Measure for Measure: Manchester Marathon Manqué

The Glamis castle porter in Shakespeare’s Macbeth says that drink provokes desire, but takes away the performance. So it is with the Greater Manchester Marathon. The organisers – ironically called Xtra Mile Events – spent much time and effort encouraging me and others to run, and never missed an opportunity to solicit votes for their race in the Runners World awards, but now they have very effectively taken away my performance, and those of thousands of other runners.

I have to declare an interest here. I was born in Leeds, and am a proud Yorkshireman. I view all things Lancastrian and Mancunian with deep suspicion. I can pretty much do a roll call of those footballers who have transferred across the Pennines – Strachan, Ferdinand, McQueen, et al. When I ran the Manchester ‘Marathon’ last year, the worst aspect of it was having to pay £10 to Manchester United to park my car. Of course, if I had known then what I know now, I would have saved my white rose disdain for bigger issues.

The facts, in case you have missed them, are that from 2013-2015, the Manchester ‘Marathon’ was not actually a marathon at all, the course being 380 metres shorter than the advertised, regulation distance. So 24,000 runners, including myself, who thought they had run a marathon, had in fact run slightly less than 26 miles. For many of those runners, this will have been their only ‘marathon’, run for charity perhaps, or as a singular personal achievement. For others, as it was for me, it may well have been the occasion of their ‘marathon’ personal best; Manchester has always been advertised as a fast, flat, pb-friendly course (and now we know why!). I suspect many Manchester finishers, like me, feel rather betrayed.

If you’re organising one of the country’s biggest city marathons, an award-winning marathon, one would imagine that ensuring it actually is a marathon would be pretty high on the list of priorities.

Celebrity starter booked? Check.

Snazzy logo designed? Check.

Promotional video online? Check.

Course actually 26.2 miles long? Oh…

The race booklet I received last year says this:

Course measurement

The ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon in Trafford has been officially measured as accurate by the Association of UK Course Measurers.

The Association of UK Course Measurers may want to have a look at their mission statement. You give someone one job to do…

So who is to blame? Greater Manchester Marathon Limited? Xtra Mile? The Association of UK Course Measurers. ASICS? All of them? It seems to me inconceivable that nobody associated with the organisers during three years actually walked or jogged round the course and thought hey, either my Garmin is 1% out, or that course is short, maybe we should check it again. How were the mile markers located, particularly the 26 mile marker, given that the course was shorter than 26 miles?

My passing knowledge of consumer law suggests that goods and services have to be as described, and fit for purpose. For three years, the Manchester ‘marathon’ was neither. What recourse do runners have, if you’ll forgive the pun?

For my ‘marathon’ experience, I paid for my entry, for a hotel stay in Manchester, for travel to Manchester, for that teeth-clenching parking at Old Trafford, for an official finisher’s photo, for an Itab for my medal – it was a pb after all. Hundreds of pounds all told. A few weeks later, my wife bought me a commemorative artwork, showing the course and my finishing time. And of course, I’ve been touting that time as my pb for the last 12 months. When am I going to be able to rectify that, given that my race goals for this year and next are already set out, and don’t include marathon pbs.

I know it’s unrealistic that I, or any other runners, will get this money refunded, but it would be nice to think there might be some kind of gesture, an admission of culpability and an attempt to rebuild trust. Instead, there has been deafening silence. Given that this year’s course was apparently re-measured, it’s clear that the organisers have known for a while that the course has been short in previous years. Yet there has been no communication from them at all. Nothing. Nada. Despite the fact they still have the details of previous runners; I know, because they several times in the last few months erroneously sent me runners’ info for this year’s event.

I learned of the missing 380 metres from a friend, who I thought was winding me up. I only had it confirmed by reading it on the BBC News website. Nothing from Xtra Mile. Nothing from ASICS. Nothing from Greater Manchester Marathon Limited. A PR shambles, as well as a geography/geometry fail. For some runners, the first they may have heard about it is from their Powerof10 listing, where the race is already showing as SHORTMar, and personal bests have been expunged accordingly.

I don’t want a free, or discounted entry to next year’s Manchester race. After the well debacle of baggage reclaim at this year’s race, widely reported on social media, that has no appeal whatsoever. And no point offering another Xtra Mile event, as they have apparently done in a futile attempt to atone for that baggage reclaim shambles, as I gather Manchester is their only running event. Duathlons aren’t my thing. But how about an entry to some other UK marathon event? So I have an opportunity to reclaim my stolen personal best.

Later in Macbeth, the eponymous ‘hero’ asks a doctor if he cannot ‘pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow’ to help his distempered wife. The doctor replies that in this the patient must minister to himself. No doubt this will be the case here, and my Manchester cure will be to try to forget it ever happened. But when I do remember it, it will forever be for me the manky marathon.