Cant understand how someone misses the Marathon closing date

Sainttoff

You train best part of the year and you know when its on and I am sure we all check the marathon official site numerous times a week!


Any one else confuse by it?

cfitz

I suppose it does seem a bit silly. But here is a possible scenario:

Suppose you've been running since you were a kid - every road race you've been to you've paid when you got there and got handed your number; every track you ran your club entered you beforehand so you just turned up and collected your number an hour or two before the race; every cross-country race you ran was similar to one of the above or else you paid at the gate on the way in. So then one year you decide to run the marathon, sure you're training changes a bit but not much else. You would be aware that you needed to pre-enter but if you were a bit disorganised it might not cross your mind to check the entry deadline until it was too late...

Sainttoff

I understand all that, but then again with the Bupa Run and all the adidas series runs you had to pre enter!!!

cfitz

Sainttoff wrote: »

I understand all that, but then again with the Bupa Run and all the adidas series runs you had to pre enter!!!

Yeah but a lot of people don't go in for those expensive races (a lot of people do also, obviously ).

Sainttoff

Fair enough!

shels4ever

and maybe people were traiing for the marathon but not sur if they will be capable of doing it , so wait until close to the race before paying as its €80 . But then miss the dates.. I know i wouldbnt register for the marathon untill close to the start date as anything can happen between march and october.

robinph

cfitz wrote: »

Yeah but a lot of people don't go in for those expensive races (a lot of people do also, obviously ).

Expensive? You get a good "free" t-shirt from entering each of those ones, the only hassle is having to do the running first.

cfitz

Sainttoff wrote: »

Fair enough!

Glad we got that sorted then

Ah no, it does shock me a bit too. All that other preparation and then to do something so silly as to be late entering. But it's the kind of thing that I could see happening to me so I wouldn't judge someone else too harshly!

tunney

Sainttoff wrote: »

I understand all that, but then again with the Bupa Run and all the adidas series runs you had to pre enter!!!

Club runners don't tend to do that sort of race.

Sainttoff

Ah well, debate over

I wouldnt enter till close to closing date myself but i check it everyday to be sure i have it right

plodder

shels4ever wrote: »

and maybe people were traiing for the marathon but not sur if they will be capable of doing it , so wait until close to the race before paying as its €80 . But then miss the dates.. I know i wouldbnt register for the marathon untill close to the start date as anything can happen between march and october.

True. This year I entered on the last day.

Krusty_Clown

shels4ever wrote: »

and maybe people were traiing for the marathon but not sur if they will be capable of doing it , so wait until close to the race before paying as its €80 . But then miss the dates.. I know i wouldbnt register for the marathon untill close to the start date as anything can happen between march and october.

The closing date was the 6th October. If they didn't know if they were capable of running a marathon 21 days before the race, chances are they shouldn't have been entering it anyway!

I reckon training for a marathon takes a lot of organization; not least in that list should be signing up for it. I'm sure there are a large number of genuine mistakes though, such as credit card problems, injuries and clerical errors. However, the marathon has been the first and foremost thing on my mind for almost 8 months now (including the previous marathon). I have daily reminders, in terms of the training, the healthy food, no alcohol and this forum.

RoyMcC

What continues to annoy me is the way people try to obtain race numbers from others without advising the organisers.

At the very least this means that the results are skewed with a finisher with a false name/age/gender (possibly). If the runner gets amongst the prizes then it is clearly unfair to other competitors, never mind confusing.

But the most worrying situation would occur should the runner be taken ill and the emergency services act on information given by the race organiser as to the identity of the runner.

Maybe I should chill a bit, but as a race organiser in the past I know this causes a real headache. No races allow it (certainly not without reference to the organiser). I hope that the mods of these boards will continue to point this out as necessary.

*Rant ends*

shels4ever

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

The closing date was the 6th October. If they didn't know if they were capable of running a marathon 21 days before the race, chances are they shouldn't have been entering it anyway!
QUOTE]


The sad fact of the matter is , people do run the marathon without doing correct training, I know 3-4 people who will do it next week, and to be honest i'm prob in better state to run the marathon and i've only done one 13 mile run this year.
There is no way i'd run the marathon but I knowI oculd get around it..

cfitz

RoyMcC wrote: »

What continues to annoy me is the way people try to obtain race numbers from others without advising the organisers.

At the very least this means that the results are skewed with a finisher with a false name/age/gender (possibly). If the runner gets amongst the prizes then it is clearly unfair to other competitors, never mind confusing.

But the most worrying situation would occur should the runner be taken ill and the emergency services act on information given by the race organiser as to the identity of the runner.

Maybe I should chill a bit, but as a race organiser in the past I know this causes a real headache. No races allow it (certainly not without reference to the organiser). I hope that the mods of these boards will continue to point this out as necessary.

*Rant ends*

I'm not disagreeing with you here at all, I think you've made some good points. But suppose you've trained 80 miles per week for the past year for the Dublin marathon and for some stupid reason you miss the entry deadline. If your friend were to offer you his number are you sure you wouldn't take it?

Sainttoff

Well its wrong to take it, your heart and head will just say take it.

