Run Kings Island?

[Fear the Four]

You didn"t stay at KI for a while?

They might be a little tired lol

[coasterguy15]

I ran the 10K and it was awesome! the views that you got of Diamondback, The Beast, Firehawk, The Racer, and Son of Beast were sweet. Plus the course was very fun once we got out of the parking lot of course. i finished at 52:09, and this was my first 10k ever

[davidc78]

I completed the 10K yesterday. Great views of the rides. Around The Beast was my favorite. Very steep hills for a run. It was challenging. It was a lot of fun except it was a very unorganized event. Late start, course not marked very well, warm water at the finish line and they ran out of medals so they will have to mail out later. Didn't want to wait in line to get into the post race party so we skipped it. I hope the race organizers learn from this to make future events better. Loved the early rides on Diamond Back before the park opened though. Stayed at the park unitl about 3 before my legs decided they didn't want to walk anymore.

[cassie_KY]

I was signed up to go and had to cancel at the last minute due to life happening. I was really disappointed, but it happens and at least it wasn't lots of money...

Congrats everyone who were able to attend!

[HTCO]

Didn't want to wait in line to get into the post race party so we skipped it. I hope the race organizers learn from this to make future events better.

You know that line was the line to sign up for fleet feet's e-mail list. Because if you signed up you got a bunch of free stuff, like a addidas bag and a very nice racing hat. But you could have just walked past it and gotten yourself a bannana or cookie. .

I also agree with you on the un-organized part. I know the man that was in first the whole time quit because he didn't know where to go and no one told him where to go. Hopefully they do better next time because I will be attending if there is another next year.

[Rocketgoof]

Yeah, it was very unorganized! I talked to the race director afterwards because I was one of the 10K runners that was directed way off course and he said to email runwildracing for a refund. Apparently, King's Island security wouldn't allow them in early enough to set out all the markers so that's why it was such a crazy mess all along the course. I know the pack I was in ran by the 3-mile marker, then the next thing we knew we were outside the park by the 5 mile marker, ran back in and were directed to the finish line... There were about 30 or so people that seemed to have that problem, according to the race director. Definitely an interesting event! It seemed that most of the major problems(late start due to check-in (I've never been to a race that required a check-in, especially with over 800 runners), unmarked course, not permitted to have an award ceremony) were on King's Island's end of the line and not the race company... Overall it was fun, but I would've been pretty upset if I had been training specifically for that event and ended up being directed off course...

[deardoja]

Yeah, it was very unorganized! I talked to the race director afterwards because I was one of the 10K runners that was directed way off course and he said to email runwildracing for a refund. Apparently, King's Island security wouldn't allow them in early enough to set out all the markers so that's why it was such a crazy mess all along the course. I know the pack I was in ran by the 3-mile marker, then the next thing we knew we were outside the park by the 5 mile marker, ran back in and were directed to the finish line... There were about 30 or so people that seemed to have that problem, according to the race director. Definitely an interesting event! It seemed that most of the major problems(late start due to check-in (I've never been to a race that required a check-in, especially with over 800 runners), unmarked course, not permitted to have an award ceremony) were on King's Island's end of the line and not the race company... Overall it was fun, but I would've been pretty upset if I had been training specifically for that event and ended up being directed off course...

Not to beat a dead horse, but this race was doomed from the start. I also was one of the lost runners early in the race.

1. Why require all the runners to "check in" before the start of the race? I can understand checking the park tickets for all the spectators but all the runners have bib numbers on. isn't that proof enough that they paid. Seriously, at what point during the race were they going to stop the runners to check the hand stamps?

2. The 5k and 10k courses overlapped - not a huge issue but why wasn't there a big frickin' sign at the turn off for the 10K route? The course was poorly marked. The 10K leader had the pace car to show him the way but the next 50 people had no idea where the course went. And at the point that the front runners missed the turn there were no 5K runners on the course yet. They hadn't even started the race. No one should have been allowed to run though the turn at that time.

3. The ran out of plain water on the course and only had gatorade available. They ran out of plain bottled water at the finish line. The recovery area was at least 1/2 mile from the finish line. This is a big deal for people who just ran 6 miles!

4. They couldn't hand out awards because the timing was all messed up because they used the same finish line for a 10K and 5K and a large number of lead runners was basically DQ'd because they were off course in both races.

Has anyone heard back from RunWildRacing about the refunds or an appology from Kings Island?

