WOW! What a "bit of everything", full weekend. It included a visit from my mum from Victoria, a 32km run with Pam, the Graham Bond show (ie, "I'll rip your bloody arms off" Aunty Jack) at the Street Theatre, post long run coffee with Strewth, Ewen et al @ the War Memorial, Little A's Federation Cup soccer game, and, and, and. Each and every aspect was good in its own way but I'll be needing an early night tonight.
It's now 3 weeks until the Canberra marathon and time to start winding back the long training. Like lots of other routine Canberra marathon runners, I'm glad the marathon has new owners and that the event will actually be going ahead when for awhile it looked like that might not be the case. But .... so many details are still not sorted or haven't been conveyed to the runners. My "pet" topic of course is the Griffin Program for those of us about to clock up 10 Canberra marathons. Although the organisers have said that the Griffin program will be maintained there is no information available about who is coordinating it, how would-be Griffins submit their Canberra marathon running histories to the organisers for verification, and when/how the Griffins will be presented with their Griffin singlets post event. In fact, there's no information at all about any post event presentations, including to the winners(!) Other uncertainties include: whether or not there will be race merchandise available to purchase (there's certainly none on the website like there used to be in the past), and what the organiser's definiton of "elite" is for those who are allowed to supply their own special drinks for the drink stations. (Non-elites are not allowed to have own drinks!)
As well as these uncertainties which are negatives in themselves there are others (wait ... there's more ....) - eg, there will be no water sachets this year. Instead they are going back to polystyrene cups. This is allegedly for "environmental reasons". How can polysterene be better for the environment than small, plastic tubes? Go figure. Sounds more like a cost saving measure to me.
Events like this are meant to be about the runners, and these things matter. So far it seems that Fairfax is more interested in promoting Fairfax as the new owner of the event than it does about Fairfax actually putting on a running event for runners. With ownership comes responsibility.
5 comments:
Busy weekend! Great to see your mum again Saturday. Hope she can make it back to see you don the Griffin gear for 10 Canberra marathons. Also hope they get all the fine details (that matter for the runners) sorted in time.
On the cup v plastic tube thing... maybe that's true. I know City to Surf uses plastic cups and remember reading they are recycled into park benches.
It was fantastic to catch up with your mum during your busy weekend. She is so lovely. I am a bit worried after reading your post however - must be time I checked the marathon website. The "own drinks" rule really bothers me as every year we have been able to supply our own drinks. That's quite an issue with my dodgy tummy!! I don't want to be drinking something I'm not used to:( Also, it's really tricky drinking out of cups as it goes everywhere and it's much harder to run and drink. The plastic tubes are great cos you can hold them as you run and open when needed. I'm cranky now!!! Grrr!
Great to see you all on the weekend. Would love to return for the Canberra run but am not sure if it will be possible.
Yes, and this response to my email to Fairfax really doesn't answer my questions ...
Hello Elizabeth,
The Griffin programme continues to be run, as it has done in the past, but [sic] the run club. We are awaiting the details of the specific person who will be looking after this for them and will then contact everyone who has emailed us to inform them of any updated details they have supplied us with. We thank you for your patience in this matter.
Elite are the top people entered into the marathon. We judge each case individually so if you would like to be considered please do email us results to previous marathons and we will get back to you swiftly.
The water sachets have been eliminated for environmental reasons. As in all of our events we serve all drinks in PLA cups. PLA is made from corn starch and is not only fully biodegradable within six months, it uses 70% less energy to produce than regular plastic cups (and the difference is even greater for water sachets), eliminates the need for trucks to ship water across the country, and, instead of going to land fill, they can be used to generate electricity as they de-compose. It is only one of the many ways in which we are trying to lessen the environmental impact from large events such as these.
Unfortunately there will not be any event merchandise available this year. Rebel sport will however be selling other items at the expo in Telopea Park School on the weekend of the event.
There will be pacers coming from the club. We are yet to receive all of the details of this from them but will be updating the website as soon as we do.
There will be a presentation ceremony on the Saturday and on the Sunday, again, details will be announced as they are confirmed closer to the time.
As you can see, the information that is not currently on the website is yet to be confirmed. We shall update the website as these details become available.
Again, thank-you for your patience and support in this transitional year.
Kind regards,
Rebecca
Canberra Running Festival
Fairfax
OMG it gets worse. No marathon merchandise? How crazy is that! Good thing we are becoming Griffins and should earn a singlet at least! They don't sound very organised!!
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