Nice job not killing anyone. Ive done this race a bunch of times and the trick is to put a real fast time ( a lot faster than your real race time) on your registration paper so they start you in the front wave.

Ohhhh....very clever and tricky!!!!! I like it! I like it!

I ran it this year too (54:53) and was hoping that the chaos at the start I experienced 2 years ago was just a fluke. NOpe, this year was worse. I will not do this race again until that is fixed. Why the hell they give out colored bibs and then don't enforce corral assignments is not only ridiculous, but also extremely dangerous.

I've renamed this race the Crescent City Clusterf&*#!!!!!

The Crescet City Clusterf&*#!!!! I've gotta share that with my friends. We should have it put on shirts. I think my group from Mobile is going to send letters/e-mails to the race director. If enough people voice their opinion and race report then maybe they will do something about the situation. I know at the Peachtree 10 they actually have gates that you are choraled in and not allowed into a choral unless you are wearing that bib color.

My email that I just sent to the CCC RD. We'll see if I get a response or not.....



Not sure if this will make it to the RD or not, but hopefully his/her mailbox is already flooded with similar complaints.

I ran this race in 2006 and thought then that it might be just an exception to the norm, a bad year being the first race post-Katrina, but after running this race again last weekend, it seems to be a serious issue/concern.

I'm not sure why your registration process asks for estimated finish times? Furthermore, I'm not sure why you guys even bother with colored bibs that supposedly represent different start/corral assignments? For the second time in as many races, I have never seen so many runners and especially walkers out of place at the beginning of a race of this size. I am not a super fast runner by any means, but for the first 2 miles I constantly found myself literally running over walkers (some even walking 4-5 across) and slower runners who were lined up well to the front of the starting line that should have been lined up well in the back.

It is time to fix this issue before more people are injured. Either advertise the race start as a "first come first serve" start, or enforce corral assignments based on projected times. Don't continue to give the false impression of having the start being corralled by color assignments when there is no enforcement whatsoever of those assignments.

Thanks,
Lance

Since we are sharing.....here is my e-mail that I sent to [email protected] hope the race director is getting bogged down with e-mails about this situation. It was just ridiculous. They could learn a few things from the folks that put on the Peachtree 10k.

I'm not sure if this is the e-mail I need to send my complaint to but if not please forward this on to the correct person/party.

I haven't done this race in 6 years and really looked forward to taking part in it this past Saturday. As I remember, the course was scenic and the post race party ROCKED. Now, here is my complaint.......something has got to be done about the walkers on the course. I'm not talking about the power walkers but the people that were on the course "strolling" along. I am an 8 minute miler and it took me over 11 minutes to get from the starting line to the first mile and not because the other runners were in my way. The walkers were ridiculous and I witnessed one lady twist her ankle trying to get around a group of walkers and another guy slid to the group while attempting to dodge a group of walkers. I don't have a remedy for this situation but something needs to be done. We brought a large group of runners from Mobile to the CCC and we are talking about boycotting this race until something is done. Everything else about the race (in my opinion) was great. Good job with the water stops and support.

Thank you for your time and I hope the race director and his/her crew can come up with a solution.

DId you get a reply from the RD? Just got mine....kind of a jerk!!! May post it here, may not

Did not receive reply. Please post so I can share with my friends here in Mobile.

RD's response:

Actually, Lance,

Most people understand the difficulties of policing an open course like we
have and cut us some slack.
Furthermore, most understand that the problem is really caused by people
starting down from the staging area.

However, since you are the second one to comment, I will again take a moment
to explain (as best I can) that we continually try different things to
discourage people from jumping in on the course. Unfortunately, the
suggestions offered by entrants are usually pretty harsh, pretty expensive,
or downright impractical. It seems impossible to prevent people from
cheating on the course.

Of course, we always welcome your suggestions.
By the way ... 15 e-mails wanting to know how to pick up shirt, 8 wanting to
know how to claim Top 500 Posters, 2 Start issues, 1 change the name the
entrant entered ... go figure!

Rick Lusky (RD)

What a @#$% jerk! Thanks for sharing!

Here is my response from the race director:

Most people understand the difficulties of policing an open course like we
have. We continually try to tighten staging group entrances.

Particularly the seeded group staging areas.

This year we had 75 Marines assigned to this task.

Unfortunately, we find that the problem is also aggravated by people starting down on the course.
We are open to suggestions from runners and other race directors.
We continually look for different things to discourage people from jumping in on the course.
Unfortunately, the suggestions offered by most entrants are usually pretty harsh,
pretty expensive, or downright impractical, like hiring snipers.

Rest assured that we will continue to focus on this annoy (and potentially dangerous) issue.

Sorry this caused you grief & I am glad you had a good time otherwise.

Larry....

guess I caught him in a bad mood or something!!