787 replies to this topic

[Brendan90]

Just off Facebook:

"
Dear Runners,

We do apologize for the inconvenience that the following may cause but due to unforseen scheduling circumstances, the 2012 Melbourne Marathon Festival will now be held on the 14th of October.

This shift of date ensures there in no clash of dates for the MCG and will allow the event to finish inside the MCG. We Thank everyone for their understanding and look forward to another great event!"



Ripper - now I can have a few guilt free drinks on Grand Final Day without worrying about spoiling my final 18km the next day.

[Lukefrazz]

I do find it pretty amusing that after taking so long to decide on the 2012 date they've had to change it so soon after the original announcement. But being my first marathon, I'll need every extra week of training I can get so it suits me better!

Thanks for the heads up Brendan

[ChrisMac]

I'm already grateful for the extra week, but will cut it fine for the Around the Bay ride.  I think they are normally a week apart anyway.

[cappy]

Great. I booked my flights and will now have to pay to change them

F-ing idiots!!!

[Caterpillar]

oh well...at least it gives me another week to prepare. That said, I'm not surprised by their lack of organisation. Remember this is the mob who give us the ugly merges on race day.

[CQ1]

cappy, on 26 March 2012 - 04:12 PM, said:

Great. I booked my flights and will now have to pay to change them

F-ing idiots!!!

Same here.  The organisation so far hasn't been good - don't know if that bodes well for race day.............

[Grechy]

Not impressed at all as I had already made arrangements to keep 7th October free. I had something very important that had to be re-arranged.

Oh well not the first or last time MM organisers have let us down.

[KevM]

The organisers have a tough job and I love the Melbourne Marathon BUT it hasn't been great.
You can look at dates a year ahead for other marathons; some several years.
The G may well be the strength and weakness of this event. Great to finish on and experience but difficult to include in the organising.

[Grechy]

Portland Marathon 3 weeks later looks like a tempting alternative.

[cappy]

Is there anything a week before, given that's when my flight is?

[rohan]

Caterpillar, on 26 March 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

oh well...at least it gives me another week to prepare. That said, I'm not surprised by their lack of organisation. Remember this is the mob who give us the ugly merges on race day.

A bit harsh.  I'm not a fan of the merge either, but given the half marathon is paying the bills, there's a limit to how long the roads can be closed and the finishline is down one end of the course (as oppposed to being sort of in the center like Gold Coast) it's something that marathoners are really just going to have to deal with if we want a big home town marathon... unless marathoning gets huger and is the distance that can pay the bills.

[mathewnicholls]

Flights/accom already booked and time off work sorted from the 6th to the 13th... What a pain!

[cappy]

Have changed flights. Not happy at forking out the extra $

I hope the organizers realize this annoying this is to their customers

[luckyguy]

Is this 'Facebook' information sanctioned by the Melbourne Marathon Committee? I notice that the official websiteis not up and running nor does it state any information re dates etc..... for MM2012.

I certainly would not be booking flights, changing important plans etc... on the back of something I read on Facebook. And only then when I have confirmation from an official source ie their web page.

[Tony123]

luckyguy, on 27 March 2012 - 11:28 AM, said:

Is this 'Facebook' information sanctioned by the Melbourne Marathon Committee? I notice that the official websiteis not up and running nor does it state any information re dates etc..... for MM2012.

I certainly would not be booking flights, changing important plans etc... on the back of something I read on Facebook. And only then when I have confirmation from an official source ie their web page.

Tim Crosbie has posted the date change on his Facebook page, I think this is as good as official.

[luckyguy]

Tony123, on 27 March 2012 - 11:50 AM, said:

Tim Crosbie has posted the date change on his Facebook page, I think this is as good as official.

No offence Tony but I think you miss my point. Who unofficially posted/leaked the original date of 7/10? And I reiterate, I have not read or received notification from any reliable/official Melbourne Marathon Committee source other than what I've seen on a MM Facebook page.

As an investor I would not have put money on this speculation.

[cappy]

In fairness, they use fb as a way to release communications. They released the official date through it. Just because another official comms method didn't contain the info too (website) doesn't make the fb release any less valid or official

[Tony123]

luckyguy, on 27 March 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

Tony123, on 27 March 2012 - 11:50 AM, said:

Tim Crosbie has posted the date change on his Facebook page, I think this is as good as official.

