Some Road Race Drawbacks

Each of the few road races I have run so far in my life has had courses with two important features:

(1) Parking is available nearby, within easy walking distance of the start/finish.

(2) The course doesn't repeat itself; each step takes the runner into "fresh" territory.

I mentioned the above two factors because they are not always present in races, and this can cause some problems.

Usually, the shorter 5K road race is a simple loop that combines a fresh path, close parking, and a start/finish close to each other. But once we start to ratchet up the distance, the situation can change. Here are some examples.

The Disney World marathon held in January, if my memory serves me correctly (from reading others' account on their blogs), drew about 24,000 runners. In an event like this, it is next to impossible to accommodate everyone parking near the race's start and/or finish. So the runners had to be gradually shuttled in from more distant locations, creating a hassle of sorts. This was compounded this year by the unusually low temperatures that participants had to endure before the race.

The Apalachicola Bay marathon on October 23 this year is one that I'd like to run because of the awesome scenery that it promises: crossing long bridges to the gulf beach area. The only problem is that the course is a "there-and-back", with the last half of the run largely going back in the opposite direction, with a few variations.

A month from now the Florida Sheriff Boy's Ranch outside of Live Oak, conveniently close to Gainesville, is holding their own marathon. Parking should be no problem in this event. The only problem is that the course is a quarter of a marathon in length, necessitating runners to cover four identical laps to complete the distance. Yuck!

A similar situation exists in a race in Tioga (just west of Gainesville) that I am contemplating running next month. The course runs a convoluted path through a pretty, new residential area in town. Runners have a choice of three distances: 5K, 10K, and 15K. 5K runners run 1 lap, 10K 2 laps, and 15K 3 laps. Not as bad as Live Oak (there's a nice shopping center with a Starbucks next to the Tioga course), but still...

I just completed a half-marathon here in Gainesville (LifeSouth's Five Points of Life), and they got everything right. The parking lot, which was large enough to accommodate the runners, was adjacent to the starting line. The finishing line was just a few feet away. And the course never repeated itself. On the map, it resembled a badly drawn "8", with the top loop representing the half-marathon and first half of the full marathon. The bottom loop of the "8" represented the last half of the full marathon, so runners choosing that option could look forward to new, interesting territory to cover.

Still, in spite of my criticisms, I understand that event organizers must negotiate their events with the involved local governments and police, with restrictions often placed on them. They only have a certain number of volunteers/employees and must try to find ways to use them the most efficiently. And some races are so huge that the logistics problems involved with so many entrants dictate remote parking.

Of course, if I am going to run in a city that I've never been to before, I may actually welcome a little redundancy to my course in order to reinforce my experience. So maybe Apalachicola and the outskirts of Live Oak wouldn't be so bad, after all. But whether or not I actually choose to run in their races hinges on a number of other factors, chief among them my training to a level where I feel I can complete a marathon!