Or at least it appears that way. The listing for the April More Magazine-sponsored race is shown as the More Half Marathon. No full.
Loyal readers will recall my critical analysis (and I do mean critical) of that event’s rapid growth of the half, coupled with the equally swift demise of the full. No mystery there. The Westchester Marathon followed the same, sad trajectory.
Oh, well. Another one bites the dust.
In other NYRR news, I can’t find any evidence of the Bronx Half, which usually happens in early February. The NYC Half Marathon ($79 plus $5 processing fee — are you shitting me? No. Just, no.) has been moved to March. The 15K Colon Cancer Challenge is also notably absent. I wonder if moving the NYC half from the brain-frying height of summer to spring has buggered up the rest of the race calendar now.
I’m in a criminally bad mood these days when it comes to anything running related. Evidence of race calendar monkeying is not helping.
Filed under: racing | Tagged: more marathon, nyrr |
Races Like a Girl 
Spot on about More, sad, but can you blame them? Only 140 marathon finishers in 2008 vs over 6000 in the half.
Part of the NYRR problem is that they have not yet released the full 2010 schedule. While I’m also not happy about that, I will give them the benefit of the doubt that the reason is so they can be sure to lock in the dates before they publish, so that the schedule doesn’t have to change mid-year, which they’ve done several times in the past, and is even more annoying. Colon Cancer Challenge may very well be in early March, as it has been, but we don’t know yet.
You are not the first person I’ve heard complain about the Bronx Half. Truth be told, the Bronx Half historically was held in July. It has only been the last 3 years it was in Feb. Just like Brooklyn used to be March and Manhattan in August – all those changed in the last 3-4 years. As you said, I’m sure it has a lot to do with NYC Half, and may well be why it is moving again. And about the NYC Half, as I’ve told anyone that will listen to me, NYRR DOES NOT NEED YOU (or me, or any one of us individuals, etc) TO RUN THE NYC HALF as they already have a freaking waiting list for it. Yes, I don’t like that either, but it is pure supply and demand, and NYRR is still giving us plenty of 13.1 options to choose from on the calendar.
As for myself, I’m less interested in NYRR races because they are simply too crowded, but, for better or worse, there are a lot more people running races now then there were in years past.
I know you are just venting here, but let’s rail on NYRR when they don’t have enough water on the course, or screw up the transportation to the start of the Queens Half, or any number of other weird things they do. Let’s celebrate though, the race schedule they put together each year and the number of opportunities they give us, at all distances, to get out in the park and race! I can appreciate how hard it must be to navigate city agencies and coordinate with all the other organizations running events in the parks or on the streets, to make it work for us!
Whew, I’ve had a bad day and also love the chance to vent. Feel much better now, thanks! Think I’m gonna go for a run…
I’m glad they killed the full More race rather than letting it continue to languish, if those were the two choices. But, as my original post posits, I feel they had another option.
And I’m not railing on NYRR — really. Except for the NYC Half, but just because I’m not willing to pay those prices doesn’t mean they’re not what the market will bear; they obviously are. When and if I leave NY, I will miss the reliability and ubiquity of their races, even with the occasional screwups.
I’m just noting that long-standing races are missing from the calendar where in previous years they would have been scheduled by now. Which makes scheduling things difficult — and NYRR runs the risk of losing people to other races that are on the calendar. But, as you point out, there’s never a shortage of warm bodies waiting to sign up.
When I really rag on NYRR, you’ll know it.
I saw that the More Marathon was gone and immediately thought of your post.
The NYC Half has always seemed like an “event” more than a race, as evidenced by the price tag. The schedule that’s up seems a tad sparse. Here’s hoping the Bronx get put in.
Asbury Park Half in April. I’m doing it again. Kinda boring and not very populated but it’s cheap as shit and the whole race is on the boardwalk. Nice.
I’ve been wondering what happened to Bronx too. I ran a real shitty race there last year and would love to get revenge against the course.
Sad about the More Marathon, that seemed like a really good event. But, I think you’re right that it’s better that they kill it off than if they were to leave it to slowly wither away.
[…] Updated: It looks like the More full is no more. […]