In light of the ongoing discussion, here is another chain of emails from the race director in question.
A close friend forwarded this exchange to me. He did not ask me to share this exchange.
As an attorney and a runner however, I felt that the information is general, non-privileged and would be of possible benefit to the creator of the thread and other prize money recipients. Initially my friend received the same reply from Mr. Nichols that another person already posted on here. The following exchange, which reads in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top), followed the initial form letter reply:
On Thursday, December 10, 2015, Matt wrote:
Robert,
I guess we share a desire to fight for what is right. I respect elite and emerging distance runners and It is always sad to see them taken advantage of by individuals such as yourself.
I'm not fighting someone else's battle.
And yes you are definitely stealing from runners while accusing them of stealing from you. It is very sad.
Best of luck with your legal endeavors,
Matt
On Thursday, December 10, 2015, robert nichols wrote:
Matt,
Please tell me how you are involved with this, who you are, and why you are so passionate about this dispute. We don't have your name as one of the prize money recipients, so if you're fighting someone else's battle, it's not necessary because we've been in contact with all of the winners and it will be handled professionally. Yes, we updated the website today because we have our 2016 registration already open and people have been inquiring about the 2016 prize money. We can't update the 2015 Prize & Awards page on our website because the dispute, so we updated it with the rules, so there is better clarity for next year as some of you didn't get it.
As to the previous year's prize amounts, we've changed the awards every year and 2016 will be significantly different as well. No one year has been the same in prize money since our inaugural in 2013.
I don't think you're fully understanding the situation and who we are as a non-profit, which is just fine because I don't think you're directly involved. If you think we're "stealing from the runners", please stop emailing us because it's proving your lack of understanding and it's not worth our life minutes to argue with you, esp. when you're not directly involved. If you are directly involved, please call and we can go over everything once again over the phone.
760-846-5721.
Bob Nichols
On Thursday, December 10, 2015 8:12 PM, Matt wrote:
I'm sorry that you feel that you are entitled to steal the money from the runners to whom it was promised while accusing them of stealing. What's right is own your mistake. Cover it yourself- don't lose your own integrity. if it was an "error" why did you pay out the higher amounts in past years and only now, retroactively, make the change and threaten the runners with legal action? That's not right
Why is your website only updated with the clarification today while the Google cache reveals in the past it did not explain the split at all.
What if they already donated the money to a charity of their choice rather than yours?
On Thursday, December 10, 2015, robert nichols wrote:
Hi Matt,
I'm sorry you feel that way as it's not a threat or intimidation. That money is earmarked for charity and unfortuantely it must be legally reclaimed as some of the runners refuse to.pay back money that is not theirs. We will always fight for what's right and I admire that quality in anyone.
Bob
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 7:25 PM, Matt wrote:
Good luck with the threats and intimidation towards runners!