Doughman wrap-up

It has been nearly three weeks since the Doughman relay quadrathon in Durham and I'm finally getting my thoughts together regarding the event and my team Foodicidal Tendencies results. The unofficial result was we KICKED ASS and finished 14th out of 67 teams that made it to race with a time of 1:40:07.....the official result is that we were disqualified after the race for a "Traffic Violation." 

My team was made up of myself and three other good friends plus Michelle as our team driver. Our team was two males and two females who split the running, biking, paddling and eating events around Durham and Duke north campus with a finish in the Historic Durham Athletic Park - a place I love and grew up in attending ball games as a kid.  

The race started with racer 1 eating a yogurt parfait, riding close to 10 miles to a BBQ restaurant where he ate a serving of NC chopped BBQ, hushpuppies and a fried chicken leg than riding another mile and passing off to racer 2. Racer 2 ran to a local bar, ate half a veggie pizza and than ran close to 2 miles to a Duke pool where I waited. Racer 2 jumped into the pool and paddled in a donut to the other side to tag racer 3. Racer 3 which was me, ran about 1 mile to another local bar (where the Doughman race was founded) and ate a goat meat Italian sausage sandwich topped with marinara sauce, onions and peppers than running almost 2 more miles to meet racer 4. I tagged racer 4 who ate a Mexican-style cheese, egg and green sauce casserole and than had to run nearly 2 miles to the ballpark where us other 3 racers were waiting. We had a slight miscue at this point as our driver forgot to pick up racer 2 at the pool so we had to wait at the ballpark for racer 2 to be brought to the finish before the 4 of us could eat the desserts and run the final stage together around the ballpark to the finish line. Even with the miscue, we only lost a couple minutes and maybe a couple places in the finish. Otherwise, we were within range of a top 10 finish. 

 

 

 

The race was a lot of fun and preparing for it with my team of awesome athletes was even more fun. We had a fantastic time meeting other race participants and seeing friends who also competed on some of those teams. I even met a celebrity contestant while waiting at the pool, Rebecca from last season's The Biggest Loser was competing in the Doughman with her boyfriend and two other TBL contestants. After chatting with her, I also saw her team cross the finish later that morning and congratulated her on their finish. 

The main reason for the Doughman in theory is to raise money for Durham charities. This year, the selected charities were two that benefited kids - one that was a program to teach kids about healthy eating and helps them to grow their own food and one that allows them to take part in drama and acting. I thought these were outstanding benefits and it was really nice to see and hear some of the kids in these organizations that were at the finish line festival. The raising of money for these charities was optional though as the $100 fee each team paid to register and the $20 ticket fee anyone paid to attend the post-race "banquet" were also going to these charities I believe. My team chose, perhaps it was my decision - to skip the fund-raising and focus on the actual race. After all, we are racers. I've had my share of fund-raising recently having raised over $2000 myself for a cancer research foundation last fall for my running of the Marine Corps Marathon. I didn't feel inspired to do it again but I respect every team that did. 

My first complaint of the many to follow below about the event was that the race disorganizers decided after registration to annouce that those teams who raised a minimum of $200 would be given an unspecified time bonus at the start. Essentially, this allowed any team to buy-in to their finish time. I am not sure what the actual time bonus was but I have heard it was only 1 minute. My irritation was at the start, I heard someone shout that "if you want to write a check to get your time bonus, do it now." As an experienced racer and charity runner, I was a bit unamused at this unfair advantage given to teams. I have never heard of giving a time bonus to anyone regardless of their charitable donation size.

I've held off on blogging about the race until now as I have tried to contact the race disorganizers to understand the reason for our disqualification. Along with our team, six other teams were also DQ for the same reason, for exceeding the time limit or because a team member got sick. I have a pretty good idea on the actual violation that Foodicidal Tendencies committed and I was probably that specific offender; however the details of our supposed violation are a result of the terrible organization, course work and officiating by the Doughman race itself. 

