happen to you after going through all the preparation and training for an event !
...that's not a good thing to have happen to you after going through all the preparation and training for an event !@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
4 Dec 12
I've had a few race websites either never publish final results or the results they publish are incorrect. Sometimes I think they either make errors or their equipment malfunctions and they actually don't even have the data to download or assign to participants, so rather than tell us that, they just never publish the final results. 
That's kind of lousy since I like to keep track of all my races and how I did/placed in each of them.
That's kind of lousy since I like to keep track of all my races and how I did/placed in each of them.
@vidhyaprakash_2 (7116)
• India
3 Dec 12
Hi friend, good to know that your family members joined in a race, but unfortunately it is not a fair one, mostly this kind of races are conducted for fun purpose and people will enjoy a lot with them. Hope the problems in the race solved later
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
4 Dec 12
The results got sorted out eventually and were published a little later.
@subhojit10 (7375)
• India
2 Dec 12
Thanks a ton for sharing this discussion. Well i know such things do happen in most of the races where the participants goof up while running and i think the cause of the miscommunication could be the lack of volunteers at the race who would have otherwise guided the entire race.
I think it might have created a confusion in most of the minds but most importantly every one where running for a cause of the eve of Thanksgiving day and i think that counts the most.
What say?
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
4 Dec 12
It's true that the race was a fundraiser for a charity on the day. I can't say what the reasons were that people may have signed up for one race,then decided at some point in the proceedings to change their minds and complete an associated race.
@skyandgrassplot (1497)
• China
3 Dec 12
Actually it is only happen to long race and outside race,if the race is in the field then it is not gonna happen because it is more clear and everything is undercontroled,but as your Thanksgiving race,if you guys feel happy about that and why to care about the result?It is more like parade than race.
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
4 Dec 12
True,I suppose if all the race fees were paid and the charity didn't miss out on any contributions,no harm was done..it was just the confusion that resulted for the organisers and the other competitors taking part.
