First come first served shirts!????

[ShoppinShannon]

I just got this email from the Running Room, whom I registered with for the Mississauga Marathon, and well I was slightly annoyed, when they announced that it's a first come first served shirts!
I'm thinking to myself...Not again!!!
(For some who don't know, the last time I went to Mississauga, I got a man's medium, and some people got childrens shirts or shirts that just don't fit)  Quite dissappointing.  I really thought they had corrected alot of this from last time.
I will be really ticked if I don't get the shirt I want, considering this is my first full.
GRRRRRR
On the up side they are offering pace bands for free, don't know what they are but I'm getting one. lol


Guess we will have to get to Mississauga early so we can get our shirts.  Sigh, why do they do this?

[sweetsue]

Shannon;

I read the same thing and I thought what a strange way to do things.  I know I don't need another shirt, but now that they have put it that it is first come first served, I want one.  The power of suggestion.

Susan

[SNOWRUNNER]

Not very organized..
 but that`s how they do it..
  Apace band is a band that goes around your wrist. It will tell you at what km marker you should be at to ensure you run your race at the right speed.. IE: if you want to run a 3;30 marathon, it will have a chart and you can see by where you are if your on time or not... handy if you care, not if you dont.. 

[belleville runner]

when you think of the gargantuan task of organizing a marathon....can anyone come up with a way that organizers can guarantee every single runner gets the shirt size they want?  Of course not...it's pretty close to impossible.  I arrive late every single year at Ottawa and the selection is never great...but I completely understand....I don't expect them to ensure that 10,000 people get the very size they want...it's absolutely an impossible.  I believe that "the early bird gets the worm" and "first come first served" is the ONLY way they can handle such a job.  It's unfortunate when you work so hard and don't get a shirt that fits...I agree....but can anyone come up with a way for these organizers to avoid such a situation with the "late comers?"  When I did Mississauga in '06 we didn't pick up our race kits until the morning of the race and we didn't even get a shirt!!! Imagine paying that $ and coming home with nothing. HOWEVER, I e-mailed the organizers the very next day and they were extremely helpful.  They had a shirt in the mail for me within a week....and the best part??  I had a  choice of not only size but colour(four)!  The organizers  ordered more after the race so we ended up having a great choice.  I also know of a runner who exchanged her Mississauga shirt.  She called the next day and arranged to mail her shirt back in exchange for a larger size and they mailed it to her quite quickly.

[Jane]

I agree that it can be an overwhelming task to make sure everyone gets the size that THEY ASKED FOR.  But if they have no intention of trying to provide you with the size that you want, then what is the point of putting that size box on the registration form? 

We went to the Forest City run in London last year and when we went to get our shirts they did not allow you to switch your size.  They had the size on the registration list and you got what you asked for, whether you liked it or not.  I was very pleased with mine.  I was NOT pleased with the one that I got from Mississauga and I know there were a lot of people who weren't happy.  Not only that they had these poor little high school students left there to deal with the unhappy runners.  There was nobody around from the organizers to answer our questions about the t-shirts.

They didn't advertise that it was first come first served that year.  So if they are advertising that this year, does that mean that they are absolved from providing shirts after the race to people who DON'T get them?  For a lot of people - especially those doing their first of any particular distance - that t-shirt is important.  At least that was how I felt about my first half t-shirt.  The same thing with medals.  At each race there should be enough medals and t-shirts for all the participants.  If there isn't then don't be accepting registrations the day before the race!

The registration fees for races are not cheap.  I don't see why the people who live in the area and can get to the expo on Friday afternoon and register should get their pick of t-shirts where someone who is coming from several hundred miles away but who paid six months in advance is not going to get one!  First come, first served should be first registered, first served, if you ask me.  Just my opinion.

(And I don't expect to ever do the Mississauga event again)

[SNOWRUNNER]

Well.. no.. i disagree Belleville runner.
  The Bay has about 8,000 runners and no shirt issues to speak of. You pick up your kit and the man calls out to the back what shirt size you have ordered and that is what you get.Pretty simple.I do relize that the larger the event the more difficult the task, but like Jane said.. they make no attempt. What happens with the Boston or New York runs?.. i dunno..
 But i have read about the Peach Tree run in Atlanta. It`s a 10k race with 25,000 runners.. nobody complained about shirt issues.. Mississauga cant really say it cant be done.. they have never tried.
   

[Sandy]

It is definitly not an easy task but I do believe that one contributing factor is that people ask for a size then get the option of changing it when they go to pick it up.  Of course we are relying on our volunteers to be the keepers of the shirt sizes.  I have done Boston and Disney with over 20 000 runners and they have an absolute no switch policy until Saturday night just before they close the expo where you can go and switch if there are any left over.  Personally we stuff the shirts in each race kit bag (much smaller scale of course) with only 100's of people and not 1000's it makes this easier HOWEVER it eliminates all race day issues with shirt size and sympathetic volunteers.

