Bully for Me!

So this morning I received an email from the organizers of last Sunday's Run Austin Run event. It attempted to be a mea culpa, but really it shifted the blame to a lot of locals. Here, Gentle Reader, read for yourself:

Thank you for your participation in the inaugural Run Austin Run Half Marathon, 5k, 10k. We would like to apologize for the lack of organization in a number of aspects of this race. And, we truly appreciate and understand the feedback we have received from many of the participants.

Our 'Come for the race, Stay for the party' has worked for us in every other city/state where we have put on an event...from rain in Portland to serious heat in California. But, our food sponsors in those destinations have also performed by having plentiful quantities of food that lasted until the end of the race, so that racers have stayed for the party. In fact, we typically have food left over at the end of each event that we take to the local food banks, churches, fire stations, and even give out to the local people who are picnicking in the nearby areas. This, obviously, was not the case in Austin. As the rain came down, our sponsors and vendors chose to pack up and leave. This was not our plan. We thought it would be best to support the local food vendors and companies in the Austin area but have learned this will need to be done with due diligence in the future, to ensure our expectations are understood and met.

On a positive note regarding food, we were happy to donate over two thousand pounds of food and generate great feedback from the Capital Area Food Bank about the services we have provided for the hungry in the Austin area. This will be a continued nonprofit effort for USA Productions in every city we hold our events throughout the country.

With regards to the services on the course, there seemed to be an unfortunate lack of commitment with some of the volunteer groups we signed up in Austin. Perhaps it was the bad weather but over half of the volunteers that committed to support this race did not show up as assigned. This tremendously affected the support for registration and packet pickup, water station staffing and setup of GU products at each water stop location, course marshals and finish line reception. Volunteer fall out does occur from time to time but having only half show up had a huge impact on staffing the course. National, our porto-toilet supplier did apologize for not dropping the toilets in the correct locations as well as leaving two behind at the venue. Again, this is follow through on our part that we take full responsibility for.

We have ordered additional quantities of medals and t-shirts and they will be shipped within the next 14 days to all that didn't receive a medal at the finish of the half marathon or didn't get a shirt at registration and packet pickup.

Some of our sponsors that did stay around for the brief after party were well received by participants looking for post race massage and sports therapy; thank you Austin Sports Therapy and Triangle Chiropractic for your great support for the Run Austin Run.

We hope this message has addressed the majority of concerns. Again, thank you for your emails and feedback. This event was very difficult to plan and bring to fruition for many reasons. We respect and appreciate your expectations and are sorry they were not met. We look forward to future success in Austin as well as at our locations across the nation next year.

Considering the "bad weather" didn't roll in until about two hours after the event started and the packet pick-up day was fine, I don't exactly think that drove half the volunteers away. Ah well, believe what you will.

The email did come with a link to the official results...and I did fairly well. I placed 176th overall--bully for me!--and ninth overall in my class (women ages 30 to 34). And if you need a laugh, check out the official photos of me. Gads, I look like a total twit when I run.