Thank you for posting this, though it's freaking me out (also looking for a 3:15ish finish). I sent an email as well, asking if it was true that finishers would be forced to run through the marathoners hitting their midway point.
Thank you for posting this, though it's freaking me out (also looking for a 3:15ish finish). I sent an email as well, asking if it was true that finishers would be forced to run through the marathoners hitting their midway point.
Not to worry. If anyone gets in your way I'll take 'em out.
EVERYBODY SEND THAT OP EMAIL NOW!!!!!!
The point about the walkers/joggers affecting those that choose to run/race is spot on.
People in Philly are stupid and this doesn't surprise me.
I complained about it before and I will again. So last year at the start it was around 27 degrees and the start was supposed to be at 7am sharp. Threw away my clothing at 6:58. At 7am they started to honor the fallen heroes of Iraq. Yeah, honor them, go for it but can they please do it at 6:55? Then, first two miler markers totally off mark. Then first water stops didn't have water but frozen water. Seriously!
Nice course and everything but organization of this course is horrible.
Hey, I'm in Philly and I'm not stupid. The race organizers are, though.
Yuhuh wrote:
Hey, I'm in Philly and I'm not stupid. The race organizers are, though.
I agree - this is 100% the organization team - slow runner/fast runner debate will rage on, but it's ultimately up to those in charge to plan this. And it shouldn't take some OCD distance runner to catch it the week of because THEY HADN'T RELEASED THIS INFO TILL NOW.
Nutella1 wrote:
People in Philly are stupid and this doesn't surprise me.
I complained about it before and I will again. So last year at the start it was around 27 degrees and the start was supposed to be at 7am sharp. Threw away my clothing at 6:58. At 7am they started to honor the fallen heroes of Iraq. Yeah, honor them, go for it but can they please do it at 6:55? Then, first two miler markers totally off mark. Then first water stops didn't have water but frozen water. Seriously!
Nice course and everything but organization of this course is horrible.
I also ran last year (only the half). The first two mile makers were not off at all.
4 and 5 on the other hand.. definitely off, but added together my total time seems accurate for 2 miles.
Also, there were signs at the expo right when you walk in to pick up your packet telling us when each wave would start and wave 1 did say 7:0- (forgot when it was exactly but it was the actual start time).
that all being said I am not here to defend the organization of the race. The fact that a race official thought that the first corral of the half marathon was supposed to wait until wave 2 to start (after all of wave 1 marathoners) was inexcusable. Eventually, everyone stopped arguing with him and just blew through the human chain to start, but it caused us to start 40 or so seconds after the 5 "elite" half marathoners and we had to weave through a mess of 3:00+ marathoners. I trust after this incident, the official was straightened out and the mistake will never happen again.
I really liked the course, and i would still consider running the full marathon in the future in spite of the obvious flaws with organization. good luck to everyone running and I hope they get this situation figured out for you.
Let's just all admit to ourselves this race is kind of a joke, and try to have a sense of humor about anything else that goes wrong this weekend. Maybe next year if we want to run a serious marathon we can sign up for Chicago, Twin Cities, New York, Sacramento, or even Memphis.
not going to lie - THIS IS BS!!!!! Just mentally having ti think about dealing with this at the very end is not good - I've emailed (about 24 hours ago) and have heard nothing back
Have you received any reply yet from the organizers?
I have heard nothing - KEEP THE EMAIL FLOWING TO philadelphiamarathon@gmail.com AND reg2run@yahoo.com
Philadelphia City Rep - director of marathon Melanie Johnson:
I sent an email to
philadelphiamarathon@gmail.com
,
, and the race director melanie johnson and got a quick response from her, the race director that sent a reply-all back to all the email addresses I sent to stating:
(name), can you please have (name) address this email. Thank you
So - they are aware of the concern - and I'm hoping they already have a plan in place - we just don't know what it is. I'll post any other updates.
seriously, everybody here needs to quit whining. yea, it sucks. yea, it's a temporary modification of the course due to unforseen construction at a local museum.
but it's not like everybody here has been training at mammoth on trails where you haven't had to run alongside and eventually pass-by slower runners.
if you run 2:20, which you won't, you'll be running next to ~4:50 marathoners at the finish line.