To be specific, I believe I ran across a city street near an intersection while the crossing light was red. I did this at the direction of the corner worker near the finish of my run who advised me it was safe to cross. While on my 2+ mile run, I passed one other corner worker who also told me to cross the street as it was safe to do so. I was also not directly at an intersection with a crossing light at that time. I believed at both times that I was within the rules of the city and the race. Some might say, I still technically jaywalked however this draws into question the entire race course and the lack of monitoring or enforcement for ALL participants. The reason I suspect I was the offender on my team was that following my run, I overheard one female judge tell another that they would have to DQ all the teams that she just saw cross the street which included me. However, I stood there and watched more runners do the same within minutes of my finish and only one other team in our time range was DQ. Perhaps we should have raised or given some money to the charities... 

 

During my run, I watched other runners ahead of me run blatantly and directly through red lights, down the wrong side of the road, also jaywalk (or jayrun) and one who ran directly through the middle of a five way intersection. The cyclist on my team saw other cyclists ride through red lights and some that even cut in front of a moving ambulance with its emergency lights flashing. Again, perhaps we should have raised or given some money to the charities...

My point is that the race disorganizers were so ill-prepared to conduct a safe, fair and organized event - they have NO right to DQ my team or the others for a supposed violation reported by one of their few observers when that supposed violation was a result of direction by their course volunteer. 

To highlight the amateurish operation that the Doughman is, I'll also mention that nearly none of the entire bike or run course was marked or staffed to allow riders and runners to safely navigate the city streets of Durham. The race disorganizers said they marked the course the night before with 'dots of flour' - a method only known to hashers - which are not a group typically concerned with safety or obeying laws. The use of flour dots might have been acceptable had the forecast for the evening not been for lots of rain that would obviously wash away their flour dots. The only signage I saw on course was two 8x10 printer sheets that said Doughman with an arrow that were actually laying in the street and pointing the wrong direction of the course. There were no spray painted arrows, no course workers to point you in the right direction, no police officers at major intersections, no signs mounted on posts or trees, no yellow tape or cones - nothing at all to prove that the disorganizers truly wanted to or were capable of putting on an official and safe event. Therefore, I find no reason at all for why they believe they have the right to DQ a few teams for a violation that they caused and that most every team committed in some way. 

I understand that there were documented rules before the race however given the amateur and unsafe operation of the event, I could only assume the rules were to protect the race disorganizers from liability if a participant were to be injured on their unmarked, unmonitored and unsafe course. Sending a bunch of competitive racers out on a course and allowing them to decide when and if they would break or follow the rules is truly unheard of in my experiences. 

The one positive thing I can say about the race operation was the amazing job the Durham restaurants and bars did at providing food and the space to the race participants at each stage. Each of the 5 eating stops located at restaurants was awesome and for the most part, the food was actually very good. I know I truly enjoyed the goat meat sandwich that I destroyed in less than 90 seconds. If there was a ray of shining light in our DQ, it was that my team had a fantastic time running the race and enjoying the food during and the beer after the race near Durham's Duke campus. 

The Doughman day did not end here though as the much publicized and sold out "banquet" was held that evening at the Durham Athletic Park. I'll leave out all the details but essentially, only one of the 6-7 participating restaurants actually brought enough food to feed the number of paid guests that attended. Michelle, her parents and a friend of mine from out of town attended and while the beer selection was pretty good including 5-6 draft beers from 4-5 local breweries, the food was minimal at best. Some of my guests really didn't even get a whole plate of food as the slim pickings were gone within the first 30 minutes of the "banquet" that was billed as lasting from 6:30 - 11. The banquet was fun but another disorganized way to end the day. 

All in all, I had a blast preparing for and running the Doughman, however I will not participate in it again nor do I recommend it to any serious competitor. My discussion or publicity of the race ends with this blog post and I can only hope that if it continues into year 4, the race organizers take some of my comments to heart and find a way to put on a more legitimate and fair event that truly cares about the safety of its competitors and doesn't just haphazardly enforce the make-shift rules when they feel like it.