Brian Adorno's Staging Area

Here are the facts:
Six weeks before the event, the race director notifies all runners that the race has to be moved from May 29th to June 5th. They claim that the police department forced them to move the race. They also claim that hotels should be cheaper since the race is no longer on a holiday weekend.

Hotels jacked up prices for race weekend higher then what they were Memorial Day weekend. We were forced to pay the higher prices too even though we already had reservations made through the race travel agency.

Race is scheduled to start at 6am. After we get in the corrals, the race director continually states that we are delayed due to something entirely out of their control. Also heard reports of police removing runners hats during the national anthem. We finally started running at 6:20 (so extra time standing, extra time in the sun later).

The course leader took the wrong direction about 3 miles into the race, causing everyone to run an additional .4 miles. No one was really certain what was going on during the race since all of our watches said we were .4 miles longer than what the mile markers showed throughout the remainder of the course. Race officials have since said that this was the Sheriff’s fault.

Here are my opinions:
If the race director is to be believed (all three items were someone else’s fault) then you shouldn’t run this race. If the race can get this messed up out of the organizer’s control, then how can anyone trust this race can be run properly? I personally don’t believe the race director. I think this organization dropped the ball and did a lackluster job and the rest of us paid the price. Speaking of, they offered no refunds after moving the event until the social media backlash. Unless they can get their act together in the future, don’t run this race.

This race is not meant for anyone but those from southern California. I spent a small fortune on flights, cars, and hotels to be there. After the news of the race moving by a week, I had to spend another small fortune to change all our plans and dates. I figured I was already in the hole so much already, might as well make it work for a BQ. Turns out not attending the event would have been the better use of my time. After I realized the course was wrong and not my watch, I had to try to make up for nearly 4 minutes of lost time and wound up burning myself out in the last few miles which is purely uphill.

From start to finish, this race took the fun out of marathoning. I’ve never finished a race and seen so many people angry in the finisher’s area. Being a marathoner is something to celebrate, and somehow this race ruined that–all while taking zero responsibility.

Not sure if will work, but I added the race’s Instagram post link where you can read comments from a bunch of demoralized runners.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceb-abIvda2/?hl=en