To add to Dave's comment regarding portajohns. If the race is postponed in the event of snow, we still pay the rental fee for the portajohns and then must rent them again in February, or whenever the race is rescheduled to. It can get costly and I am in favor in keeping the entry fee at $12.00. As far as waiting in line to use the facilities, I've never been at a race where that didn't happen!

Second comment: "...not really a fan of long speeches by people they don't know getting awards for reasons they don't understand"
Please read the following: "Annually the Mill Cities Alliance recognizes a citizen of the local running community with the Phil Quinn Award for making extraordinary contributions to our sport....their dedication, support, commitment and passion for running have improved the sport immensely."
I hope this explains the award and enlightens the person who made this comment.

Edited by author 12-11-2007 10:02 AM
John Gorvin passed along the following input to this year's relay from SRR. Thanks for the effort John. I've added my comments at the end.

O’Donnell bridge

It all went well early on; the team did a great job
stopping traffic so bulk of the field could cross
without breaking stride.

Issues arose approximately 9:55am or so when timing of
runners and lights got very out of synch and traffic
backed up much too far on Mammoth Rd (coming towards
the bridge). Many drivers grew impatient and starting
running lights randomly.

Fearing (a) an accident and (b) complaints the race
was holding up traffic, we had to change strategies,
and let traffic flow normally with lights and instead
stopped the runners until way was clear.

Traffic back up quickly abated, and the runners did
not seem to mind. Hopefully no drivers will call
town/police to complain.

compliments

great race! One of my top three races of the year!

Big thanks for marking the miles on the roads this year - that was great to have some sense of where we were on the course.

It was great to have a porto-o-potty at the transition!

bathrooms

More porto-potties at the interchanges, please. There was only one at the 3rd interchange.

more bathroom options. There was a really long line at the 3 leg
and none at start of final leg

One suggestion based a long line with lots of seemingly non-runners in it - maybe gently suggest "those running leg 4 get priority." I had to pee in the non-existent woods; I didn't have the guts to ask to cut.

The one thing that would make it even better would be additional portajohns. Some of the female members of my team found the long lines for a single facility less than perfect. I know it would cost a bit more, but runners would appreciate at least two portajohns at each exchange.

A porta-potty at the first Exchange point (there are lots of runners both waiting around and finishing at the interchange, and there really isn’t private or secluded space to empty out)

Exchange zones

Some general directives to clubs next year about the handoff process. The exchanges were often clumsy and some exchangers were oblivious to the fact that they were blocking the path of other runners right behind them. Perhaps some minimum width for the exchange area might help.

Directions

My only suggestion for the future would be improved directions on the site to get to each of the exchange points - two people on my team got lost trying to drive from home directly to various exchange zones.

Finish

water when you come in after final leg. It took me forever to
figure out where the water was and then how to get up to the second
floor to get it

Food

I really liked the set up with soup downstairs and the rest of the food upstairs. Kept the line a lot shorter!

The way they spread out the food to include the downstairs really helped minimize the lines this year

Batons

If there’s any way to replace the traditional baton with something similar to RTB, that would be great. I did see a number of people who found various ways to carry the baton other than in their hands but unfortunately, I wasn’t as creative. And I do hate running with anything in my hands.

Awards

Seemed to be a much longer wait until the start of the awards ceremony this year. People are really not a fan of long speeches by people they don't know, getting awards for reasons they don't understand.

----------------------------------------------------------- -------------
Here are my comments

O'Donnell Bridge -- We have two very tough intersectons on the route: the O'Donnell Bridge and the University Bridge. A special thanks goes to SRR and NHAA for handling this tough assignment.

Bathrooms -- We did add a porta-john to the third exchange this year. However Glenn Stewart from GLRR had to spend a lot of time securing permits from the state to make this happen. Hopefully this will not be such a production next year since we now have a procedure to follow. There is also a Dunkin Donuts directly across the street from exchange three that appreciates the business the relay brings. We could probably add a porta-john to exchange four since we have permission to use Griffin Brook Park. However keep in mind that there are folks who do not want porta-johns on their property. I have no idea if this is possible for exchange zone one. This is something the committee will need to address. Also keep in mind that porta-johns are expensive. The committee goes through great pains to keep the cost of this event at $12/person. Cost is a factor particularly when you consider that almost every club picks-up the fee for their teams. Raising the fee to cover additional porta-johns will put a strain on your club's budget.

Exchange zones -- These are well marked and we have no plans to police them. It is up to the clubs to educate there teams on hand-off protocol. I guess it is true that common sense is not all the common.

Directions -- Good points and this will be improve on the website for next year.

Finish -- Good points here. The water should be distributed to each food station to make it easier to find.

Batons -- A relay without batons is like Aunt Jemima pancakes without the syrup or the spring without the fall.

