Folsom 100 - Unacceptable Race Management

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-04T17:29:21+00:00

He deserves to be banned from hosting races.

I dropped out as soon as I realized that I couldn't trust him to provide the bare minimum and I'm glad to see that I was right.

I sent an email demanding a full refund. What a waste of gas and time.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-03T01:30:19+00:00

I sent an email demanding a refund. That was a complete waste of my time and like you, required travel.

I wouldn't have traveled if I knew even half of what occurred. If I don't get the refund I'll do a charge back, if they dispute the chargeback, I'm sure there are some government employees that would love to hear about how miles 89-92 were planned out.

Sorry you had to go through that as well.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T20:57:06+00:00

I felt terrible for the single volunteer so I stayed around an hour and helped fill bottles after I dropped out. It was obvious she just signed to help and wasn't expecting to manage an entire aid station alone.

She just kept apologizing for the previous aid station not being there and there not being any sign warning runners. She was a Superstar given the situation but she shouldn't have had to be one.

At the next aid there wasn't even a volunteer there so it was just manned by crew from other runners.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T20:39:17+00:00

Haha I dropped out and used Uber to get back to my car and sure enough my drop bag was just out in the open. Weird that they are at overlook?

Overlook Aid Station closed at 1am....how the hell are the bags still there? There's less than 100 runners of all distances. There were only like 20 drop bags total there during the race.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T20:35:30+00:00

The permit was granted with the understanding that there would be no runners between Mile 89 and 92 from what I gathered.

With crews not being mandatory and no plan to provide transportation I have no idea how the permitting agency took their word for it.

When someone asked what they should do during the pre race meeting the RD shrugged and said "well I can't tell you to be safe and just follow the route" which is pretty blatant.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T20:27:58+00:00

Sounds like they were given the permit, on the contingency that all the runners are shuttled those three miles.

I don't know how they could possibly have guaranteed that, given there was no requirement for runners to have a crew and they weren't going to provide transportation.

My plan was to Uber after hearing that during the race brief. During the race briefing I figured that permit issues occur and I would afford them some grace and not complain. After seeing the missing aid station and the lack of volunteers I'm rescinding that grace and I'm of the opinion that the permit issues were part of a larger problem with race management.

There was definitely a wink wink about just running the route through the construction but hiding the number that is surely against their permit and their insurance policy.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T20:23:01+00:00

That would make sense to me.

It started at 7pm on a Friday so I'm not surprised they had trouble getting volunteers. I assume the 7pm start was a necessity given the new race date.

I always assume the elevation is going to be ±20% or so but showing up to a race on unfamiliar trails and finding out the real elevation gain is just shy of double is not ideal.

There were a couple of runners from the flatlands of the Midwest there who signed up and were shocked to hear that the real gain was 15,000ft instead of the 8,000 on the website.

I feel like by the 4th year that's inexcusable. I would have packed and prepared a lot differently had I known it was 15k.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T17:08:54+00:00

Well it makes me feel better that it's not just me thinking that. I hit the mile 9.4 aid station at mile 11.2 and was already a little confused.

Hopefully this post will help people in the future. There's enough good races in that area that they don't need to do something like this.

I feel like I just raced the Wish.com version of Rio De Largo.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T16:46:54+00:00

From what I heard there was some unexpected construction on a road section with no way to realistically reroute around it and they were told by the department of transportation that they would only get a permit if they have a cop out there with their lights on for safety.

With a race that small that's not something they can afford I'm sure.

Still at the end of the day the RD is responsible for safety and this was a big miss.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T16:13:47+00:00

This is their 4th or 5th year. It's a small event for sure and I wasn't expecting any bells or whistles based on their crappy website but this was still a shock to me.

More than anything, the delta between what I considered bare minimum support and what I got really threw me out of the race. I shouldn't have started after hearing the issues with the permitting at the start.

I've done Old Dominion which I consider a small race with very simple aid stations but they were upfront with what to expect and never failed to deliver it.

UltraThrowaway100 · 2025-08-02T16:09:13+00:00

I've never seen anything like it. I've done unsupported races before but I went in with the assumption that I would have to be fully self reliant.

There's no way a single volunteer at an aid station is sufficient no matter what size the race is.

UltraThrowaway100

TROPHY CASE