Pulling out of a race early.

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Comments

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    RW provide a portal for race entry, where they normally charge a couple of quid admin fee on top of the actual cost.

    Would people be happy at paying a couple of quid more for tweaks to the info?

    personally I'm not fussed either way, as I'd never dream of taking someone else's place and running under a different name. As by sod's law that would guarantee you run a pb, that doesn't count in the record books!

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    David Falconer 3 wrote (see)
    xine267 wrote (see)

     

    But then a lot of things aren't. Just at my last big half marathon I saw a chump lining up on the very start line (narrow about 8people wide), alongside the sub 1hr 10 men. He stuck out a mile with his hi-vis silly jacket on.

    He must have been monstered by about 700 people before we'd got to the 400metre gate as he did 1hr 50!

    Guarantee you he will be at reading ...... whats his name??

     

     

    the poor chap has already had the indignity of me labelling him a chump, so I won't name names.

    But there is great footage of the start line at Wokingham. Super lean top athletes lining up next to some guy in gloves and a hi vis heavy jacket!

    In fairness, unlike your Reading half, which is strictly enforces on colour coding, Wokingham, if you get there late it's probably easier just to join the front.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    David Falconer 3 wrote (see)
     

    Although may qualify the person who's name you run under for a GFA for the VLMimage

     

    Along this theme, on Power of 10, if I do the "head to head" feature against the best runner from my club, I have 1 victory against his numerous tally.

    The race?  Wokingham half 2 years ago. I apparently beat him by 10mins or so.

    Except I distinctly remember him being at 10miles clapping me on image

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭
    Stevie G . wrote (see)
    David Falconer 3 wrote (see)
     

    Although may qualify the person who's name you run under for a GFA for the VLMimage

     

    Along this theme, on Power of 10, if I do the "head to head" feature against the best runner from my club, I have 1 victory against his numerous tally.

    The race?  Wokingham half 2 years ago. I apparently beat him by 10mins or so.

    Except I distinctly remember him being at 10miles clapping me on image

    That will be where he lost his time then. Sacrificing his own race to support a fellow club member.

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    PipG -- Wether or not a race is run by volunteers, as far as I can see, has fuck all to do with it... If I enter online via Full On Sport, 2:09 Events, Events Logic, etc the volunteers are not processing payments, printing bibs, making timing chips etc... And if I'm suggesting that transfers are processed via an online system then how is that a burden to any volunteer exactly? Secondly, why exactly should I be volunteering to upgrade any system for nothing just because I point out that it could be improved?
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Taxi, you haven't marshalled as we discussed earlier, and with all due respect you clearly haven't been part of a club putting on a race either have you?

    The companies you mention are professional race organisers. They are paid employees.

    Most races are put on by club volunteers.

    yes you can still enter online, say by RW, but that's simply an interface which consolidates all the info to the club.

    The volunteers still have to put together all the race packs, chips information etc. that's a manual time consuming process. My old club used to have to spend a whole evening doing it. With a lot of people.

    As you can imagine, having to deal with a string of admin changes, when they're already overworked isn't very welcome.

    But you can change it online in 1 click you say. Not really, unless you have a very clever system, which costs a lot of momey, and still has to be manually worked at some stage!

  • David Falconer 3 wrote (see)
    seren nos wrote (see)

    If you don't like the terms don't enter...........

    I get so pissed off with men running under women numbers as it often messes up the prizes

    Think how many trophies you could have won there Serenimage

    By the way 1:49:13 wasnt itimage

     

    My trophy cabinet is tsacking up nicely thank you.only got 4 last year but very pleased with them image

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    Stevie G -- I've taken on board what you say about the tasks carried out by race volunteers; however, I can't help but feel that my views are being intentionally misrepresented... Who said anything could be changed in 1 click? Your words not mine... Also, I've only advocated the adaptation of web applications to facilitate race transfers... You might have a view on that but to suggest that that in itself would be an additional burden on event volunteers is a fallacy. Oh, and btw a simple implementation of my suggestion would be pretty much as DF3 suggests above... Basic add/edit functionality doesn't really = very clever system in my world but each to his own image
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    The way of doing it is probably out of date, but that's where a couple of chaps like you 2 would have some value image

    And yes all depends on the cut off date of the change.

    As it stands now, most races even with volunteers would probably help out for the odd change without a moan.

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    I guess it would be good if there was a race director, who understands the legal/ insurance/ H&S/ etc aspects of putting on a race, in the house who could explain why transfers are generally not catered for... Is it purely to do with admin issues or is there actually some compelling reason to not do it.
  • From RW.com - Ask The Race Director

     

    As for races that don't allow transfers, I suppose a major reason why they don't is that, particularly for races that fill way in advance, they typically factor in a no-show rate when setting their field size limits. That is, they are accepting many more than they can actually handle knowing that a certain percentage will not show for any number of reasons. Thus, if they allowed transfers, then their no-show rate would decrease and they would have more runners than they had planned.

