I hadn’t planned to write a RR for this race, but it turned out to be so strange that…well…here it is. This winter I looked for a “back-up” Spring marathon/half-marathon. If things went badly at National, I’d run the full; if things went well, I’d run the half. I found the small Potomac River Run Marathon & Half in Alexandria, VA. It is a scenic course on the Mt. Vernon Trail alongside the Potomac River. It’s been around since 2004 and had good reviews on MarathonGuide.com which shows about 100 marathon finishers over each of the last four years. I was set to go…or so I thought. The first sign something was amiss were the half dozen long rambling, redundant e-mails from the race director that began arriving about a month ago. They were organized terribly and jam-packed with irrelevant material. I chalked it up to a quirky small race and took comfort in the race’s decent track record. The second sign of trouble was an e-mail from the race director just a week before the race saying the race’s 7:00 a.m. start was being dropped. Instead there would be a start window from 5:30 to 7:00; you could start at any time. This was being done, he said, to accommodate the National Park Service—which oversees the Mt. Vernon Trail on which the race is run—which had decided that all runners had be off the trail by 11:00 a.m., putting slower marathoners in jeopardy of not being able to finish in time. (The e-mail was defensive in tone and the NPS was painted as the bad guy.) The third sign of trouble was when I checked the on-line list of participants for my bib number. There were well over 1000 runners! What? I had no explanation for this. Race day, DW and I got there a little after 6:00 and, sure enough, there was a start mat set up and people were leaving whenever they were ready. And then the fourth sign of trouble appeared: the few porta-johns on-site were all padlocked; the only on-site bathroom was the small building that is part of the park. As I waited in line, the talk was all about how weird this all was; some people were a little angry. By the time I got through the bathroom line and came out, things had collapsed entirely. There were Park service personnel talking with race organizers, the timing mats were rolled up, and a crowd had now formed at the start. Confusion reigned. Over the next 20 minutes or so we learned that the director only had a permit for 300 runners but had allowed something like 1200, blatantly violating the terms of the permit. The Park Service had now intervened to shut down the race. The race director kept saying it wasn’t his fault because the Park Service has “never enforced the limit before.” (Hmmmm…. “But officer, I speed here all the time; you never stopped me before!’) The director went further telling people the problems were all due to the “change in administration” (Obama’s fault?!) and urged increasingly upset runners to contact their Congressperson. (No kidding.) A poor woman near me was in tears; she’d taken time off from work, traveled from New Orleans, and hoped for her first BQ today. The poor volunteers appeared mortified by the director’s behavior and were, of course, apologetic. One of them told me the director knew ahead of time that the Park Service were going to shut this down but gambled that if starters were spread out over a couple of hours, they wouldn’t notice and wouldn’t stop the race. Once it became clear there would be no official race, some people left, but most just went for a run. I did the ½ course in 1:39:31 by my Garmin. But who knows if the course was even accurate? This was no big deal for me since this was just a “B” race, at best—though I’m irritated for having forked out good money for a non-race. But, especially, I felt sorry for runners for whom this was an "A" race and were horribly disappointed by the turn of events. I don’t know the inside story here, so perhaps there’s an explanation, but circumstantial evidence points to a completely irresponsible race director destroying what had been, by most accounts, a nice little race. It was absurd to allow 1000+ runner for an out-and-back race run on a paved “trail” that is only about 8 feet wide. The aid stations were good, food at the end was adequate, if somewhat chaotic--though they had run out of any fluids when I got there. But the whole day was pretty much a mess for anyone who actually wanted to run a race. Sad.

One of them told me the director knew ahead of time that the Park Service were going to shut this down but gambled that if starters were spread out over a couple of hours, they wouldn’t notice and wouldn’t stop the race. .

That is really sneaky, sleezy, I don't know what. Well, nice training run, sorry it was so weird. 1000 runners and padlocked potties, it's like my worst nightmare!

Any way to get your money back? If you paid by credit card you can file a claim. Maybe one of our attorneys on this site can help you sue the RD! And why were the porta-potties locked? Were they under the control of the park service? If the RD ordered them, they should have been open. Sounds like you made the most of it and had a nice training run, and didn't have to drive far. Thanks for the RR so we all know to avoid this race in the future. What's the RD's name? He should be black listed.

What a weird day! I feel so sorry for the lady from New Orleans! Wow. Thanks for taking the time to write this. Nice half per Garmin for you!

Update from race director: no explanation, no acknowledgment of poor judgment, no apology, no talk of refunds. However, he is exploring the novel idea of "self-recorded" BQ times. I wonder how that'll go over with the BAA. Sad. -------------------------- Dear Participant Thank you so much for joining us for the 6th annual Potomac River Run Marathon & Half. Although we were unable to conduct our start and finish as planned, we did the best we could under the circumstances. Our charity volunteers and HAM radio operators at the aid stations supported you all along the route, our course marshals kept you on track, and our post-event celebration across the Parkway at Belle Haven Shell was cozier than it would have been on the river side (where neither picnic tents nor apples nor pizza are allowed). Nobody reported a single medical incident, and although we all got wet towards the end, our spirits ran high. Everyone who made it to our post-event celebration received a medal from Dan Kain Trophies, a gift certificate or memento courtesy of DeCosta's Trophies, Dick's Sporting Goods, Georgetown Running Company, Glory Days Grill, Falls Road Running Store, and Stan Mullins artist. Everyone there enjoyed a nice picnic courtesy of Brueggers Baked Fresh, Cabot Cooperative Creamery, DrinkMore Water, Hammer Nutrition, Honest Tea, Mario's Pizza House, Paramount Farms / Sunkist pistachios, Starbucks Coffee, and Whole Foods. Since we could not use electronic timing, we will manually assemble results as quickly and completely as possible from data you provide. If you timed yourself, please send us your bib number, time, and event (half or full marathon) as soon as you can. We will post those times at www.acfcoop.org/20090503.html (not up yet) and update them daily until May 20. On May 23, we will mail to you official finisher certificates and results based on the data as of May 20. If you finished first, second, or third M/F in your event (you know who you are!), we will also mail your cash prize, based on the data as of May 20. If you finished, but you missed the post-event celebration, please let us know, and we will mail your finisher's medal and a gift certificate from Georgetown Running Company or Falls Road Running Store (your preference), along with your finisher certificate. If you finished, but you don't know your time, please let us know who ran you ran with or any other information, and we'll do our best to figure out your time. For those of you hoping to qualify for Boston Marathon, we called BAA's race director this afternoon to ask whether self-recorded times serve as Boston qualifiers. We will keep you informed. BTW the first runner started at 5:34 am. For reference, we will soon post all the start times we were able to collect. Thank you

Tramps... What a nightmare. This RD sounds like a real piece of work. I'll put this on my list of nonraces not to attend. Ray

Wow Tramps! Hey, if you used your garmin for your time, the distance you ran should be very accurate.

Good grief! I wouldn't be surprised if someone sued over this. Certainly it seems actionable, especially if you incurred serious expenses to get to this race.