Hi,
I am glad to see the huge turnout you all had for the Trot this year, and I believe some of the problems were related to organizers simply not being prepared for such a large race. However, my friends and I were very dissatisfied with the race this year for several reasons.
1. T-shirts. It said several times on the race website that those runners who register by 11/14 are guaranteed a T-shirt. I registered by this deadline for a medium shirt and on race day had to choose between an XL and a 2XL, and I know there were preregistrants who got no Tshirt. If I am told my T-shirt is guaranteed, it should be stuffed in my preregistration envelope so that it cannot be taken by a race day registrant.
2. The course. Out and back courses are never ideal, and when the volume of runners is already greater than what the road can handle, it really doesn't work to have 180 degree turnarounds. Also, the 2nd turnaround in the 5k was somehow not marked. We all just picked a point and turned. No cone or volunteer was to be found. In addition, the unfortunate 10k and half marathon runners were forced to loop back through the 5k course, where they were held up by the hundreds of 5k walkers/walk-runners/etc.
3. The registration line. Again, I guess this was a product of the huge turnout, but the lines took over 30 min to get through. More volunteers were needed and the packets should have been divided up more (by event, last name, etc) so that there could be more lines and shorter lines. Perhaps race-day registration should have been stopped at some point so those people could help handle the long line of preregistrants. The fact that preregistrants were missing the start of their race while other people were still allowed to register gave me the impression that the possibility of making more money was far more important than helping those who had already paid.
Thanks for taking the time to read my email, and I hope you had a great holiday!
Kevin
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