The ugly side of the London Marathon 2019 #NotInclusive

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Fragile Do Not Bend May 2019 5:23pm, 2 May 2019 4,386 posts	0 Fragile Do Not Bend (By the way, I’m talking about the lady AL posted about, not Liz the pacer who was an experienced runner)
Deinonychus May 2019 5:38pm, 2 May 2019 18 posts	0 Deinonychus If you’re at the back of the pack, the difference between a 7pm cutoff and a 6:40 one is huge. If the pre-race information says the finish line will be open until 7pm, then A) VLM should stick to that, and B), they should ensure the last person to cross the line can finish by then at an even pace before allowing the cleanup to start. Neither of those happened on Sunday.
Neal May 2019 6:05pm, 2 May 2019 30 posts	0 Neal It isn't very obvious from the race instructions, but the sweep car wasn't the back of the race for cut off times. It was the get off the road and onto the pavement car, which presumably was getting close to the line at 7 hour pace then stopping for an hour for those participants up to 8 hour pace to pass it and finish. The pacer should have known what was going to happen. The clean up should not be happening where participants are likely to get splashed, whether they should be there or not. Vehicles should not be pushing people to speed them up. (Although it might help Kipchoge to break two hours if the alternative is to get run over) The participants up to the cut off time should get the support (water, directions, distance markers, tracking) that everyone else gets. Depending on numbers, it may be possible to start packing away the services, as long as there remains enough to handle the rest of the participants.
Surrey Phil May 2019 7:59pm, 2 May 2019 2,993 posts	0 Surrey Phil I see that other slower runners have also reported verbal abuse from the marshals: dailymail.co.uk
Wombling Plodder (Welsh Womble) May 2019 8:46pm, 2 May 2019 2,643 posts	0 Wombling Plodder (Welsh Womble) A friend of my has added this to my Facebook post:- " The first issue began at the start with the introduction of waves. I volunteered at the start and everyone was supposed to be running by 10:55 which meant they had a 5 minute start on the Course Closed cars which were going to set off at 11:00 and travel at 7 hour pace. The last person did not start until 11:10 which meant the cars went oiff straight away and had to go faster than 7 hour pace in order to make up the lost 10 minutes. This meant that runners ended up behind the cars before they should have been. For the 7:30 pacer they should have been caught at mile 10 but instead they were caught very early on. "
Albert O Balsam May 2019 12:43pm, 3 May 2019 531 posts	0 Albert O Balsam That Daily Mail article is an interesting read Phil...... Loutills, London, United Kingdom, 16 hours ago My daughter ran 5 years ago and raised over £4000 for CLIC SERGENT , she finished in just over 6 hours. We were so disappointed at the end. No big welcomes like the celebs get or the elite runners. She had to collect her bag from a storage area and run the last bit down the Mall to try and find her family. Nothing like you see on the television for the slower runners. Everyone puts in so much effort, they should receive the same appreciation for their efforts.
Surrey Phil May 2019 1:14pm, 3 May 2019 2,994 posts	0 Surrey Phil I didn't follow the race this year so don't know the TV coverage times. Usually, the initial live coverage ends at 2.00 pm; i.e. sub-four hour runner finishing time. Then there's the extended highlights later. Again, I don't know what the coverage times were this year but the emphasis certainly isn't on the slower runners - just elites, [so-called] celebs and reasonable good charity runners.
Bazoaxe May 2019 1:22pm, 3 May 2019 14,507 posts	0 Bazoaxe The thing is though that a lot of the set up is volunteers and its a long day for them to be there all day. For those that are paid ,it will cost more for them to hang about longer. Inevitably things need to be getting back to normal at some point. Spectators will have started to leave as their friends and family have finished. Those at the back of the field will sadly have a very different experience which is a shame. I have on occasion witnessed people with 3 miles to go, walking on still closed roads full of debris with no crowds and a clean up operation underway around them.
KeithL May 2019 1:33pm, 3 May 2019 68 posts	0 KeithL Sadly the experience for someone finishing towards the back can never be the same. The experience finishing at say 4:30 with hundreds of people running down Birdcage / The Mall and the friends family of thousands of people watching / cheering is inevitably going to be different to those finishing at 6:30 with few people finishing / running and most of the supporters long gone. Similarly with the TV - whilst its interesting for maybe the odd few seconds on the news you can't expect wall to wall coverage of finishers when relatively few people are finishing. It just doesn't make good Telly. Not being clear what was going to happen is unacceptable , abusing runners totally wrong. But almost no matter what cut off they put in place long term it will always be a very different experience finishing at the back to what many people may well expect. Sad but not sure there is any way round this
Rosehip May 2019 1:33pm, 3 May 2019 12,420 posts	0 Rosehip It's "always" been that way at London. The cleanup has begun around the back markers at mile 13 all the times I@ve been at Fetchpoint - I think there were more people over the 6 hr mark maybe this year - advertising a 7.30 pacer was also a big error. When I finished in 5.4x, the red button live finish line coverage had stopped as that was always 6 hrs from gun - but the finish was there with lovely marshalls to hand out medals etc. There is a miss-match somewhere between wanting this big charity party going on and treating those at the back with respect. My cynical head says what will happen is that club and ballot places will get fewer and ha and maybe GFA will be tightened in an attempt to get the faster "club runners" to take the charity places instead...