But maybe take the measure of updating the details on the back of number which as much info you can.


But still wrong in principle but I cant say I wouldnt do it!

RoyMcC

cfitz wrote: »

I'm not disagreeing with you here at all, I think you've made some good points. But suppose you've trained 80 miles per week for the past year for the Dublin marathon and for some stupid reason you miss the entry deadline. If your friend were to offer you his number are you sure you wouldn't take it?

Absolutely yes! And I'd realise that it's no one elses fault but mine, tough. And I'd go volunteer for stewarding or something, not mess people about

Krusty_Clown

shels4ever wrote: »

The sad fact of the matter is , people do run the marathon without doing correct training, I know 3-4 people who will do it next week, and to be honest i'm prob in better state to run the marathon and i've only done one 13 mile run this year.
There is no way i'd run the marathon but I know I could get around it..

All the more reason to register! When John's ambulance come calling, you don't want them calling the wrong set of relatives.

plodder

On the question of entering close to the deadline, I think it makes sense for people, who don't want to take the risk of getting injured after they enter, and find themselves unable to race.

If the organisers allowed people to defer their entry till the following year, then I think you would find fewer people offering their numbers in this situation.

Running Bing

plodder wrote: »

On the question of entering close to the deadline, I think it makes sense for people, who don't want to take the risk of getting injured after they enter, and find themselves unable to race.

If the organisers allowed people to defer their entry till the following year, then I think you would find fewer people offering their numbers in this situation.

True, but if your planning to follow such a strategy then surely the first thing you do is check when the closing date is?


Tbh I think when you get 11,000 people doing something there is always going to be a small number who are a little absent minded or disorganised.

Entering is the sort of thing that it is very easy to put of. Entry closes on the 6th of October and for someone who is completely new to racing there is a good chance they would believe it is possible to enter right up to the day before the race. They might just take that for granted.



Its careless, no arguing about it. Its careless but at the same time its hard not to have sympathy for somebody who has trained hard for months and then misses out over something so silly.

hunnymonster

I can see both sides. Entry requirements are usually one of the first things I check when considering a new race but we all have busy lives and I do feel for people who have worked hard but are missing out. That said, Dublin marathon (and many other races) have very valid reasons for not allowing transfers and we have to respect this. That's why I close all threads relating to this. I'm perfectly happy to allow people advertise/ask for places in races that do allow tranfers as happened with a number of triathlons last year.

plodder

Babybing wrote: »

True, but if your planning to follow such a strategy then surely the first thing you do is check when the closing date is?

Agreed.

robinph

How much do the race organisers actually know about you though other than your name, age and gender?

Not sure that any of the Adidas races would have easy access to your address, for instance, in the event of the only identifying feature about you being the number pined to the front of a shirt. As other stuff is all done via a third party who take the money from your credit card and I cannot see Visa giving up your details that quickly in a medical emergency on the side of the course. The people scraping you off the road will be using more obvious clues as to how to deal with you and the only time when your likely to be totally unresponsive to them is if your already dead. :eek:

In my case I do need other identifying clues on me though as to what may be wrong with me, and I do all the time anyway. But will probably duplicate some stuff to the back of the number for the marathon as it's a whole other level of how messed up I might get from usual.

I have previously had someone else take my number, but the only way in that case that the wrong people would have been contacted in the event of something bad happening to them the Gardai would have had to come via me anyway.

RoyMcC

Name/age is a good start if you're deciding on administering drugs or informing family members.

The real point is that race organisers surely have a right to know who is taking part in their event.

tunney

RoyMcC wrote: »

Name/age is a good start if you're deciding on administering drugs or informing family members.

The real point is that race organisers surely have a right to know who is taking part in their event.

Also if you are racing as someone else this is fraud. As such you have no insurance cover.

--amadeus--

A marathon - especially a first marathon - is a big deal. Even those who don't take it particulalry seriously or under-prepare must appreciate this. As such there must be a bare level of research involved and the 1st port of call for just about anyone these days is the internet. As soon as I started kicking around the idea of a marathon I googled "Dublin City Marathon" and had a look at the home-page. There you get entry information. It's not exactly hidden.

To be honest if someone is so disorganised as to have not done even that bare bones level of research then they are probably safer not running the race!

TheRoadRunner

tunney wrote: »

Also if you are racing as someone else this is fraud. As such you have no insurance cover.

Very dramatic. Before we know it there will be tribunals, CAB and the fraud squad will also be involved

tunney

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Very dramatic. Before we know it there will be tribunals, CAB and the fraud squad will also be involved

Not being dramatic. I know that in triathlons it is an issue. Not the fraud aspect, but the negating of insurance cover in the event of an "incident".

tri111

tunney wrote: »

Not being dramatic. I know that in triathlons it is an issue. Not the fraud aspect, but the negating of insurance cover in the event of an "incident".

In fairness there's more likely to be an incident in a triathlon than in a running race since there is bicycles involved and traffic as most courses are not closed to traffic.

TheRoadRunner

True. I suppose all fraudsters should ensure they have private health insurance so.