Kudos to the Marathon

Big kudos to the Houston Marathon & Half Marathon, which announced yesterday that they will allow full refunds on entries through the end of this month.
I blogged earlier about the change in transfer policy that was announced immediately after the race sold out in July. The story was that bib transfers would be allowed (for instance, if you bought your bib but got injured and could not run, or your plans changed, or you just didn’t train enough), but that those who turned in their bib would only get a partial refund. I found it sketchy that the race waited until they had sold out to announce the change of policy.
The second issue arose a few weeks ago, and I never actually blogged about it. This was a decision by the race to begin strictly enforcing the 6-hour time limit for the marathon (and the 4-hour limit for the half marathon as well, I think). While the time limit has always been in place, in previous years the organization had looked the other way and tacitly allowed walkers to start the race as early at 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. (the official start is at 7:00) in order to make it to the finish line by 1:00 p.m. This year’s decision to strictly enforce the time limit didn’t bother me much — time limits are a part of nearly every major event, and allowing large groups of walkers to begin the race early clogs the course for the elite runners and associated race traffic that must then try to get past them once the race is officially underway. But again, it was sketchy for the marathon to have waited until after the event sold out to announce their renewed interest in adhering to the 6-hour time limit. Many people certainly bought bibs intending to start the race early, as they’ve done in years past.
So there was a lot of hubbub about these two announcements about policy that came after the race sold out, and that marked a significant departure from policies of years past.
Yesterday, the marathon announced that they will offer full refunds through the end of August. I think it’s a great move on their part, and is fair to all involved. If you can no longer run the race, if you’re hurt, if you just changed your mind, if you had your own sketchy plans of selling your bib for a profit like last year, and if you know you need more than 6 hours to finish 26.2 miles — well, all of those people can now turn their bibs in and not be out any money.
Great move by the marathon organizing committee. Can’t wait to get out there and run the half in January!