RACE DIRECTOR PET PEEVES
Everyone has pet peeves. As race directors, we, too, have pet peeves—a lot of them—that drive us all insane. Knowing that misery loves company sometimes, I’ve listed a few of my race pet peeves, which I know all of you can identify with:
Seeing the one really long line at the bank of port-o-johns rather than seeing the runners line up in front of each of the individual units, thus encouraging runners to use the woods instead of the units.
Not being awarded a permit to conduct your race because some other race before yours messed up.
Even though you have pace signs at the start, you know the folks lined up right in front aren’t 5-minute milers and they just won’t move back in the pack where they bloody belong.
When runners ask for a refund for every reason known to man even though you have listed NO REFUNDS in a million places.
A runner exclaiming, “I didn’t know you couldn’t do that!” when you explain to them that they are not allowed to give their bib number to someone else to run with, especially someone of the opposite gender!
The fact that many races “inflate” what the actual number of participants were in their race.
When your race sells out really fast and you have runners say to you, “Well, I didn’t know it was going to fill up that fast,” or, “If I knew it was going to fill that fast I would have signed up much earlier.”
Participants taking a shopping cart load of food from the food tent, leaving nothing for the back-of-the-pack runners.
You're still bending over picking up banana peels and yogurt cups at the end of your race and you look at your smartphone and already see the “complaints” coming in from participants in your race.
The GPS-wearing dude who is profusely arguing with you that your race course is definitely 2/10 of a mile long even though it was certified.
The fact that no matter how hard runners try, if they are the first to use a toilet paper roll, they just can seem to figure out how to get it started! Why don’t they put a simple tab or flap on each roll so it is easy to start…especially in the dark!
Your race is doing the best it can to be environmentally responsible by putting out the appropriate recycling containers but no one is really paying much attention to any of it.
After all the meetings you had with public safety, the officer who shows up on race day isn’t the one who had been attending all the meetings and the information never really trickled down to him and as such he just doesn’t seem to get it.
You have the break tape set up for the first female to break and the “hero dude” just ignores the instructions for him to move to the opposite side of the finish line, thus totally ruining the photo op for the winning female.
Your instructions say not to check items of any value and then the participant claims that you lost their bag with their car keys, wallet, iPhone and wedding ring in it.
I can continue but I’ll stop or I’ll get in (more) trouble.
So, what is my best TIP in dealing with all of these situations…take a chill pill, count to 10, realize it is only a road race, remember what you signed up for when you agreed to be the race director and know that it happens to all of us…a lot.