     

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    Tom77 wrote (see)

    From RW.com - Ask The Race Director

     

    As for races that don't allow transfers, I suppose a major reason why they don't is that, particularly for races that fill way in advance, they typically factor in a no-show rate when setting their field size limits. That is, they are accepting many more than they can actually handle knowing that a certain percentage will not show for any number of reasons. Thus, if they allowed transfers, then their no-show rate would decrease and they would have more runners than they had planned.

     

    I'm struggling to see the logic in this explanation. Surely if there is a predictable "no-show" rate associated with races that don't allow transfers, there is an equally predictable no-show rate (including therefore non-transfers) in races that do?  So instead of allocating 30% more places, you only allocate 25% or whatever?

    Could it have more to do with the insurance requirements of the licensing body that issues the race permit?

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    As for the insurance, does anyone know what's being covered?
  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    DF3 -- I'm sure most people have no idea about the insurance too... My local running club -- I'm not a member -- allow people to join but without being a member of UKA and they say that if you do that then don't sign up to an event as affiliated as you won't be insured... Which might imply that the individual has some cover... But like most people I have no idea.
  • Theatres do offer refunds on tickets if you can't make it.  Malvern Theatres, for example, accepts returns up to 48 hours before the performance.

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭
    I had a look at the link that Tom77 provided... Even the guy answering the questions, the Boston Marathon Race Director, concludes that the current state of affairs is poor customer service. Clearly it is do-able, it's not complicated or difficult, and shouldn't be expensive... I don't even think it's red tape that prevents it from happening, I think it's more a question of attitude... People who don't like change will always invent reasons why something can't, or ahouldn't, be done.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

     

    Just as an aside,  on a slightly different note, my old club that I was the "races rep" for, used to do a XC race series that started at 11am.

    A couple from my club really nagged that they didnt like the 11am start as it used up too much of the day (morning/lunch/into afternoon), so insisted I brought this up.

    Brought it up with the organisers, told me that they started setting up in the pitch black as it was (races are Nov to Jan largely), so certainly weren't going to be getting up a couple of hours earlier!!

    Just a small bit to think about for those on the outside of race organisation who presume an apparently small change is easy to do.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    The thing about UKA and not signing up to races as affiliated is not to do with insurance.

    If you are not a "competing member", ie. if you have not paid the (currently) £5 per year to England (or Scotland or Wales) Athletics, you are not entitled to the discounted entry rate.

    Being a member of a running club, even one which is affiliated to UKA, is not enough to claim the discount (although it used to be, years ago).

    My club has two types of membership - competing members and non-competing, because some people don't want to do races, so why should they pay the extra?  Especially as this April it goes up to £10.

     

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    You chaps who are saying "it's really easy to make a computerised entry system which allows......"

    It might be easy for you, but not eveyone is as expert as you are.  Many races are organised by running clubs, who rely on people whose day jobs are in things other than IT.

     

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

     

    PhilPub wrote (see)
    Tom77 wrote (see)

    From RW.com - Ask The Race Director

     

    As for races that don't allow transfers, I suppose a major reason why they don't is that, particularly for races that fill way in advance, they typically factor in a no-show rate when setting their field size limits. That is, they are accepting many more than they can actually handle knowing that a certain percentage will not show for any number of reasons. Thus, if they allowed transfers, then their no-show rate would decrease and they would have more runners than they had planned.

     

    I'm struggling to see the logic in this explanation. Surely if there is a predictable "no-show" rate associated with races that don't allow transfers, there is an equally predictable no-show rate (including therefore non-transfers) in races that do?  So instead of allocating 30% more places, you only allocate 25% or whatever?

    Could it have more to do with the insurance requirements of the licensing body that issues the race permit?


    I think Tom's link gives the logical explanation.  I would guess that for a half marathon, with 20,000 places, they can rely on, say, 25% no shows. = 5000 people.   

    Now my guess is, if the system allowed easy number-swapping, then (in a highly sought-after event) maybe 4000 of those 5000 no-shows would be replaced by friends/internet swaps.  Keeping is simple, let's say that they would need to reduce the initial place allocation down to 16,000 to avoid overcrowding.  At (say) 25 quid a head, that would be ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS down the drain - for nothing! 

    There's your answer image

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    So how does a club, run by volunteers, who are a mix of quantity surveyors, nurses, truck drivers, office workers and so  on go about setting up this very easy computerised system (in their spare time)?

  • You pay a computer twat to write it for you





    And after the 5 race he might even have moved on from the beta version to one that works
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