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Apr 2016
10:12am, 22 Apr 2016
3,590 posts
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Huntsman
Serious runners will not be demanding refunds as they will reflect (probably raging) and move on, it's the one off marathon runners who will probably make the most noise and demand refunds. Some runners have said they want their times adjusted, based on their average pace, which too me is just plain stupid.
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Apr 2016
10:18am, 22 Apr 2016
182 posts
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PeeG
Nelly, I can understand your frustration. I was surprised to see Great Run comment on it. Think there is two sides to what is happening on social media. The first being that these organisations just want to do anything that generates more clicks, likes and followers for them. And with rival organisations, or organisation with an interest in Manchester, I wonder if it is just political games to position themselves for any gap that may be created in a fallout of this.
I am disappointed to lose my PB, but I certainly won't blame Xtra Mile for it.
Those on social media asking for refunds or with faux outrage over it all will forget about it in a few days and will move onto something else.
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Apr 2016
10:22am, 22 Apr 2016
11,667 posts
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Dvorak
I've been following the whole Manchester thing with interest and speaking to people about, despite having no direct involvement. And taking the piss when people have messed up is part of our cultural fabric. And I can appreciate Nelly's personal attachment, however I think it is for people involved in running a "newsworthy event" and a fair target for opinion and comment. Let's imagine the GMM was a politician - just because they weren't your own MP, people wouldn't say you couldn't have your tuppenceworth.
As for the measurement - as a race organiser you'll have a pretty good idea how long your course should be and then you hire a measurer to get it right. If they deliver a result about a quarter of a mile different, then you'd have a good look at it and if it still seemed wrong and you had the time and money (and Manchester should have had both, measurement fees afaik are not exactly an onerous burden) you have it remeasured.
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Apr 2016
10:31am, 22 Apr 2016
16,442 posts
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flanker
In some ways I can understand the social media outcry. We thin of running a marathon as a reasonably routine thing.
For many, especially in a big city marathon, it is a once in a lifetime, bucket list event, that they will have put heart, soul, and a lot of pain into it for months, sacrificing many other things int he process. For those people to be told it is effectively null and void must be far more painful than for a runner who will do another one in 6 days/weeks/months. It's these, often not naturally sporty, people, who are pushing themselves around,probably in a world of pain, for 5 or 6 hours that I really feel sorry for.
It's a bit like if you'd paid for a trekking trip up a major mountain, to get back and be told 'oops, sorry, we got it wrong and took you up a neighbouring minor hill instead'.
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Apr 2016
10:42am, 22 Apr 2016
3,592 posts
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Huntsman
Well put flanker. I totally agree that the one off runners will feel the most pain.
I will challenge that the organisors are not to blame. What if a premiership referee decided to call full time at 88 minutes, the Premier League ignored this fact and then the referee called full time at 88 minutes for the following two games. Is it then ok for the premier league to say it's not our fault it's the referee that did it.
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Apr 2016
11:02am, 22 Apr 2016
8,421 posts
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Autumnleaves
I agree flanker - thinking of some of the people I ran alongside a couple of weeks ago, seeing what they were enduring - to have to tell them that they hadn't actually run quite far enough after all - very tough. There is inevitably a lot of tosh on social media (again, not on this thread from what I have seen) - people like to blame and rant and rave. Like Nelly I do have concerns for the future of the race - and it would be a shame if this means it disappears, even if only temporarily. I am surprised at the attitude of other race organisers - I'd have expected more of a 'there but for the grace of God'.
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Apr 2016
12:32pm, 22 Apr 2016
183 posts
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PeeG
Whilst I have been injured I have been thinking more and more about my running. What does running a certain time mean to me, what does completing a marathon mean to me and so on. Previously I have been of the opinion of wanting to hit that sub 4 or run a certain time and be disappointed, but is the focus for many too far along the wrong scale.
Yes, it is not nice to think you have not run a full marathon if one of them was your only one, but what exactly are you running it for. I see it in many areas of current life that people want to do something to say I have done it. I was at that concert, I did that thing, I ran a marathon. Like a bucket list. There is nothing wrong with that, but being injured it got me thinking is the biggest thing to tick the box having ran a marathon, or got a sub 4 or is it having that experience in knowing how far you can push yourself and to experience how that feels. If you focus on the latter then 380m does not change that.
If you relate it to tickets to a sporting event or a concert it seems that you get a lot of people wanting to have ticked the box to say they have been there at the main event / final /festival without necessarily having the full experience of the lesser events.
Not sure if I have explained myself well there or not.
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Apr 2016
2:00pm, 22 Apr 2016
4,545 posts
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Wooters
Well I plan to go back next year and reclaim my pb
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Apr 2016
2:01pm, 22 Apr 2016
32,166 posts
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Hills of Death (HOD)
That's the spirit 
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Apr 2016
2:35pm, 22 Apr 2016
7 posts
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stewartC
A 2015 non PB for me also, a little disappointed, but I am determined to right the wrong next year
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