Really.
I am.
But today...not so much
I woke up feeling under the weather, and came >thisclose< to going right back to bed. But I hate DNS-ing a race unless the circumstances are catastrophic. So I rallied. I spent most of the pre-race in a port-o-potty line. But hey, at least I was there, right?
Once the starting gun went off, I cruised through my first mile in 8:18. Maybe I can do this!
Unfortunately, by mile 4 I was nauseated. I gave up any hope of a "good" time and focused on making it to the finish with my insides still in. Before this morning, I thought these were silly:
Now I want one.
So useful!
I survived the race with no complete catastrophes (thanks to several strategically timed walk-breaks to let my stomach settle), but this goes down in the books as my worst race. Ever. I've had my share of bad training runs, but on race day I can usually hold it together. Today was crappy. Really. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
Oh, and I might have mentioned that on top of all the other issues, the race officials didn't record my time! So I sent them a formal, but polite letter:
Hello -The first response I received from the chip timing company was snarky, to say the least. I desperately want to quote their email here, but copying another person's personal correspondence into a public forum is probably going too far.
This morning I ran the 15k at the Double Bridge Run but my results are not listed. I tried searching by first and last name, and by gun and chip time. My Bib is #### (worn on front, left leg of shorts). I finished in approximately 1:29:30 (elapsed time, which I presume is closer to 1:32 or 1:33 given the wave starts).
I would like to see this error corrected.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
-Beth
Suffice it to say: their reaction was to blame me (I must have hidden my bib!), rather than admitting that there was some mistake, or simply not saying anything at all and fixing the problem. Um... I race all the time, and I'm pretty sure I know how to use safety pins.
Sure...
I'm the one who made the mistake.
 |
| Proof that I ran! (Far left) I made it into the local paper! (Note: even in this side view you can tell I'm wearing my bib on the front of my left leg.) |
Um.
Yeah.
In short, this email exchange seals it: I should have stayed in bed...
And this is one race I won't be running again.
Have you ever skipped out on (DNS-ed) a race you registered for?
What's the most unprofessional thing you've seen at a race?
They actually blamed you? And then a water bottle? You're entirely justified in being peeved!!! After all that, do you have a link to your results?
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing the race despite less than ideal circumstances.
Damn. That's unbelievable- I cannot understand people who try to blame others for their own mistakes- can't believe they blamed you. Nightmare! Sorry to hear it didn't work out quite as one would hope, mrs.
ReplyDeletewow - that's awful. The worst race I've even been in 2010 at the "Home of Purdue half marathon". My hubby went to Purdue, so we thought it would be great to run thru campus. Except they didn't get permits for running there, so the race ended up in some random small town in Indiana -and then it was a short course (12.9 miles) - and instead of getting new shirts when they changed venues, they used a black iron on patch to block out "home of purdue" on the shirts and left "The Half marathon".
ReplyDeleteOh, and we paid for our kids to be in the fun run, and they basically scrambled for a volunteer to run around a field with them, and then they tried to give us adult race shirts. 3 weeks later we did get shirts for them in the mail.
Ok, I wrote a book here, but it was a terribly organized half.
Sorry they were jerking you around AND that you felt so bad during the race! Glad that they at least got your bib figured out, but so ridiculous to blame your water bottle(?)!