When Does The Fastest Time Not Win the Race??

[bad hammy]

Apparently when you are running in the Nike Woman's Marathon. The runner in Sunday's Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco with the fastest time came in, well, not first, or second, or third, or apparently, anywheres. The elite runners started 20 minutes before the pack. Someone in the pack had the fastest time of the day, but race officials handed out the awards to only those in the elite group.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13L3GQ.DTL

[tandfman]

As is mentioned in the sfgate story, the same thing happened on the men's side in the Chicago Marathon last week.

[eldrick]

well, 2"55 is a pretty crap time for a city M with 20,000 competitors

perhaps they shoudn't have awarded any prizes at all...

[Guest]

go to court and win the race there.

Under USATF rules, unless there is a disclaimer in the meet information, she is winner.

[lonewolf]

The flip side of this is, in age group swimming with parent timers, I have seen places awarded on time contrary to the obvserved place finish by indisputable margins.

[Conor Dary]

well, 2"55 is a pretty crap time for a city M with 20,000 competitors

perhaps they shoudn't have awarded any prizes at all...

I'm with eldy here. 2:55 is pretty lousy for the elite field. Did they actually pay for them to run? Sounds like a big fun run.

[malmo]

In that situation, and in this one, Estes made the same ruling: It didn't count. O'Connell wasn't declared the winner and Korir didn't collect fourth-place prize money.

"The theory is that, because they had separate starts, they weren't in the same race," Estes said. "The woman who is winning the elite field doesn't have the opportunity to know she was racing someone else."

It's this kind of asinine thinking that is still steeped in the USATF that must be purged.

"At this point," Nike media relations manager Tanya Lopez said Monday, "we've declared our winner."

Someone isn't qualified to hold this position.

O'Connell said some race officials actually implied she'd messed up the seeding by not declaring herself an "elite" runner.

"If you're feeling like you're going to be a leader," race producer Dan Hirsch said Monday, "you should be in the elite pack."
.......
"I'm a good, solid runner," she said. "I never considered myself elite."

As for O'Connell, she's not bitter. After all, she got her best time ever, had a nice weekend in San Francisco and comes home with a story.

In an age where everyone thinks they're owed their 15 minutes it's refreshing to see someone with her feet on the ground and graceful enough to realize she has a funny story to tell worthy of a Seinfeld episode.

[bad hammy]

Nike apparently relents, sort of.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13MAIT.DTL

And since when did news of a recent marathon not rate Current Events status, and get dumped over to Things Not T&F??

[eldrick]

And since when did news of a recent marathon not rate Current Events status, and get dumped over to Things Not T&F??

when it's won in 2"55 :P

[Daisy]

Re: When Does The Fastest Time Not Win the Race??

Someone in the pack had the fastest time of the day, but race officials handed out the awards to only those in the elite group.

Since they had no elite runners how did they define elite for this race? Did they just take the top 50 or so runners based on declared times?

[gh]

Nike apparently relents, sort of.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13MAIT.DTL

And since when did news of a recent marathon not rate Current Events status, and get dumped over to Things Not T&F??

as soon as Malmo turned it into one of his USATF hate-fests.

[malmo]

Nike apparently relents, sort of.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13MAIT.DTL

And since when did news of a recent marathon not rate Current Events status, and get dumped over to Things Not T&F??

as soon as Malmo turned it into one of his USATF hate-fests.

I see, anyone who isn't fawning over gross incompetence is a hater? Grow up. Are you threatened by the idea that the days of cronyism at USATF might be over?

[gh]

While meet management certainly handled the PR aspects of this poorly, I've got to say I see nothing wrong with the two-races-in-one-concept. Particularly if you feel the need to use differential starting times, which certainly isn't uncommon.

I think that those in the front group should be racing with the comfort that if nobody passes them, then they win. For the front-group winner (or "winner" if you prefer) to discover that they lost to somebody who finished 9 minutes behind them makes no sense to me. How are they supposed to divine where this "faster" person is and stay 20 minutes ahead of them?

[Daisy]

How are they supposed to divine where this "faster" person is and stay 20 minutes ahead of them?

I agree this is only fair. The problem comes when they designate who is elite. In addition, I assume the runner in the pack had mens to chase?

Having said that, to win from the pack is impressive and to not recognise that with some sort of ad hoc prize is pretty lame. Could have been great PR instead of bad PR.

[bad hammy]

I assume the runner in the pack had mens to chase?

It was a women's only race.