THREE days now, one email to the Race Director and two emails to the scoring folks, and
they still haven't managed to post the correct results online for the race.
Here is the email exchange from yesterday after sending the scoring correction to the scoring folks (after the Race Director bounced it back to me):
fixed
It's NOT fixed in the online results yet!!
http://www.nationalmarathon.com/Results/2007.aspEven though the half marathon course was TOO LONG by about 0.4 miles, I still would kind of like to know my official time within over 2 days of the race....
Thanks!!
fixed on my computer only. I have not set the new results to the web site yet
Sheesh!! Am I just expecting too much? Is knowing your time three days after the race expecting immediate gratification? Is politeness too much to ask for a $65 entry fee?
Like perhaps: "We're sorry for the error. Thank you for providing us with the correct timing information. The corrected results have now been posted. Your correct gun time is x:xx:xx, and your chip time is x:xx:xx. Thank you for running with us this year."
Their principal sponsor is a wireless telephone company. Somehow I thought that would prompt them to have better communication of timing results.
Just can't get good help these days. . . .
Update: 9AM: I'm now listed as:
1088 65/73 4996 Nancy Toby 49 St Michaels MD 2:30:54 11:31 2:32:33 11:39
Which assigns me a chip time that is still 45 seconds longer than my watch time. And I'm still listed as 2nd place in my age group. But believe me, I'm not nearly as frustrated as I would be if I had actually earned 2nd place in my age group and not been awarded it!!!
It's still not clear exactly what the actual race distance was, but 4 different Garmins recorded it as between 13.48 and 13.54 miles.
Update 2: I just got another email from the timing folks:
"You were caught by the backup system at the finish. There was no backup at the start so you net time = gun time". Hmm. I recall at the finish area there were two widely-separated mats, and I stopped and began walking after crossing the first mat, since there were people walking around in my way near the 2nd mat. I guess the lesson here is always run hard through the 2nd mat if your time matters to you.
So much for their low-cost proprietary ankle-strap timing chips, eh? I do understand that sometimes chips don't register. But I still don't think that accounts for 45 full seconds difference. And there still is 1:39 between my chip time and gun time, which must have been the time before going over the initial starting mat. Something's still messed up in their numbers. This all seems a little amateurish for a "National Half Marathon".
I think every participant in the race deserves accurate timing results for a $65 entry fee, not just the front-runners - don't you?
Unfortunately I managed to lose my pacer Dave at mile 5 today!! But he did fine without me and nearly equalled his time from last year (when he didn't lose time in the first five miles helping this slower runner). I got nearly a half-hour marathon PR so I'm pleased, even though it wasn't the sub-5 I had wished for, and I ran a 23+ minute positive split. Maybe next time!! But I did beat him on age-grade. :-)