--Joe

[HTCO]

deardoja:

I agree with you on everything stated. I'm not on the website as a finisher and I'm a little ticked. No one told me I had to step on the mat in the beginning. When I ran XC at my school we had to do that once, but they started everyone's chip on there shoe at the sound of the gun, and at the end there was a mat that stopped it. My friend came in 5th, and I finished before him so I would have been 4th in my age group. I was just a little mad, but my mom is really mad and I know she is going to call and complain.

[Rocketgoof]

Yeah, the check-in was entirely pointless. The fact that it wasn't King's Island employees collecting the tickets also seemed messed up. The runners shouldn't have had to check in and the spectators should've had to scan their tickets at the front gate, just like any other normal park visitor. That would've made things move MUCH smoother since the people working the gate... Well, that's they're job, so they do it efficiently.

I'm not even sure where the turning off course took place for the front runners in the 10k... I think that at some point we were supposed to go through the waterpark, but missed the turn? Either that or we were directed onto the 5k course...

I don't know why they couldn't have had the awards ceremony in the recovery area? Or on one of the stages in the park. None of the shows at the park even start until several hours after they would've done it for the race anyway.

I kind of wish I could at least access what my first few splits were, but I'm not even showing up in the results since I was DQ'ed for going off course. There's almost a 10 minute gap between the first place finisher and the 10th place finisher, so you know there were a bunch of DQ's between there that would've entirely changed the results.

I haven't heard back from runwildracing yet either... Hopefully they're just backed up with emails. I sent mine out yesterday afternoon. I also sent KI one to their customer service email. Not sure if there's a better contact point for them or not.

[deardoja]

I'm not even sure where the turning off course took place for the front runners in the 10k... I think that at some point we were supposed to go through the waterpark, but missed the turn? Either that or we were directed onto the 5k course...

Not sure how familiar you are with the park, but (after consulting the map and the Race Director) the missed turn happened right after the second water station, just before crossing under The Racer, Flight of Fear and Firehawk. we should have taken a 90 degree left hand turn and there was no sign or course director there to tell us. Going straight thru put us on the 5K course.

I agree that the results are skewed because about 50 or more runners from the lead pack were DQ'd.

If I hear back from Kings Island or Run Wild Racing, I'll update again.

[mtl2013]

I do agree with all of you that it was messed up, and they should have done better. I'm not sure if it was like this the whole time, but the turn(as stated by deardoja) had a ton of the volounteers who were handing out water, yelling, "5k straight, 10k left!". soooo, yeah. Im not sure if they realized what happened and changed it or what. It probably did happen like that. All in all, it was a good experience though.

[davidc78]

I sent an e-mail on Sunday night about not getting a 10K medal along with a few other complaints. I got this reply this morning.

"Run Wild Racing found The Beast 10K medals after the event, which we assumed would be the case, so your medal will go out in the mail tomorrow (Tuesday) to the address you have given."

"Thank you for your participation, support and patience as it is greatly appreciated. We are very sorry that you did not receive this medal yesterday; we hope you had a great day at the park and hope to see you at future Run Wild Racing events."

I was farther back in the course so they were directing people at the 5K/10K split and I was able to follow the course with the help of other runners who already finished so I wasn't looking for any kind of refund. Just my medal so I am happy.

[sheikra_rocks]

Whatever.... i went for GOLD AND PLATINUM ERT but ended up waiting in a 10 minute line, because of all the runners.

Usually, i can get up to 4 to 6 rides in 30 minutes, this time I got 2... in 1 hour.

There is no point in having ERT for Gold and Platinum if they are going to hold such a cluster fudged event as I heard this race was.

Meanwhile.... Diamondback ate my friend.... she fell between the cars trying to get across to help someone having a seizure. She saved his life, then KI EMT's shoed her away. She had the guy calm and responsive, then they came over and the guy started to get violent. KI owes her for saving their customers life.

[mtl2013]

it was half an hour of ERT because it was sunday.

[sheikra_rocks]

^^No crap....

I was stating that usually in the 30 minutes of ERT, one could get up to 6 rides. In all, by 1030 (1 hour) I managed 2.

I still squeezed 10 rides in all day, which is good for being awake over 24 hours.... Sunday was technically Saturday for me still.

[mtl2013]

OOhh haha sorry. Misread. Wooops

[Rocketgoof]

Still haven't gotten a reply to my emails for being led off course during the 10k. Anybody else?

[deardoja]

Still haven't gotten a reply to my emails for being led off course during the 10k. Anybody else?

I haven't heard anything either. Still annoyed.

[dr_humor]

Late start, course not marked very well, warm water at the finish line and they ran out of medals so they will have to mail out later. Didn't want to wait in line to get into the post race party so we skipped it. I hope the race organizers learn from this to make future events better.

