Wow!!! Ok…Well this WAS TO BE my 10th 1/2 Marathon and I paid $318 to stay at the “host” hotel to avoid any traffic or parking issues on race day…EPIC FAIL.
Pre-Race was OK at best. Expo parking was exorbinate for an Expo that didn’t have much going on and was totally crowded. But since I was staying at the hotel and had to pay for parking anyways…no biggie. One line to get your bib and bag and yet another in a whole different area, outside of the expo was kinda silly…but I wasn’t there for the expo…I was there to enjoy what I thought would be super fun run.
Course…ok…maybe not fair to give it an F, but no choice on the matter since all I really got to do was was walk from the Start Line to the Finish Line to cheer on the runners that actually go to run.
Post Race..super crowded and impacted and impossible to really see anyone or manuever thru the crowded mess.
Overall…Well this grade is a deserved F. Staying at the host hotel should at a very minimum provide some type of communication when things go so totally wrong. First shuttle was to be there at 4:30am and did not show up until after 5:00am…and from what I have heard got lost. Really??? So with 2 large buses running back an forth the first one came back to pick up the 3rd bus full of runners AFTER 6am…I was pretty sure, with as many of us that were stranded at the hotel that the event would be held, since it was no fault of the runners still standing in the bus lines at 6am. We made it onto the 4th bus, where the bus driver allowed at least 20 to 30 runners to STAND IN THE AISLE!! Ok…I get it…we were late…but really?? So we arrive at the start line, with our gear in tow…and the start line is empty…no one there to let us know what to do…no one to direct us anywhere. So we meander and look for the finish line to check in our bags…and realize that it’s about a mile away..ok…we can still do this…nope we can’t…so back to the start line….really??? So now it’s after 7am, traffic stops are lifted my friend runs a 1:35 half time and I am closer to 3 hours…so we would basically be running alone…for 13.1 miles with traffic stops lifted and no way to really know if we were heading in the right direction…so we take the advice of other runners in our position and walk to the finish line to at least cheer on our fellow runners. What a bummer!! Watching all those people we were supposed to be running with cross the finish line. Still no explanation, no mention of what a debacle it was, comments of others getting deleted from the Facebook feeds with no answers given….this was a disaster.