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You've signed up for a race, do you know the course?
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Below is a note I received in my CARA eNewsletter this week. Apparently the Downers Grove 5M race had some issues with misdirected runners. In my 25 years of competing in road races, I can say that I’ve experienced every situation from being misdirected, to being the runner behind a runner who went off course, to a race where I was a course marshal and had to re-direct runners (triathletes) who were misdirected and I’ve been a race spectator where I felt compelled to jump in and help course marshal an event that was not very organized and one where volunteers did not show up on race day. It can be very stressful for participants and volunteers and race organizers alike.
Mistakes happen. I’m not sure of the details regarding this race and it’s not unreasonable to expect a well-organized, safe event, but my understanding has always been that it’s ultimately the runner’s responsibility to know the course. With so many races providing course maps on their web sites, it’s a reminder to all runners to take time and study them and if you’re in the category of potential winner or expecting to earn some prize money, I usually recommend you drive, run or bike the course beforehand in addition to studying the map. It’s also a good exercise in pre-race mental visualization.
For Event Directors, here’s a little piece of advice I learned during a Race Director conference. Every volunteer should have rec’d a course map beforehand, but also have a race day folder with extra course maps for course marshals---if you are driving the course right before the start you can lean out the window at key spots and make sure course marshals have a map. You can also have extra copies in the lead car(s) and even make sure the lead bicyclists have a few copies and why not give the patrol officers manning intersections a couple copies---if a map is needed they can quickly refer to it or pass one out.
CARA eNewsletter:
CARA was aware on Sunday that many, if not all participants in the Downers Grove 5M were misdirected by a course marshal. Perhaps by the time you read this you will have received a letter from the race directors. We understand that the race will make an effort to adjust finishing times because of the added distance, on the assumption that all runners were misdirected. As of this writing we do not know if this will be possible. All runners who finished the race will receive their appropriate points in the CARA standings.
CARA regrets that this happened at what has always been an outstanding and popular competitive race. Whether the early accident involving the bus of volunteers was a factor, we do not know. Whether it was a failure in communication or confusion by the volunteer, we don't know that either. Whatever the cause, it has happened, a human error.
In response to this event, CARA is contacting the race directors of all subsequent Runners' Choice, Best of Chicagoland and Certified races with a firm reminder that the lead vehicle in all CARA races must have a driver or passenger who KNOWS the course and that course marshals too must know the course and direct runners in the right direction.
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