Awards -- The last team finished at 12:09 and the awards started at 12:45. This is a very complex race to score and it takes a few minutes to tabultate and validate the team scores. My suggestion to the committee is to start the awards at 1:00 PM next year. This is an end-of-year social and rushing things defeats that purpose also rushing the results increases the chance for mistakes. BTW the results were done earlier than 12:45, but a team disqualified itself a few minutes before we were going to start the ceremony causing everything to be retabulated. As for the speeches being too long -- how would anyone even have noticed since most people in the audience never shut-up during the entire ceremony!

Hi Dave C. and Dave K,

I just wanted to followup and say thank you from TriFury/MVS for making the changes this year related to number pickup and the final leg adjusted final starting time. I really appreciate that you listened to feedback and took action to improve things. It made for a much better experience for our teams.

Dave

Ed, click on "2007 Team Entries" on the home page of the Mill Cities Relay website (www.millcities.com). This will bring you to the list of entered teams.

I don't see the entries on the website--where are they???

Dave Camire,

Thanks for setting up number/pin/batoon/giveawy pickup this way. I like it.

Dave Tyler (TriFury/MVS)

NUMBER, BATON AND GIFT PICKUP
This year we are handling number, baton and MCR gift pickup differently then in the past. Many teams (see 2007 entries list) have already picked up their bib numbers, but have still not received their batons or MCR gift. There will be two more opportunities to pickup bib numbers, batons and MCR gifts. The first will be Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Whirlaway Sport Center in Methuen and the other is on race morning. Only authorized team captains can pickup their club packages – NO EXCEPTIONS!!!! I’ll be printing a complete list of these folks on the forum tomorrow. I have a partial list below. It is the responsibility of the reps to distribute the numbers, batons and gifts to their teams. On race morning we will have a sign for each club posted in the Gym. You can meet your team captains at these locations to pickup your team’s stuff.

Somerville
John Gorvin
Sara Radkiewicz
Larissa Bifano

Andover Striders
Dave LaBrode
Cat Cargill

Gate City Striders
Mike Wade
Michael Amarello

Merrimack Valley
Fernando Braz
Marshall McCloskey
Molly Taber

Tri Fury
Dave Tyler

Greater Lowell
Chip Mann
Glenn Stewart

Winner’s Circle
Vicki Miller
Mike McCormick

Whirlaway
Dave Kazanjian

Mystic Runners
Dean Malerba

Shamrock
Bob Croke
Marsha Hogan

Melrose
Mike Quigley

Squanicook
Howard Hersey

Greater Derry
Rosa Tejada

Athletic Alliance
Ed Mahoney

GAC
Jim Gilford

Northshore
Gary Freedman

North Medford
Jeff Gould
Zack Tibbets

Sandown
Jim Gulla

Tonight's Mill Cities meeting will be held at Gil's Grocery located at 30 Main Street, Topsfield, MA. The meeting is in the basement of the store, so don't be alarmed when you get there and the store is closed. Just come downstairs.

Could someone please post the time and location of MCR Race Committee meeting tonight. Thanks.

Howard Hersey
SQRR

Edited by author 11-26-2007 10:45 AM
Hi All,
I just posted the team entries for 2007 on the website. I have a half dozen or so additions that I will make tonight and the list will be final. We are at 175 teams and expect to top off slightly over 180. This is by far the most teams we have ever had participating in the relay. Our previous high was 166 teams. This is great and we are all excited about having a great relay. However the added number of teams is going to really put our organization to the test so we need everyone to cooperate by familiarizing themselves with the rules and following them. We all need to be rowing in the same direction this year.
Dave Camire
Commissioner

Thanks Tom. That part is unambiguous and I should not have needed to ask my dumb question.

Sigh.... Another lineup change to make. Grrrr...

From the web site:

"To count as a scoring team for the MCR trophy you must have a minimum of five team members and three for Sunshine teams. Team members cannot be USATF registered with another club, however, USATF registration is not required. Runners cannot score for two teams. If a runner runs for two scoring teams, only the time for the faster of the two team will count towards the club championship."

Thanks Dave,

I did read that. Just wanted to be sure that meant 5 different runners.

Is the other thing I asked about in post #83 permitted?

Hi Joe,

The answer is no. This is from the rules posted on the website, "you must have a minimum of five team members and three for Sunshine teams."
Dave

< replied-to message removed by QT >

Edited by author 11-21-2007 06:29 PM
Another technical question: Is a runner allowed to run 2 legs for the same team? The rules don't specifically seem to allow or forbid it one way or another. I seem to recall this is not valid but I can't verify it.

As you might be able to guess, I'm having a devil of a time completing a couple of teams

Edit: Looking at post #67 by Chip Mann in this thread which says this:

"I'm glad to see that one of my club's teams was DQ'd for a runner doing legs 1 and 5"

...I guess means that it's not valid. It would be nice if the Race Info page could be updated to specifically state this for dense people like me.

Edited by author 11-21-2007 06:10 PM
Technical question: Is a runner permitted to run two separate legs for two separate teams for the same club?