MORE HALF MARATHON FALLOUT

This is a post from a member on the unnoficial SAL site.

Folks, you are not going to be surprised to hear this from me, but….this is an absolute disgrace on the part of an organisation which is charging an extremely hefty 27 quid (29 with the extra SAL levy) for the service they claim to provide. With 3100 runners, that’s about £90,000 in entry fees which has been accepted under false pretences. It’s bad enough that road runners are being ripped off by these ridiculous entry fees but a whole lot worse when organisers who presumably claim to do a “professional” job (and charge accordingly) are producing a pathetic fourth rate product like this. I can go to the tiny village of Dyke in Moray each September, and run a fantastic, flat and extremely accurate 10K for about 6 quid.
What kind of tinpot organisation is this which doesn’t even bother to check the final distance of its course and gets found out by people with a GPS? And for their 27 quid runners can’t even get a drink of water on a hot day while the race organiser responds with a lame excuse about avoiding wasting (ie spending money on) water!
The organisers accepted people’s money – lots of it – on the basis that they were going to provide a half marathon race with associated times. They have failed to produce what they said they would, so I would therefore suggest that under Trades Description legislation, they should be liable to offer every entrant a full refund. It would make an interesting court case.
I note that the organiser also had the gall to suggest that runners will still “get an accurate time” which is complete nonsense. The best they can do is a crude proportion sum which will certainly not be acceptable for rankings purposes and so on. That might placate Colin Charityrunner and his chums but it’s certainly not acceptable to competitve athletes – but on the other hand who gives a toss about competitive athletes in events like this, even if they are operating under an SAL permit?
On the subject of SAL/UKA, I understand that road race officials now need to be certificated in accordance with the size of the race they are allowed to preside over. Meanwhile it seems that any bunch of cowboys can get an SAL permit to run an event for any number they fancy whilst charging what they want for a sub standard service.