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Pacific Coast Trail Runs Shuts Its Doors (Read 1113 times)

bhearn


    This is a real shame. These people put on some great races. I was looking forward to doing more of them now that I've moved back to the bay area.

     

    http://www.atrailrunnersblog.com/2012/06/pacific-coast-trail-runs-shuts-its.html

    xor


      They have been having trouble and been quite shaky for the past year.  I am not surprised.  At least now we know.... they took a whole lot of money from people in the past 12 months for events that just didn't happen.

       

      I truly hope the big cheese is doing ok.  She has had, um, issues.

       

      DoppleBock


        Sounds like a lot of contraversey around collecting entrants money with no intent of delivering a race.   If she had been smart she would have worked to get permits ~ Showing intent to deliver with the hope to a solution to financial problems.

         

        You would be amazed at how many races that defy logic (Look hugely successful) and lose money.  These usually are the races that care about providing the right race experience over the business of making money.  High quality shirts, high quality finish food and beverages, lots of aide stations, nice tents at finish line.   Go to Las Vegas marathon and its obvious why they make money ~ It seems if they cannot get it donated for free they will either not have it or go as cheap as possible.  It was a lot of years ago (2006) but worst finish line area I have ever seen ~ one of the worst run races.

         

        This is a real shame. These people put on some great races. I was looking forward to doing more of them now that I've moved back to the bay area.

         

        http://www.atrailrunnersblog.com/2012/06/pacific-coast-trail-runs-shuts-its.html

        Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

         

         

        bhearn


          Sounds like a lot of contraversey around collecting entrants money with no intent of delivering a race.

           

          I don't think that's really true -- but I don't know all the details. As Robert says, it has become a very messy situation. They were on the ropes most of last year, hoping to pull themselves back to a functioning entity. Didn't make it.

           

          Those who ran knew exactly what to expect – a well-marked course, plenty of happy volunteers, lots of food, and a sense of humility that made even the craziest races (and racers) feel approachable. By 2008, nearly every race was selling out, with a solid mix of regular runners and first-timers motivated by the Dean Karnazes/Born To Run surge.

          xor


            Edit: this response is to DB's post, not Bob's.  We posted simultaneously.

             

            It is more complicated than that, by far.  And in many cases, she did work to get permits.  Or had employees do this.

             

            Last year, she hired two guys to do all this work.  They left the company after a few months due to "personal differences" and started their own company, Inside Trail Racing.  (weird name, but whatever)  Immediately, they had races set up in some of the same venues that were supposed to host PCTR runs.  One wonders... ok, many have wondered... if they were angling their own permits while supposedly trying-but-not-succeeding in obtaining the permits for the PCTR races.

             

            Very strange goings on.

             

            Also... there is ANOTHER organization in California that does tons of trail races... Coastal Trail Runs.

             

            The deal here is that the kahuna of PCTR and the kahuna of CTR were once a couple.  They divorced.  The guy started up CTR.  The gal kept PCTR.  They worked together to ensure they didn't kipe each other's venues and usually didn't host races on the same day.

             

            Over the past year, PCTR got more and more bizarre.

             

            ITR's entrance didn't help things.  They DID organize races on the same days as PCTR and at first, in the exact same places.  Of course, people realized that PCTR's stuff was kind of shaky, so having ITR has turned out to be a good thing.

             

            Well, sort of.

             

            It is confusing.

             

              Sounds like a lot of contraversey around collecting entrants money with no intent of delivering a race.   If she had been smart she would have worked to get permits ~ Showing intent to deliver with the hope to a solution to financial problems.

               

              You would be amazed at how many races that defy logic (Look hugely successful) and lose money.  These usually are the races that care about providing the right race experience over the business of making money.  High quality shirts, high quality finish food and beverages, lots of aide stations, nice tents at finish line.   Go to Las Vegas marathon and its obvious why they make money ~ It seems if they cannot get it donated for free they will either not have it or go as cheap as possible.  It was a lot of years ago (2006) but worst finish line area I have ever seen ~ one of the worst run races.

