LETTERS: RUNNERS FEEL MISLED

To the editor:

Once again, the Cape Girardeau Roadrunners Club did a wonderful job with the Riverfest Run on June 13. The night of the race was exciting, fund and, despite the rain, pleasant. It is the events that followed the race that concern me.

The information that was around town, mailed to our homes, in the paper and at health clubs gave runners the opportunity to sign up for an age group, gender and early or regular start. Nowhere on any of these forms did it say if you chose to sign up for the early start you were in the non-competitive race and could not be in contention for a medal.

My running companions and myself chose to do the early race so that we could be finished sooner and have more time to enjoy Riverfest with our families. One member of our group ran well enough to receive a medal. However, when she telephoned Joy Gilbert to question why her name was omitted from the newspaper, she was told that we were in a non-competitive division. In the past to Riverfest Runs that we have run, there was never a non-competitive division, nor was there ever a separation of the times for the early start and regular start. I have the past time sheets to prove this point.

At Universal Physique, when runners picked up their race-day packets, they were never told of a non-competitive race. Nor were they told of a non-competitive race when they signed up on race day at the Roadrunners tent. Never were runners told, as they stood on the starting line, that the early division was a non-competitive race.

If this was how the Roadrunners wanted to do the race, it should have been on the fliers, announced at pickup points and announced before the race. I feel we were mistreated, and our companion was cheated out of the recognition she deserves for her hard work and determination.

JILL LUKEFAHR

Jackson