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Reply to "Do we or should we have standards for how races are administered?"

In the case Bob writes about, the criminal carpetbaggers from Chicago (I use the term "criminal" advisedly) were besieged by bad publicity after the debacles they inflicted on unsuspecting runners. I had to fire off a few rebuttals on FB and a list serve about how Bob Thurston had nothing to do with designing courses that were totally inappropriate for tens of thousands of runners after some people asked in public "who is this Thurston guy who designed such an idiotic course?". Word got around quickly about how these clowns took the money (well into seven figures) and ran.

Months afterward, I and a couple other race-savvy folk in the D.C. area were approached by a few out-of-town organizations who wanted to establish a big race within 6 months of the first call. They may have heard that not asking Bob or some local expert to consult on various logistical hurdles was a huge mistake for the event that Bob references. I talked two of the organizations who contacted me out of attempting to establish a large new event in the region in any time span under 12 months. Who knows if they will come back?

I do think we as measurers have some responsibility to sniff out bad players or organizers who are about to make a mistake and circulate a course map with our name on it.
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