Posting race routes

[The Ramzev]

One downfall to racing barefoot is you have no control over the route you will run. For the most part I'm good with anything a road race can throw at me. We have a local 5k upcoming in a couple weeks so I asked if I could get a copy of the route, I'm curious because I've heard a couple streets mentioned and one of these streets has a draw bridge. Now, If you've ever seen a drawbridge you know that they are basically metal grates with points sticking up so they don't get slippery when wet.

This is fairly important info for me because if the drawbridge is on the route I'll probably have to pull out the Vibrams to keep from cutting up my feet. below is the response I got when I requested the route:

"Yes, I have the map, but we are not distributing that information, sorry. We feel it would be cheating to release it prior to the race."

Cheating? seeing a course before the race is cheating? Granted, I believe this is the first time these people have put on a race but how can seeing a route be cheating? They said it would be posted race day. I did reply with links to other local races where the course is posted.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

 

[stomper]

Some adventure races don't

Some adventure races don't release the exact course, because they want surprise to be part of the event. But I've never heard of this for a road race like a 5K. Usually they'll post a map so people know what to expect. Go figure..

 

[Barefoot TJ]

They just don't know what

They just don't know what they are doing and making it up as it goes. I was going to suggest you send out links to other races (big and small, well-known and not well-known) that provide maps, but you already thought of that. Great minds...