Posted by Jon Adams on January 12, 2009 at 07:50:37:
I know we try to keep things as simple as possible in most races and for good reason, but I would love to see First Light come up with a way to somehow separate their finish line(s) a bit.
With the growth of this race it has become somewhat confusing IMO as to which finishers ran which race.....Marathon/Half-Marathon, I noticed it more so yesterday than in previous years.
We actually had three divisions of runners coming thru the finish line chute at the same time and though they ARE designated in different ways (bib color, ribbon, etc) it seemed very confusing to the casual observer at the finish line area. For instance at the 2:35 mark we had Half-Marathoners finishing, then the first Relay team member crossed among them along with the overall Marathon winner close on his heels......all finishing at the same time. Now I realize in the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal and it IS functional, but here's what the current finish configuration produced...as the Half-Marathoners were finishing (and there were still QUITE a few!) the first relay finisher was mistaken as the first overall Marathon finisher and then a minute later the actual Marathon winner came thru, but not everyone actually realized he was the winner......it was sort of like, "Oh here comes another runner....and he looks kinda tired" [rolleyes]
I want to emphasize this is not intended as being critical of the First Light event in any way....Mart O'Malley and his crew put a LOT of work into producing a great event! This was just something I noticed while I took a few moments to watch the leaders cross the finish line....and it may not matter at all to anyone besides myself....I was just thinking it would be nice if we could come up with a way to make it easier for the "fans" at the finish area to know what's going on and perhaps give a little more recognition to the overall winners in each race?
Hey, as this race keeps growing....this is a "good" problem to have. :)