I've gotten an unprecedented amount of traffic to and comments on my post about running in the New York edition of the Nike Human Race. Most of the comments had the same reaction as I did to the Randall's Island course... namely, that it was congested and just plain awful.
Who out there ran the Nike Human Race in the other 26 cities? What was your experience with the race? Was the course well planned and runner friendly?
To answer one of the comments about the New York Human Race, it was not a New York Road Runners Club event, as far as I can tell. The NYRR promoted the race on its site, but clicking on a link for the race led you straight to Nike's site for the Human Race. So I don't think NYRR can be blamed for the poorly planned course.
If you ran the Nike Human Race at any of the 26 cities, or if you ran it on your own wherever you are, let us know your experiences. Thanks...
3 comments:
Thought it was awful. Maybe Road Runners has us spoiled, but I expected a lot more from NIKE. The 1/2 hour delay at the beginning was bad enough, but there was just no way for 10,000 people to run comfortably on that course. So, I had to contend with crowds, car traffic, other runners shoving me and running in the dark at the finish on top of the 5-10 minute bottleneck at the bridge on the first loop. My two words: NEVER AGAIN. The ride back on the boat was lovely and that was the best part of the night.
I agree completely that this was a poorly planned event. I came to NYC for this weekend for three things, to see Yankee Stadium, for good food and for the Human Race. And I was so disappointed by Nike. I was one of the many people who waited too long for the bus to get transfered over to start. Once getting there at 6:10 wewere yelled at to get to the start line and to do hurry hurry hurry. Who's fault was this mine or Nike's? Overall this event was just plain bad. The few good spots were that the view on the second lap of the run (if you were in the back) was much less congested. and the view along the river was nice. I would be so PISSED if I was running this race as a serious athlete and not an amateur. I was livid at points and I run 8:30/mile, if I was good, I would be antry.
I didn't run the race, but I posted about all the complaints I heard. Lots of people weighed in. Seems like Nike really dropped the ball and put marketing ahead of running.
http://internalpigdog.blogspot.com/2008/09/nike-human-race-fiasco.html
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