5163 place for 4:50
6009 place for 5:10
That's ~42 runners/minute at that pace, most of whom will be packed up with their TNT shirts, and easy to get around seeing as how you'll have about 200 meters to merge. It will be significantly easier to get around the plodders than it is to merge onto I-676 on the way to the race.
I assume most of you bitching will run 2:40 to 3 hr: about 10 runners/min are crossing the half marathon mark in that range.
frogs wrote:
5163 place for 4:50
6009 place for 5:10
That's ~42 runners/minute at that pace, most of whom will be packed up with their TNT shirts, and easy to get around seeing as how you'll have about 200 meters to merge.
Honestly, thanks for putting things in perspective! I am no longer preparing myself to run over some bitches.
frogs wrote:
... yea, it's a temporary modification of the course due to unforseen construction at a local museum.
What? They're using the same exact streets - just differently. I hadn't heard this before - how do you know? Are you talking about the finish line area or the 10 mile area where they added a u-turn on MLK drive?
Here are accurate numbers ....
For those running 2:30 - 3:00, chip and gun time will pretty much be the same. For those running 4:30-5:30ish, there seems to be about a 15 minute average difference.
2:30 finishers will cross w/ 4:30 (chip) runners at the half way point (2:15 (chip) at the half + 15 min wait = 2:30 (physically) at the half).
same logic goes for 2:45 finishers crossing w/ 5:00 (chip) runners and 3:00 crossing w/ 5:30 (chip) runners
...(assuming even pacing)...
Last year, there were 83 runners between 4:30-4:32 (chip finish) - which is a two minute window at the finish - corresponding to a 1 minute window (2:15-2:16 chip) at the half way point. 49 runners between 5:00 - 5:02 and 27 runners between 5:30 - 5:32.
bottom line:
2:30 finishers cross w/ flow of 83 people/min
2:45 finishers cross w/ flow of 49 people/min
3:00 finishers cross w/ flow of 27 people/min
Again, this isn't the end of the world - but a better awareness by runners, volunteers, and officials will greatly help the situation. I personally have no idea why they changed it. Maybe they want it to end on Benjamin Franklin Parkway? Common line w/ the new 8k course?
My personal thought is to keep the finish line infront of the museum - it's DEFINATELY doable for all three races - THEY ALL HAVE U-TURNS!!!!!!
Although, trying to change last minute just creates more confusion - so I think at this point, getting everybody informed of the situation is best - which is what this thread is about.
It's worse than I thought - by looking up the 8k course - they SHARE the same finish and have a 7:30am start.
SO............... now the front runner marathoners have to worry about cross traffic when they approach the half way point with 8k finishers!!!
Assuming minimal delay w/ the 8k chip/gun times - there were 55 finishers between 45-46min.
Again, it would almost be bearable if there was cross traffic on a long straight middle part of the course - but we're talking about sharp corners, rounding the oval, minimal time/distance, and it's at the very end.
Not good.
I agree w/ everything being said - don't get me wrong, the overlap is crappy.
Let's keep our spirits up and not let this actually effect our outlook and/or race - it is what it is at this point. Let's prepare ourselves and think about what we still can control - send some emails if you think it's effective.
If it's not PERFECT this year - we can't control that right now - just like we can't control the weather. So, treat this like unfortunate weather - we'll just deal w/ it this year and hopefully get it to change for the future.
Think about it this way though - a terrible weather day will effect your whole race - this will effect ~5 seconds. Looks like we will get descent weather this year. So, don't spend more time / energy on this than needed.
my 2 cents
Again, my question: do we get in trouble if we elbow these 45-46 minute 8kers or 4:40-5:20 marathoners? Like, wouldn't that be the equivalent of wearing warm clothes as a way of dealing with cold weather?
there is construction at the landstown/n concourse intersection in fairmount park that the courses previously ran through. That is why the course is slightly changed there. However, as a previous poster pointed out, all of the courses have u-turns, so this should not affect the finish at all.