Mar 16, 2007 Doug Kurtis Column: Poblems race operations face By Doug Kurtis :: Views- 227
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Directing race operations is probably the most arduous task of any major marathon. It’s a position that requires the management of dozens of captains and hundreds of volunteers. It takes a person that can handle both physical and mental stress and someone with great crisis management skills.

The month before a marathon there are unforeseen problems that arise almost daily. Despite all the best designed plans, things happen; especially when directors are working with both inexperienced and volunteer staff. There is only so much time to train a large organization for an event where everything needs to come together in the span of less than twenty four hours.

Most of the best operations directors in the country can share stories of embarrassing moments in their careers.

Dave McGillivray, Boston’s Marathon’s race director can share reasons why they now institute a controlled start for the wheelers. Several years ago, on a wet rainy day several wheelchairs crashed into each other (all this was caught on national TV) as they took off too fast on the downhill start.

People still remember Rosie Ruiz’s fake victory in the 1980 Boston Marathon (pre McGillivray). I was standing next to Jacqueline Gareau (the real winner) when the BAA gave Ruiz the award. On the bright side, the elite women now enjoy starting ahead of the rest of the field and receive greater personal attention.

Alan Steinfeld, former race director of the New York City Marathon has also instituted new procedures to improve the experience for disability athletes due to crowd control issues. In 1994, TV viewers watched Mexican German Silva follow a lead motorcyclist in the wrong direction just a mile from the finish. Fortunately, he turned around and still won the race.

Watching runners go off course is a course director’s worse nightmare. There are a handful every year in Michigan. I still hear stories from many years ago when a spectator sent runners the wrong way at the Detroit Turkey Trot.

Jon Cross at the Honolulu Marathon can supply a whole list of mistakes and problems that happen every year. I was fortunate to work with him for several years. After joining his pre sweep patrol I began using a similar group at every one of my races and encourage other races to follow these procedures. I’ve averted problems at virtually all of the races I’ve helped.

Directors Mike Zajczenko from Around the Bay 30km in Hamilton Ontario has done a fabulous job for many years. But all it took was a lift bridge operator, that wasn’t paying attention, to ruin the race for thousands of participants. Fortunately the publicity that ensued brought hundreds of additional participants the following year.

Runners and sponsors might be a little more forgiving if they understood the complexities of race weekend operations and were encouraged to volunteer more and hire qualified personnel.

A different course: March has been a life-altering month for Doug Kurtis, 55, world record holder of sub-2:20 marathons. He has retired as a systems administrator for Ford Motor Co. and resigned as course operations director for the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon. He will continue to handle other races and write a weekly column for the Free Press. Kurtis won Detroit's marathon six straight years starting in 1987, became its race director for 1999 and 2000 and handled course operations thereafter. He was instrumental in adding the Ambassador Bridge and Tiger Stadium to the course as race director. He also created the Greenies Division and redesigned the course to add the half marathon.

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Doug Kurtis can be reached by clicking here!

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