The race director of the Treasure of the Coast Marathon emailed me back and was very apologetic and understanding. He has written a letter to the editor that hasn’t been published yet regarding the press coverage and sent me a preliminary draft to reassure me the race organization takes full responsibility for what happened that day.
“Race coverage of our recent marathon in the March 6 issue of Stuart News stated some runners were thrown off course when a police officer directed them the wrong way. The fact is, Police Officers are not responsible to direct runners. Race management is responsible to direct runners and, in this instance, failed to provide adequate direction. Police officers direct traffic and keep the runners safe. No runners were injured by drivers anywhere on the race course during this seven-hour long event. Bottom line, the police departments of Stuart, Sewall’s Point, and the Martin County Sheriffs Office did another outstanding job for our community.
The article also includes a quote from the Race Director that runners should have known the course (thus inferring it was the runners’ own fault they went off course). While it is accurate that statement was made, it was not the full context of discussion. In fact, the perspective that runners were at fault had already been rejected in discussion between the Race Director, Assistant Race Director and myself prior to the news interview. The Race Director has since reiterated this fact on social media to ensure our runners know race management accepts full responsibility for the error. Unfortunately, once a story is out there, the damage is done and at this point all we can do is explain what happened to those who will listen. This is not to say I fault the reporter for printing what was said. There can be many causes for what occurred during the race and how we as runners and event directors talk about potential and contributing causes (and if you prefer, fault) is far too nuanced to expect a reporter to discern the relative value of each. A statement that “runners should know the course” is succinct and thus clearly fair to print. But let me be clear – race management, and specifically myself, was at fault for misdirecting the runners. We regret the occurrence, the impact it had on our runners, and the confusion that ensued regarding fault. Investigations are underway to determine root and contributing causes, however it is a known a fact the misdirection was not the runners’ fault.”
–Draft of Letter To The Editor by John Trahan, Race Director.
As I told him in one of our emailed exchanges, a lot of the problems stemmed from miscommunication and I appreciated him hearing me out. To show that a little bit of communication can make a huge difference, here’s what I wrote back to him:
Hi, John. Thanks for getting back to me. As you rightly point out, a lot of this comes down to communication. As a runner, I was feeling like no one cared to hear about the problems and that obviously isn’t the case, both with your survey and your reply to my email.
Sometimes we just need to feel like somebody is listening. And after your fact finding and review, maybe the outcome is there was enough signage and the police officer just got it wrong and we all followed because, well, if a police officer tells you to go one way we tend to listen. It may just be one of those things, a murphy’s law moment and that can happen even with redundancies and backup plans and all sorts of preparation. I think though that there will be a bit more that could be done to alleviate confusion in the future. At the start line, the race announcer made some comment that we should ignore white arrows because they were leftover from the previous day’s 5K (I may be misremembering this but that’s how I think it was phrased). That would have started the ball rolling toward signage not being useful and relying on those in front to lead the way regardless of what signs were available. Again, I can’t say for certain that contributed but just a headsup on that.
As for my time, I know what I ran and whatever the “official” results show, it is what it is. I wasn’t going for a PR or a BQ, especially after I fell at mile 18. It just felt previously that my honor as a runner and as a person was being impinged by the comments and actions of the organization. And I’ve vented, commented, and offered what I could to hopefully preclude that feeling in others going forward. I do appreciate your reply and hearing me out.
As an aside, I crossed the finish line and went straight to the med tent. The folks working there patched me up and bandaged my cuts, scrapes, and bruises. The volunteers along the way were supportive and appreciative… and the team onsite throughout the day made me feel welcome. I appreciate their efforts and the efforts of the race organization as a whole in putting together an event. I can only imagine the hard work and long hours it takes to do so. But I hope my comments and suggestions are at least somewhat helpful for raising areas to look at in the future.