Even though it’s called a track championships, the masters nationals at Hawaii also featured non-track-and-field events, including racewalks and an 8-kilometer (almost 5-mile) cross country race Sunday with 150 entrants. For at least one experienced runner, though, the event was a cruel joke. The runner sent me a list of particulars privately, and I asked permission to reproduce them. The runner then added an addendum (involving a reply from the registration site active.com), and I added that to the end of the list.

The runner writes:
1) Check-in was not at the starting line. From my experience, that is a bad idea. (If) you tell people that the start is at the bandshell at Kapiolani Park, they go there looking to register.
2) Registration was in the dark (race started 6 a.m.) a block away. No streetlamp. Just one flashlight used by the registrar.
3.a) I registered using www.active.com, where I was sent from the USATF website. When I got to the park, they did not have me listed as USATF. My printout of my receipt (thank God I brought it) had my USATF number listed.
3.b) There was a sign at the stadium for the 8K check-in. The ladies there didn’t know what it was for. But if there had been a prior check-in, I could have noted the discrepancy. Could have gotten my T-shirt in advance, etc.
4) No course maps. Like how many people in the race were locals and knew the course? No maps at the race, no maps on the web. No maps at the stadium at the theoretical early check-in.
5) The USATF website (or maybe the active.com website) was vague and had a typo on the description. There is no “kahaha.” There IS “kahala.”
6.a) Starting line had no starting line or banner.
6.b) When the director at the start says make sure your numbers are on the front and back, several said “what back numbers?” There was no printed info about getting an age number for your back. And since the registration desk wasn’t at the start, who had time to go back and get one?
7) This was my very first running race using a computer chip that strapped around your ankle instead of threading onto the top of your shoe. (Since it was) the first time, did I have it too tight, cutting off circulation, or too loose so it would jostle? No time to really get a feel for it.
8) This was the first road race I’ve ever run in my 35 years of competing where the race director says at the starting line a suggestion that runners go up on the sidewalk. No, not if you are slow and the course is closing. For anybody. So much for that course certification. And sure enough, a person who the local Star-Bulletin says is “setting an example for (her) peers” was up on the sidewalk on the inside of a turn.
9) Oh, yeah — this course wasn’t certified. The muckymucks at USATF won’t say if certification is a requirement of a “national championship.” But the database on their site doesn’t have a certified 8k in Honolulu. Last course in Honolulu to be certified was 2002, by the way. Wonder if this will be certified postumously. And I use that term deliberately. The way I read Rule 16.8 is that “the courses of all national, regional and assocation road championships must meet certification requirements stated in Operating Regulation 6.” I’m not
staying up any later to look up OR6.
10) I finish and ask for my T-shirt. Told that I didn’t register in time. I find Ron (Pate). Ron explains to the T-shirt person (who won’t believe the printed receipt that I again dig out) that I actually should have one. If I hadn’t figured out the right person to whine to, I’d be without my $30 amenity.
11) 8k distance (almost five miles of heat and hills) with only one water station. They DID have cold water and cold Gatorade).
12) The awards ceremony was five hours later at a location miles away. That certainly put a kink in my tour plans for the day. But I eventually make a trip to the stadium. No posted results. No list of award winners. I ask everyone there for info. They say, “Ask Ron Pate.” I shadow him around as he shmoozes with the Fleet Feet team. He says “I don’t have the results on me. Check the website.”
13) I’ve been to the Hawaii Association website. No results. No results at USATF website either. No results at the T&F championship Website. And of course active.com doesn’t have them either. At one time, the USATF site had the winners. But what about the rest of us? And it seems that list has disappeared. (Editor’s note: USATF posted the results on a separate page. But the meet site currently doesn’t link to cross country results.)
14) I’ve heard that there were monetary prizes. If so, I’d love to see the financial statements as required in “elite sanction addendum” section 5 requirements when one puts on a national event.
In conclusion, the USATF website notes that “this is the first National Championship long distance race ever held in Hawaii.” Maybe one was too many.
Me again. Here’s the note from an active.com rep to the runner:
I am sorry you had a bad experience. During the registration process all the information requested is stored in data tables on our database. Our account managers walk the Event Directors through the online registration process and how to download their data. Unfortunately, we are not there on the day of the race so we cannot ensure they do everything 100% correctly. I just looked up your registration and all the appropriate information is listed, which leads me to believe it was the event’s error and not ours. I hope this makes sense.
And this came over the transom from another meet observer:
Ask Kathy Ward (W50) about the 5000; she was told to take an extra lap after finishing, but she was eventually restored to fourth (her rightful place). How she was given a time I do not know; I think it was a guess as it doesn’t seem right.
In M55 (racewalk), Norm Frable did two extra laps after finishing. Next day the joke was that he had done the 6000 RW (actually it was a 5800). He was eventually restored to fourth, but how he got a time I do not know.
Lap counting was an absolute joke in distance races. On the other hand, I understand that the field event officials were VERY good, the chief starter was vet of Olympic Trials 2004.