Chevron Houston Marathon Allows Full Refunds
The Chevron Houston Marathon announced yesterday in an e-mail that they will allow full refunds through the end of the month. It either a.) took a lot of courage to make that decision or b.) the negative things being said about announcing the transfer policy "after" the sellout got to be a little too much.
Either way, it is a good move.
I had a wise man, who practices moderation in all things that he does, last year at the HARRA Summer Celebration advise me that the Houston Marathon Committee doesn't really like any criticism. If that's the case, then b.) must have been the reason.
This is what I wrote in my Tuesday, July 15 column in the Conroe Courier (which they posted online that week because it set off my Yahoo alert):
You can’t say that you weren’t warned.
The Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Houston Half Marathon sold out its January 18, 2009 event early last week, setting yet another record, despite organizers having increased the field by a thousand to 18,000 runners.
Montgomery County residents have helped fuel the growth as 971 plan to participate in one of the two events, including five members of the Dziak family from Pinehurst.
David and Elizabeth and their three children, Adam, 20, Stephanie, 16, and Monica, 14, will all run the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
Many runners, hoping not to get shut out after last year’s registration feeding frenzy that sent some athletes seeking sold out entries of eBay and craigslist at prices upwards of $250, bought an entry hoping that they would be able to sell it if they couldn’t run the event in January.
Marathon officials, however, changed the transfer policy after this year’s sellout was announced in hopes of deterring the practice.
Not only do runners transferring their bib numbers to another prospective participant must go through the event itself, they also bear part of the burden of the $40 transfer fee. Runners will receive a refund of $65 for the marathon and $40 for the half marathon.
A year ago, the runner purchasing the entry effectively paid the entire fee, which is one of the highest in the sport.
If runners had not signed up prior to January 31, when the prices were $85 for the marathon and $60 for the half marathon, the transfer fee in effect increases with the original buyer bearing even more of the cost to move the bib number to another runner.
While the Chevron Houston Marathon is to be credited for allowing runners to transfer their entry if circumstances allow for them not to run in one of its events, its panache for increasing the cost for the privilege to do so is rather unique itself.
Yes, I wordsmithed it a little bit at the end - I had to look up panache - to temper my disdain.
The Saturday before last, I asked somebody that was very passionately mad with the Marathon over their decision whether they were mad that 1.) walkers were no longer allow to start early or 2.) they weren't notified in January about the decision.
As I assumed, with this individual, it was the latter.
There is something that I wrote when Barbara, Karen and others were hotter than a pistol about the decision that I was going to wait a few days to post here; however, I can't get my hands on it.
It was basically that I agreed with the decision to get the early starters off the course (and for the CHM to not look the other way as they had in the past), but that Steven Karpas should have set down Denis Calabrese and Debbie Goldberg Mercer and said, "This is the way that it is going to be back then."
Either way, it is a good move.
I had a wise man, who practices moderation in all things that he does, last year at the HARRA Summer Celebration advise me that the Houston Marathon Committee doesn't really like any criticism. If that's the case, then b.) must have been the reason.
This is what I wrote in my Tuesday, July 15 column in the Conroe Courier (which they posted online that week because it set off my Yahoo alert):
You can’t say that you weren’t warned.
The Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Houston Half Marathon sold out its January 18, 2009 event early last week, setting yet another record, despite organizers having increased the field by a thousand to 18,000 runners.
Montgomery County residents have helped fuel the growth as 971 plan to participate in one of the two events, including five members of the Dziak family from Pinehurst.
David and Elizabeth and their three children, Adam, 20, Stephanie, 16, and Monica, 14, will all run the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
Many runners, hoping not to get shut out after last year’s registration feeding frenzy that sent some athletes seeking sold out entries of eBay and craigslist at prices upwards of $250, bought an entry hoping that they would be able to sell it if they couldn’t run the event in January.
Marathon officials, however, changed the transfer policy after this year’s sellout was announced in hopes of deterring the practice.
Not only do runners transferring their bib numbers to another prospective participant must go through the event itself, they also bear part of the burden of the $40 transfer fee. Runners will receive a refund of $65 for the marathon and $40 for the half marathon.
A year ago, the runner purchasing the entry effectively paid the entire fee, which is one of the highest in the sport.
If runners had not signed up prior to January 31, when the prices were $85 for the marathon and $60 for the half marathon, the transfer fee in effect increases with the original buyer bearing even more of the cost to move the bib number to another runner.
While the Chevron Houston Marathon is to be credited for allowing runners to transfer their entry if circumstances allow for them not to run in one of its events, its panache for increasing the cost for the privilege to do so is rather unique itself.
Yes, I wordsmithed it a little bit at the end - I had to look up panache - to temper my disdain.
The Saturday before last, I asked somebody that was very passionately mad with the Marathon over their decision whether they were mad that 1.) walkers were no longer allow to start early or 2.) they weren't notified in January about the decision.
As I assumed, with this individual, it was the latter.
There is something that I wrote when Barbara, Karen and others were hotter than a pistol about the decision that I was going to wait a few days to post here; however, I can't get my hands on it.
It was basically that I agreed with the decision to get the early starters off the course (and for the CHM to not look the other way as they had in the past), but that Steven Karpas should have set down Denis Calabrese and Debbie Goldberg Mercer and said, "This is the way that it is going to be back then."
posted by WalkSports.com | 7:10 AM
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