Temecula Half Marathon Review
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DavidMartinez2
Posts: 840 Member
I would like to talk about what a great location for a race this was, or friendly volunteers at the aid stations, or what a challenging but not ridiculous course they have but I can not. I can not because none of that means squat if you don’t bother to mark the course properly. I am not sure who was responsible for marking the course but they put forth the absolute minimum effort required and in the end that ended up not being enough, resulting in my ending up 3 miles away from the finish line and using Google maps to find my way back.
Most of the course is on dirt roads that sort of just meander on with occasional turnoffs for wineries or homes. When there were turns on these roads there would be an arrow posted directing you to the new road. This minimalist marking was marginally acceptable for most of the course but when you get to final mile and are back in the grape fields it just was not enough. Because of where I was in the mix of the race there was no one around me; spotting the tire marks from the bike guiding the leader was the only way I could tell I was still on course most of the time. When I ended up back on the road near the end I began to suspect I had missed a turn but I thought the winery was still ahead of me so I kept going assuming I would get back to it.
I had a couple of things going for me at that point. Number 1 is that I am pretty fit and regularly train without aid so I was not in any danger there. The lack of shoulder and cars flying by at 50mph was a concern but I was able to get up out of there way. The biggest potential problem was that this race takes place out in the middle of no-where. Even if I knew someone in the vicinity and asked them to come get me it’s not like there are street signs or landmarks to direct them to. Fortunately I had my phone with me so I was able to call up Google maps and navigate the 3 miles back that way.
I am pretty upset that up until then I had a real good race going that went for naught. I was sitting very comfortably in 6th place and looking at the results I would have gotten 2nd in my Age Group. Looking at my Nike splits I went through 13 miles at 1:29. I know a runner who says that a race needs to be measured properly, timed correctly, and start on time. I am ok with a race starting a few minutes late but I would say it also needs to marked well. Needless to say I will NOT be running this race again next year nor would I recommend it to anyone.
Most of the course is on dirt roads that sort of just meander on with occasional turnoffs for wineries or homes. When there were turns on these roads there would be an arrow posted directing you to the new road. This minimalist marking was marginally acceptable for most of the course but when you get to final mile and are back in the grape fields it just was not enough. Because of where I was in the mix of the race there was no one around me; spotting the tire marks from the bike guiding the leader was the only way I could tell I was still on course most of the time. When I ended up back on the road near the end I began to suspect I had missed a turn but I thought the winery was still ahead of me so I kept going assuming I would get back to it.
I had a couple of things going for me at that point. Number 1 is that I am pretty fit and regularly train without aid so I was not in any danger there. The lack of shoulder and cars flying by at 50mph was a concern but I was able to get up out of there way. The biggest potential problem was that this race takes place out in the middle of no-where. Even if I knew someone in the vicinity and asked them to come get me it’s not like there are street signs or landmarks to direct them to. Fortunately I had my phone with me so I was able to call up Google maps and navigate the 3 miles back that way.
I am pretty upset that up until then I had a real good race going that went for naught. I was sitting very comfortably in 6th place and looking at the results I would have gotten 2nd in my Age Group. Looking at my Nike splits I went through 13 miles at 1:29. I know a runner who says that a race needs to be measured properly, timed correctly, and start on time. I am ok with a race starting a few minutes late but I would say it also needs to marked well. Needless to say I will NOT be running this race again next year nor would I recommend it to anyone.
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Replies
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Well that sucks! But you know that already. Never been in that situation, had to be frustrating0
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I know a runner who says that a race needs to be measured properly, timed correctly, and start on time. I am ok with a race starting a few minutes late but I would say it also needs to marked well.
I agree wholeheartedly. I did a race a couple years ago that wasn't clearly marked and I ended up running an extra couple hundred yards when I missed the turn to go into a tunnel. Not nearly the debacle that you endured, but still unconscionable. I guess I've just taken for granted that courses would be properly marked and marshaled. Unfortunately, that's just not the case all the time.0 -
Wow...that sucks. Nice to know that the Temecula half is one to cross off the list. I see it come up on Active.com and its close for me but there is no way I would be able to handle the "lost" factor.0
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Looking at the results online I think a couple of other runners must have missed the same turn I did. The person in front of me (5th) was about a minute ahead and the person behind (7th) was about the same from me, so they were about 2 minutes apart but the results had them finishing together.0
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That's terrible! What if you hadn't had your phone?! I hope you've said something to the race organizers.0
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Wow...that sucks. Nice to know that the Temecula half is one to cross off the list. I see it come up on Active.com and its close for me but there is no way I would be able to handle the "lost" factor.
My thoughts exactly — I get emails from active.com and there are lots of races to pick from. I've run the bigger races (AFC in San Diego, Surf City, and Long Beach) and those are very well managed. I would never have thought that a race could be poorly marked like that.
Sorry you had to put up with that. I hope they take feedback like yours to heart and get their act together for next year.0