There are no easy answers when dealing with so many runners and organizers do their best but I think if shirt size is such an issue as it is in Mississauga then they should switch to running hats or something else that is one size fits all.

[Jane]

Good idea, Sandy!  I agree, that it would help if it was a one size fits all hat but then you know there would still be unhappy people.      

But I think they should get their act together.  Their website says the first 7,500 REGISTERED will get shirts.  Not the first 7,500 to SHOW UP.  The cost to register for the Marathon by 31 Oct was $60, going to $70 by Feb 6 and $80 by Apr 2!  So if I paid $80 to register on March 31, six weeks before the event, I should be guaranteed to get a t-shirt!

If they are sending out an e-mail such as this four weeks before the event, then they are anticipating problems before they start!  So do damage control before hand, get a grip on the volunteers doing the hand outs and say NO SWITCHING SIZES!  This is what they did in London.  Some people weren't happy about it but that is life.  At least you get the size that you asked for.    The thing is - it sounds like they are saying you might not even get a shirt!

Shannon, can you tell us what the wording of the e-mail is?

[ShoppinShannon]

Hi Jane, here is a portion of the email.  It was quite long.
This is the part about the shirts:

"T-Shirt Pickup- SHIRT SIZES ARE FIRST COME FIRST SERVED!
Participants in the Canon Marathon, Reebok Half Marathon should look for signs saying technical shirts male and female to pick up their shirts.

 Participants in the Desjardins General Insurance 10K, ?The Hazel? 5K and The Mississauga News 2K Family Fun Run/Walk should look for signs saying cotton t-shirts (these shirts are unisex) to get their shirt. 

If your race envelope says NO SHIRT, you registered after the 7500 tech shirt (Canon Marathon, Reebok Half Marathon and Grand & Toy Corporate/Team Relay) and 3500 cotton shirt (Desjardins General Insurance 10K and 10K Student Relay, ?The Hazel? 5K and The Mississauga News 2K Family Fun Run/Walk) limit and, unfortunately, you will not receive a shir t.

So, what this tells me is, as long as I show up early to get my race kit, and hopefully get the right size of shirt........."

[Jane]

OK, so you will supposedly get a shirt.  Who knows what size though?  Apparently there was no place to fill in your size on registration -- I checked the pdf registration form and that seems to be the case.  So you need to get there early.   Unfortunately, they are probably open on Friday for kit pick up too so if you get there even by noon on Sat you may be in the same predicament as us -- and have to settle for a stupid sized t-shirt.

Why don't they smarten up - specify sizes and stick to that giving them out???

[ShoppinShannon]

Actually I registered with the Running Room, and they did ask me what size.
I'm guessing this is the Running Room's standard form because they keep a file on you.
Sigh....
Maybe I will be lucky and get my size, if not, I can always send a "sweet as pie" letter and hopefully they can send me a shirt.
Afterall, it's my very first marathon, I want everything to be perfect.  That's not too much to ask right?

[SNOWRUNNER]

I wamt a hat..

[belleville runner]

  Boy, I sure hear a lot of complaints about that run.  I ran it once, and I sure don't plan on running it again either...even though they so graciously took care of my shirt issue!  I like the idea of first REGISTERED first served however....that seems fair.   Here's another idea, put the measurements of the t-shirts on the registration forms.  I mean, how much trouble would it be to put, in brackets, beside each size:  MED (armpit to armpit 20", length in back 22")  Then all you'd have to do is take a shirt that you like the fit of, measure it and use that info to pick your size.  Not only would this make things better for the registrants, imagine how much easier it would be for the organizers!  No complaints, no returns, no requests to switch sizes.   Every single shirt would fit.  Unless someone ate too many doughnuts during training!

[Cathy]

That sounds to me like CUSTOM orders, going by everyone's measurements and trying to fit that to the shirts they ordered.  I think hats or socks would certainly simplify matters, although socks does give more chance to mess up with sizes than hats.

[SNOWRUNNER]

Yeah.. i`ve heard a lot of complaints about this race also.. I`ve never ran it before, so i guess i will see for myself this year.
 I really dont rely on them for much . Transportation back to the start is about it. If the shirt is wrong i  really dont care.
 It will go into the " quilt pile " . I like the tech shirts, but i have plenty. I bring my own sustinance.. IE: drink, run food, salt tabs.. etc etc.. so some of the things that go wrong dont matter anyway, i wont know the difference.. im just going there to have a nice sundays long run..