Is it me or is it hard to get results from small-time races?

From what I understand, criticizing race administrators is in poor taste. These people volunteer their Saturday mornings to hand us ungrateful slobs water as we speed by, make sure the port-a-potties are not overflowing, and hand out funny-smelling t-shirts. They cheerfully take our bib cards after the race even though they are gooey with goddess-knows-what bodily fluids. These people are good salt-of-the-earth people. Let me get that out of the way because I don't want to sound ungrateful. But looking ahead to tomorrow's race got me thinking about the issue of publishing race results.

I have been in two races since starting my running program. Both of them were 5Ks and both were relatively small, on the order of a couple hundred racers or less. Both races were put on by small teams of enthusiastic volunteers, for whom, let me repeat, I am grateful. On the whole, both races were well administered on race day, but getting results afterward has been troublesome.

I should have expected slow results from the first race. We didn't even have bibs. However, I did expect to see results within a couple weeks since last year's results were posted on their website. As time ticked by, a week became two, which became a month, which became two. Eventually, the race website posted results, but only of the top finishers. I was not-surprisingly absent from the list since I came in not too far ahead of the walkers. [I suck.] After some message board posts on a local runners' club board and some emails, I finally got a spreadsheet of results emailed to me some three months after the race.

With the second race, I expected better. They had bibs, and the registration form even had a space for my email address so that race results could be sent to me quicker. A little over a month after the race, I still have not seen results. I have emailed a race official, and he assured me that he's looking into it. Another volunteer is supposed to be compiling the results.

Look, at the risk of beating a dead horse, let me repeat that I don't want to take anything away from the fine job these people did. I am very grateful all volunteers who put all races, everywhere. They do bang up jobs. But seeing the results is very important to me. Obviously I am not a fast enough runner to worry about how many seconds away from getting a trophy I was. I'm not really into racing for the competition against other runners. But it is useful and interesting to me to know that I placed in the 85th percentile in one race and 75th in the next. It's a concrete demonstration of my progress as a runner.

And if you say you are going to do something, do it. Unless it involves getting up at 5:00 to run this morning. [I suck.]

Has anyone else had experiences like this, getting your data back from small races? Or am I just on an unlucky streak?

Tags: racing, issues, running, jogging