This morning I ran the Run Like Hell 5k in downtown Portland. I had paid $45 for the entry. In return for my $45, there were zero mile markers on the course, no course marshalls at several unmarked turns, a mistake in the overall race results, and an awards ceremony that took place one hour after it was scheduled (or longer, we had to leave before it took place).
That made me angry.
Was the course at least accurate in the end? I have no idea. I went off course following the lead motorcycle at one of the unmarked, un-course-marshalled turns.
That made me really angry.
Now I know the boilerplate response from race directors when this happens: "it is the responsibility of the participant to know the course, blah blah blah". I did, in fact, know the course. I looked at the map just this morning. The course was new this year, so I made sure to have a picture of it in my head.
And that's why, when the lead motorcycle turned right where I thought we'd be turning left, I was confused.
Let me back up just a sec.
This was at about 2.5 miles into the race. At around 2 miles, I had passed the two guys right in front of me, moving into 3rd place overall. The first 2 guys were together a little ways off, but I could still see them and the lead motorcycle. As I struggled to maintain a hard effort, tunnel vision started to creep in. For a few blocks, I turned my focus inward to keep myself from slacking off, and without even realizing it, I wasn't looking at the leaders anymore.
Running north through the park blocks, I came out of my mental cocoon and started looking for the anticipated left hand turn, but what I saw instead was the lead motorcycle turning to the right.
I was confused. There hadn't been any arrows on the course map.... maybe I had misunderstood the direction of the loop around the park blocks? I looked up ahead and to the left. I couldn't see the leaders anywhere. There were no course marshalls anywhere either, none at the turn the lead motorcycle had taken, none at the next block in front of me (where the street came to a tee, forcing a turn one direction or the other).
I was fast approaching the corner where the motorcycle had turned, and I was getting increasingly frantic, looking everywhere for a clue. I threw my arms out to my sides and screamed at the top of my lungs "WHERE IS THE COURSE?!?!?!?!?"
No answer, no nothing. There were no course marshalls to answer me.
At the last second, I turned to follow the motorcycle. I came to a dead stop about 15 feet later when I saw the cop sitting at his bike at the next intersection. I started to turn back, paused, started again, then Joe came running around the corner the same way I had turned. I yelled to him, "is this the course?" He didn't know either, he'd been following me. I started toward the cop, yelling, "WHERE DOES THE COURSE GO?"
I was yelling. LOUDLY.
The cop just looked at me. Did he think I was joking? Or that I was nuts?
Finally he started making a gesture at me. For some reason, instead of just telling me where the course went, he was making hand signals at me that I could not understand. I yelled, "WHICH WAY IS THE COURSE?" Again.
Finally he responded verbally to go back the way we had come and turn right.
I have no idea how long this all took, but it felt like three years. I took off running back to the course, and I was so angry I almost burst into tears.
I don't know exactly how I was doing to that point, SINCE THERE WERE NO MILE MARKERS ON THE COURSE, but I was trying hard. I had possibly gotten just a bit complacent in the middle mile, but I had been rallying, and I had really been trying to get myself into a discomfort zone in the 3rd mile. There was spit flopping out of my mouth, I was talking to myself, it was going to be an effort I could be proud of.
But man, this is a 5k. You don't have 5 seconds to give, let alone 20 or 30 or 40 seconds or whatever I wasted not knowing where to go.
So when I started racing again, I was deflated in a big way. I tried to keep running hard, tried to pretend it didn't happen and focus on running as fast as I could in the moment, but it was pretty useless. I couldn't get much out of myself that last half mile or so.
I was angry afterwards. Angry angry angry. And disappointed. Really disappointed. I've been running a lot the past few months, working really hard to try to get ready for a marathon in November, and this was my only real tune up race. I knew the time wasn't going to be awesome, but I very much wanted to see what it would be. I wanted some objective feedback.
Plus, damn it, I wanted to race! The first two guys ended up separating sometime in that last mile, and now I'll never get to know if I would have reeled one of them in, or if I would have at least gotten one of them back in my sights. At least I wanted to try.
All of this brings me to a larger point.
I am really tired of race directors using the whole "mass participation" thing as an excuse to put on shitty races. The handful of people at the front of the race are not the only people that care about a course having mile markers, and a course being accurate, and being to follow the course. If you pay $45 for a race, you deserve all those things. If you pay $10 for a race, you deserve all those things.
I'm not one of those people that thinks mass participation is, in itself,"ruining our sport", or whatever it is that people say. But I do think race directors are under the impression that all people want are gimmicks, and that they don't care about anything else as long as they can get a free beer after the race. I think that's bullshit.
An accurate course, mile markers, and course marshalls are the things you should have first. Those should be mandatory. If you want to have a 3 ring circus above and beyond that, knock yourself out. But don't insult the runners by calling your event a race if you can't even provide the basics.
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