I'm a runner that used to live in Columbus where the race director is from. His races are known for being full of problems...for future reference, when you see Runwildracing attached to an event, run AWAY from it, not to it.

I doubt you ever hear a thing.

[Rocketgoof]

I think I'm going to start calling them every day until I get an answer.

[hausty1983]

It sounded like it would be a little bit unorganized to me because it was canceled last year and it seemed like there wasn't enough people to help besides that Diamondback being built which was fine to me because its awesome to ride! I skipped on running in this race. Hopefully everyone complains about it and it is better organized for 2010 then maybe I will run in it. I'm going to be running in the Susan G. Komen 5k downtown Sept 12th,Air Force Marathon Sept 19th,Columbus Marathon Oct 18th i'm trying to qualify to Boston and I only missed it by 2 minutes running in my first marathon time of 3 hrs and 12minutes in the Flying Pig and needed 3hrs 10 minutes. I thought the Flying Pig marathon was very well organized from anywhere from water stations which was cold&gatorade,fruit stations, the course splitting off to the half marathon,marathon.The support of strangers cheering you on was very awesome and it was a great feeling knowing that you had people cheering you on. I'm sure next year they will have more help,the course marked properly too hopefully I may check it out too...

[Rocketgoof]

Way to go on the Flying Pig time! The Pig this year was my first marathon as well and I finished with a 3:37:08, which was way faster than I was expecting (I was hoping to at least break 4 hours for my first one, especially on a hilly course). I'm sure you'll qualify for Boston on a flatter course. You might even be able to petition for qualification if you come close enough. I hear they'll accept a 3:11 or 3:12 or maybe even a bit slower if you ran it on a typically slow course or whathaveyou. I'll be running the Akron Marathon at the end of September, but I definitely don't feel up to doing another one too soon after that since it's been quite rough training this summer. Darn heat and humidity! I was considering the DisneyWorld Marathon in January, but I think I'll just hold off til the next Pig for now, since it is my first year of Marathoning. Don't wanna overdo it and get injured!

[HTCO]

I think I'm going to start calling them every day until I get an answer.

My mom has called about 4 times. And when she tries to leave a message on their voicemail it says, "Voicemail is full".

[dr_humor]

Hopefully everyone complains about it and it is better organized for 2010 then maybe I will run in it.

Don't count on it. He has been operating runs like this for nearly 5 years, and nothing has changed.

Congrats on your times as well (to all above). It is correct that Boston will SOMETIMES allow a petition for a time slightly over the qualifying time, but typically only if there are known circumstances (large crowd such as at Chicago, etc).

Columbus is probably the best marathon around to qualify for Boston at...very flat. The Flying Pig has a reputation for always being fantastically organized and run. They have some of the most enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers that come out year after year after year.

[deardoja]

I received an email from the RD from RWR:

I have gotten KI to agree to full refunds for the 21 participants that went off course, so you are a part of that group.

Please know how sorry I am for the issues that occurred on race day as that is not the normal SOP for RWR. We have put on over 300 events in 6 years with never an instance like we had last Sunday, but the only I can do at this point is to try and make it right as much as possible for this year and begin working on adjustments for the 2010 event.

We'll see how long it takes KI to refund the race fees. But at least the RD and KI have discussed what went wrong.

Good luck on the upcoming races. As for me, I'm doing the Susan G. 5K, the Reggae Run 5K, Nike Human Race 10K, Monumental Half Marathon in Indy and the 100th running of the Thanksgiving Day race in Cincinnati. That will round out my 2009 races. Next year I plan on giving the Pig another go. I ran it back in 2003.

[Rocketgoof]

Ahh, good to hear! I just emailed him again today... Hopefully I get a response back this time.

I've got the Akron RoadRunner Marathon coming up at the end of September, then I'll be doing the Run Like Hell... Then not sure after that. I'll probably look for another 10k and maybe a half marathon to do in the following months before beginning training for the Pig again.

[sideny]

Anyone else still having problems getting race related issues resolved? I just want to know what the status of the awards that were supposed to be mailed out last week. After not getting responses to emails to RWR, I called KI. They won't even discuss RUN KI, but instead direct all calls to RWR, who naturally won't answer the phone. I'm trying to give all parties involved the benefit of the doubt on this disaster, but when no one will step up to even discuss it afterwards it makes it difficult. I'm not even looking for a refund.

[hausty1983]

I was just curious if anyone knows about the Air Force Marathon at Wright Pat how the course is? Hills,flat,? I am running in it Sept 19th and really didn't know how the course was at all.

[Rocketgoof]

Has anybody gotten their refund yet? I was told that I would be recieving my refund, but no such thing has appeared on my credit card that I used yet.