The photo shows two of my relay teammates for the Hull marathon today. I had just finished the third leg and our fourth runner had set off, but the shuttle buses had dropped running. We couldn’t get a taxi due to road closures, so we walked for an hour to get to the finish. I thought it was such a great thing that the marathon was being inclusive in adding in a relay event, but all the way round I saw that was where inclusivity stopped. Not enough medals at the changeovers, no water either, apart from the actual water stations. Bearing in mind our first runner had nearly four hours of waiting and moving between changeovers, she had no hydration at all in that time, apart from my spare drink bottle which we shared. Because we were slow and towards the back of the field, things were very quiet on the route and there were some seemingly endless stretches with nobody about. It was a hard and lonely run and the gremlins got into my head and I struggled.
I know I am making it sound awful and I’m sure others had a great day: sorry I am very negative but I didn’t enjoy much of today’s run, and it has really put me off big events. Because we were bringing up the rear from the end of the first leg, we never really felt the atmosphere.
Sadly, I also witnessed the PA system and other important bits which make the finish special being packed up while there were still over 60 runners on the route.
I have come to the harsh realisation that, as a slow runner, this will always be my experience of bigger races and despite running for nearly a year I seem to be getting slower.
All in all I feel pretty deflated this evening 🙁
Written by
molly1973
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Thank you, Alan: we have a nice group here in West Yorkshire called It’s Grim Up North Running and I have done a few of their events before. Truly inclusive events with a really nice atmosphere, and not too big either. I think I’ll stick to them for now (although I do have Doncaster 10k in November which is a bigger event). Hey ho x
I don't think it's specific to relays. Remember the horror stories from the back of the London Marathon as well. The thing is some events are not designed to suit slower runners. That's OK if they make the fact clear but very few do. In fact I've seen events advertised specifically as suitable for all levels of runner but when you read the small print in the terms and conditions it's clearly not true. I have no problem when an event openly declares itself 'not suitable for beginners or fun runners' - we can't all go to the Olympics and I think we all understand that. But when they call themselves inclusive and then treat slower runners as a nuisance - that's not right.
Mmm, that does sound a bit grim Molly - what a shame.🙁 Put it down as one not to repeat and look for others that are more inclusive, although sadly I think others have had similar experiences at some of these big events. Don't let it put you off - hope you feel brighter tomorrow.
Oh Molly what a shame, and very unfair. I’ve only done 2 big events and I’m slow too, but I haven’t witnessed anything like that. It must be very demoralising and I can see why you’ve been put off. I’m so sorry you didn’t have a good day. 😕
I am so sad that you had a such a bad day and experience x I hope like you say tomorrow you will be able to focus on the fact that you and your team mates are amazing and completed a marathon! Xxx
Focus on what you and your team did...a marathon ! Seriously you need to think on that because it's amazing.
The rest is icing on the cake (which is fattening and full of sugar : p). You guys did brilliantly, regardless of time and inclusivity or not or bad organisation. Don't let that detract from what you achieved.
So much depends on good organization and logistical know how. It really does make a difference. I learned from my lousy HM and while a harsh lesson, it was a valuable one. I know now to "read between the lines" when all the pre-event blurb is issued.
Take heart, onward and upward, and hoping all your miles from here on are happy ones ❤️
I’m sorry you had a poor experience Molly. I believe there should be more clarity at the signup stage on races focused on faster runners. Tearing down before all runners are complete is demoralizing. Don’t let this break your spirit. There are so many other races out there with the promise of a better experience.
That is so unfair...you have trained just as hard or harder than the faster runners....I would still be angry tomorrow and ringing/writing to someone in,authority to vent....otherwise what changes next year? Maybe it wont change but at least I would feel i had tried.
That should have been a positive event for you and your teammates and you shoukd still be buzzing....well done by the way
Aww. Thats sad. IMHO it is best to run 3 days a week or so and ditch these races altogether. Getting up early, getting to the venue and then waiting for things to start is so much more exhausting! I am sure they have a bigger carbon footprint than the regular park run.
That’s really sad. I do hope you let the organisers know your experience. When events don’t have cutoff times, they really need to put the relevant support in place. I am also a slow runner but thankfully haven’t experienced anything other than my size of T shirt running out - it must be devastating - you had worked so hard.
First of all Congratulations and well done to you and your team for completing the run and doing your part. It is a great achievement and you can now say that you were part of a Marathon finishing team. Not something I can do.
Events which have cut off times should advertise the times clearly. I did a night time 10K run in Dublin back in April. It very clearly advertised a cut off finish time of 1:20 , after that they were packing up and slower participants were welcome to finish on the paths. It must be so demoralising to not even have a finish line to cross or crowd to cheer you across, but at least if it was well advertised you’d be expecting it.
Really well done on your team marathon, but that does sound a bit miserable and thankless. Maybe as Franglaise suggests above, you could send the organisers some feedback (after a suitable period of deep breathing) so that they think about this when setting up their next race.
Just saw this. Sounds pretty rubbish, seems like you need to bring your own support team... if theyntake us slower runners I feel they should include us. Sigh. Sounds like today’s run was good anyway x
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