               I ran Vegas from '06 to '08. '06 was the best run year. By '08 it was in doubt until RnR took over--and shockingly it has become even more of a clusterf*** culminating in last year's disaster.

              xor


                I have run all the iterations of the Las Vegas Marathon.  Prior to last year's terrible horrible awful afternoon/evening run, the rnr version was far superior to the previous Devine version.  Devine had nothing at the finish a couple years, ran out of fluids at some stations, and couldn't be bothered to pay their vendors.  All the negativity about competitor is well-deserved, but at least they pay their bills.

                 

                Here's how it worked for me:

                 

                The pre-2011 rnr Las Vegas was way better than the old-school out-in-the-desert original course was way way way better than the Devine version was way way better than the 2011 (and I assume 2012) nightmare.

                 

                Anyway, bringing up a city race and competitor is huge drift from the pctr situation.

                 

                AnneCA


                  I know.  I paid $90 to run the Skyline to the Sea marathon on Sunday.  I had put off signing up, given the problems last year (and, btw, from what I heard, people did get refunded on the cancelled races last year).  But they were putting on events again, and about a month ago PCTR posted that the 50k was sold out and the marathon was going fast.  So, I signed up for the marathon. Sigh.

                   

                  MTA:  interesting comment on Dunlap's blog that the parks involved claim there were never any permits issued.  I wondered about that with respect to cancelling so close to SttS. The race is sold out at both distances, 300 runners total.  Wouldn't almost all the work have been done for that, and, even if she was having health problems or whatever, couldn't someone take over for race week?  Presumably most of the costs - permits, shirts, etc. - are incurred well in advance of five days before the race. Unless she never did any of that, and this cancellation has been inevitable for some time.  In which case, while I'd love to join the thank-you-for-all-you've-done-for-the-trail-running-community bandwagon, that's some shady business.

                  xor


                    On the previous stuff, most people apparently did get refunds... but this was only after mighty, mighty strong pressure to encourage her to do this. At first she wasn't going to do this.  It was a big deal.  And then the long process began to rebuild relationships with runners.

                     

                    Then more events got cancelled.  This time, people got refunds without the same level of pain and suffering.

                     

                    And then the long process began anew.

                     

                    To now.

                     

                    (the following is conjecture, but not just mine, and based on some amount of real info)

                     

                    It seemed that, with the first round of mysterious cancellations, she had taken people's money and spent it.  On event-related stuff.  Maybe on other stuff (this is where some of the mean rumors come into play), maybe not.  This was about the time the ITR guys split too. Anyway, she was in the squeezed position of trying to figure out refunds based on money she might not have possessed any longer.  That is a tough place to be.

                     

                    As for the current cancellation and the lack of permit, um, yes.  Shady looking.  She has been doing some random stuff and not doing basic stuff for awhile.  While the ITR thing looks weird, those guys have long claimed it was innocent and they just couldn't work with her... these dots can be connected. 

                     

                    It is all screwy.

                     

                    DoppleBock


                      I guess the big jump was to point out that many races - small and even time big make choices that will put them deep in the red, to make sure they put on the highest quality event.

                       

                      Say 500 race shirts @ $20 per versus @ $6 per = $6,000 difference.  How nice or crappy the shirt is rarely works into my race choice process.

                      Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

                       

                       

                      AnneCA


                        Coastal Trail Runs (as SRL said, that's the ex-h of the PCTR RD) just posted that he's got ranger approval and will try to pull this off (this being the Skyline to the Sea scheduled for Sunday).  Wheee!!

                        bhearn


                          Awesome.

                          bhearn


                            More work for calendar guy.

                            xor


                              Are you the Anne whose email I just answered?  :-)

                               

                              Adding a race to the calendar is usually easy peasy, though I will likely skip adding this one.

                               

                              I had 38 new requests between 10a yesterday and this morning.  Yikes.

                               

                              TripleBock


                                I might join MM - Then I will proceed to get 5 friends to help me create a race every few days to help keep SRL busy.  I think I could do an ultra every other day for a few months with my 5 buddies ...

                                I am fuller bodied than Dopplebock

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