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Manchester Marathon 2016
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I got the same email from Extra Mile. I'm now officially traumatized that I have been even a small part in that the organizers are affected: "We are devastated as event organisers ..."
I just filled in their email survey. They're pretty brave putting that out there but I guess they know what they'll get back.
Ikle - OMG. How is it people lose nails like that? I've never had any issues with mine. I do have swollen feet though, but not sure running is the issue there as that started before the marathon.
Did anyone get an iTab in the post today? I didn't order one but I got one regardless.
I'm 90% certain that I crossed the "half-way" timing arch / mat at 1:40:50.... but my official time was 30s quicker.
How did everyone's official half-way time match up with what you saw on your watches?
Same with me NE. About 30 seconds diiference: 1:20:17 on the watch, 1:19:47 official time I think. Not sure what that means except I ran the first half a shade quicker than planned/should have done whichever time is accurate!
Cheers Tom. I can't understand that at all. I can't make sense of how that's possible.
Oh dear
http://coursemeasurement.org.uk/investigations/manchestermarathon.htm
Good stuff AWC.
Explains the last minute move of the finish to the Cricket ground AWC (which was unprepared for the baggage/amount of people finishing and the bottle neck!
Hi All
Not posted on here as I have not been too sure how to feel about my effort. Everything was going great until mile 16 when vomiting and diarrhoea hit me, quickly followed by stomach cramps from severe dehydration. The rest of the run was a mixture of run/walk, whilst watching all the pacers come passed me. Still I got round with a new PB by 5 mins in 4:20.
Will make another attempt in future at running a sub 4hr marathon, I'm sure everything will come together one day and I'll get the result.
I most certainly didn't welcome a 2 1/2 hour wait to collect my bag, but the beer at the train station more then made up for it.
Yeah that explains a lot of what happened logistically on the day.
I don't know that it explains the move. They could've just moved the start or the turn around point (at about 2miles I think) up the road a bit and got the course remeasured. But I guess that would be admitting that you'd got it wrong in previous years in which case the move would've been just to try to hide the fact. No sure that they'd do that but nothing would surprise me.
Not looking forward to my wife finding this out! She has a Championship time for London I guess wiped away.
From the report it seems like this was nothing to do with the Marathon organisers but the Course measurers, who are independent. Either way more bad press and about 20,000 affected runners. Glad I did Brighton last year now
Flaming disgrace. Im looking at my Manchester 2014 marathon medal and i feel like chucking it in the bin now. Cheated
Bloody shambles. Must be part of the reason for the poor organisation at this year's event.
Feel sorry for those who ran PB's/qualifying times in the 'short' races of recent years.
True, this has nothing to do with the Organizers as they are relying on an independent body to ”officially” measure it.
However, surely with feedback from a lot of runners over 3 years, surely they might have questioned the length, and thought, hang on, let's get this checked to be sure?
Does this open a legal can of worms?
Why has it taken years (literally) to identify this as an issue?
I ran in 2015 and this is really disappointing. I was suspicious at the finish as my Garmin was short of the full distance (and usually it adds on an extra 0.2 miles or more).
These marathons aren't cheap to enter and one of the basic requirements is an accurate course distance so our months of hard training and the race itself can be officially recognised.
I will add on a notional couple of minutes to my time and still count it as a marathon, but its tougher on those who thought they had a qualifying time.
I have contacted the marathon organisers and have been assured I will get a call back from them. It seems they have all disappeared off planet earth as they are not responding to the media at the moment. I want compensating for months of hard graft training during the winter. I look forward to their response. I want my fee returned or free entry for 2017.
Surely qualifying times will still count? Many of those who got a GFA at Manchester last year will be doing London on Sunday. London won't be going through all the good for ages to see who came from Manchester.
Personally I'm raging, I paid for a marathon and now feel my pb is worthless.
I thought I'd done 4 marathons, now it seems I've only done 2. I was affected by the baggage fiasco in 2012 and in 2016 as well. The distance issue didn't change the finish location so don't make excuses for them. They really need to explain what went on.
This is just how I think. I'm sure they had no knowledge of the problem in that first year, but you have to ask how much they knew (or suspected) before, say, the 2015 race. If they did have suspicions, it would be scandalous if they didn't do something about it.
I understand that in the past, Powerof10 has applied an adjustment factor in order to modify the time so it can be used for qualifying. For me, it means my 2015 pb was not genuine. I beat my pb by a minute that day, so clearly if I'd had another 380m to run, then that would never have happened! On the bright side, it means my pb this year was 1 minute more impressive than I thought!
Funnily enough, this year, my Garmin measured 26.34miles with was 0.24miles longer than than last year... which is, near as damn it, 380m!!
Me too North Ender. I PB'd again this year, but now I know it was the full distance
Actually, in possible defence of the organisers on this one, I just found this in the minutes of the association of course measurers. It seems that the Manchester organisers were aware soon after the marathon in 2015 and were in communication with the Association. I also note that there was no mention of Manchester in the autumn meetings in 2014 and 2013, so it seems the Assocation only became aware of issues after 2015.
The northern leader for course measurement was rather confident that the problem was nothing to do with his organisation. Oops.
I'm thinking of entering this race for 2017- would any of you recommend or not?
It depends what you want. It was disastrously organised last year - no excuses whatsoever. Terrible. No toilets. Parking designated in areas that could not be accessed because of closed roads. Baggage drop bad beforehand, and baggage collection afterwards was close to criminal IMO!! Genuinely people with 2 or even 3 hour waits, queuing up cold in their running vests.
In the previous two or three years, the organisation was good - although the course was about 400m short - probably not the fault of the organisers - they did have a course certificate.
I think the general consensus is that they will fix the problems this year... or maybe they;ll be unlucky again!
The course is flat. The crowd support is decent without being spectacular. I will run it for the 3rd time in 2017- because they gave a discount to those affected by recent disasters... but mainly because it is a course with real PB potential. On balance, I'd recommend... but I've spelled out some risks. It's up to you!
It has been a complete mess a couple of times. The bag drop was an utter disaster in 2012, they said they would learn their lessons and it would never happen again but then we had the exact same thing earlier this year. In between it was one of the best organised events I've ever done (forgiving the dodgy course measurement).
So, a bit of a gamble really. I ran the half they organised at the weekend and it was great, though I didn't use the bag drop, and won't trust them on this again.
Thanks northendear- I heard about the baggage and that did put me off but then I have heard good things about it. Im hoping they will have learnt the lessons from this years race.