To be completely transparent, when I finished the offender came up and offered an "I'm sorry but it was really your fault, I would not have done anything differently" type of "apology".  I said I was not interested and was going to the RD.  He headed directly to his car then.

 

The first witness approached me and recounted what he saw in front of several spectators and race volunteers.  One of the volunteers, pretty outraged about it, ran after the offender and caught him as he was trying to get in his car and leave.  So he immediately scoots to the RD and tells his side first.  The witness and I went over next and it went from there.  The offender actually did not deny starting the aggression, only made excuses why he felt justified (I would not move over). The other witnesses came forward sometime later.

 

I got the feeling at the time that the RD did not give a crap, could not believe a runner would go after another, and wanted it to just go away.  The only question he asked was if changing the course would have prevented it.  I was clear that the race and organization had nothing to do with it. 

 

His first instinct was to DQ us both (from his crony's account only), but he did not "out of compassion".

 

ra, thanks for the perspective on the trail racing.  It does not make him less of an asshat, but the perspective helps give some insight into the thought process.  

 

BTW, who leaves their FB page completely open???

 

The Carmel Marathon, my next race, is from the same group.  I wonder if I will get to race or if they will ban me for being a troublemaker.  Though I was soft and did not copy the President on my reply to the RD.  C-R has seen the reply....to quote my wife, "I have never seen two people be so pleasant with each other in 'f*** you, no f*** YOU' emails.".  

 

Ah well, I could be nice and drunk by the time DB joins me if I don't have to run.  All of their races are starting to look like fruit of the poisoned vine to me.

Heh.

So nearly a year later, I get an email from the RD offering me a free entry to come back, while at the same time re-affirming his thought process (that I was likely at fault) and lamenting what a hard decision it was for him.  According to him we were "both worse off for me not coming back" (guess I did not know what I was missing!)  .I replied that while I appreciated the thought behind the gesture, it was clear that his mind was in the sample place as last spring.  As he lamented how hard a decision it was for him, I shared how it seemed harder to deal with a year of reduced strength in my hand as a result of the incident.

The funny part is, a few weeks after this one of the "witnesses" who supposedly implicated me as at fault ran miles ~15-20 of the Carmel Marathon with me.  Good guy, we really helped each other and passed water back and forth before I left him behind in the closing miles.  In the finishing chute, he asked me what has happened at Costa, saying he hadn't really been able to see what happened.

I closed by saying that while I was not really concerned with entry fee costs when choosing races, ethics and character went a long way with me and if he could give me a convincing apology that indicated he had erred in his decision I would re-consider boycotting any races with which I knew he was affiliated.