No offence Tony but I think you miss my point. Who unofficially posted/leaked the original date of 7/10? And I reiterate, I have not read or received notification from any reliable/official Melbourne Marathon Committee source other than what I've seen on a MM Facebook page.

As an investor I would not have put money on this speculation.

Yes I did miss your point.  Its an interesting question though,  on how the original date came to be.  Think I also saw it on FB, but cant be sure.  Maybe I saw it here first.

[j12]

luckyguy, on 27 March 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

No offence Tony but I think you miss my point. Who unofficially posted/leaked the original date of 7/10? And I reiterate, I have not read or received notification from any reliable/official Melbourne Marathon Committee source other than what I've seen on a MM Facebook page.

As an investor I would not have put money on this speculation.

Tony123, on 27 March 2012 - 01:28 PM, said:

Yes I did miss your point.  Its an interesting question though,  on how the original date came to be.  Think I also saw it on FB, but cant be sure.  Maybe I saw it here first.

I sent an email to the RD and he confirmed the 7th. Only after it was made public on the Monday on FB did I start this thread. The person who writes on FB is an IMG employee too.

Michael

[Brendan90]

Just checked the official www.melbournemarathon.com.au site and it has no date on it, and now that I think about it, did it ever?

For MM runners who have done a few more than myself who can't remember, when abouts during the year is the websited updated to reflect the upcoming run? (ie dates, new color scheme or whatever)

[luckyguy]

This is the official MM email, coolrunners can contact them here at - enquiries@melbournemarathon.com.au.

Brendan if my memory serves me right, of recent years the official website was usually updated in May.

Edit - I have sent an email off to the above address and if I get a response I have asked their permission to post same here. Of course, this will not help those inconvenienced but may bring some clarification.

Edited by luckyguy, 28 March 2012 - 08:24 AM.

[CQ1]

I got a response this morning after using enquiries@melbournemarathon.com.au

Hi Conor,

Thank you for your email.

My name is Annie and I look after the enquiries for the Melbourne Marathon and I also look after the Facebook page.

When we previously announced the date on Facebook we had written confirmation from the MCG stating the date of the Marathon was to go ahead on the 7^th of October, hence why we, as the managers of the Marathon made the announcement.

It wasn’t until yesterday, the MCG made contact with us and told us that we can no longer use the MCG on the 7^th and that we must move the Marathon to the 14^th.

I can assure you, that similar to everyone else who has been affected by this, we have been affected as well.
We understand that it is a huge disappointment and as the person who will be responding individually to each and every email, we sincerely do apologize for the change of dates, however, it was entirely out of our control and therefore we won’t be offering reimbursement.

Once again, thank you for contacting me Conor and I hope that this email provides you with some further understanding to the reason behind the date change.
I hope we get to see you on the 14^th.

Edited by CQ1, 27 March 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[j12]

Luckyguy

CQ's answered your query. One and the same as Ausrunning. Long story. This was sixth handle in just under a decade.


Michael

[mathewnicholls]

An interesting part of the reply that I got from them, I'd say it's worth sending them an e-mail if you're out of pocket:

Quote

From the emails that I have received this over the past day a couple of suggestions have been made regarding a way that we could possibly compensate for the money that people are losing through the date change. We are currently on site for another event which will be finished by Sunday.
I will be keeping your email and all others in a separate folder to discuss with the Event Director when I get back the office.
He is also disappointed by what has happened and we will definitely see what can be done to compensate for the date change.

Apart from that it was basically a word for word copy and paste of the reply CQ1 got..

[Tony123]

Given the trouble the MCG has caused with changing the date, I wonder if this will the the last year the event finishes on the MCG.

[luckyguy]

Thanks J12 - I like long stories....

Here's the response I received which is similar to the above.

........... It wasn’t until yesterday, the MCG made contact with us and told us that we can no longer use the MCG on the 7^th and that we must move the Marathon to the 14^th.
I can assure you, that similar to everyone else who has been affected by this, we have been affected as well.
We understand that it is a huge disappointment and as the person who will be responding individually to each and every email, we sincerely do apologize for the change of dates, however, it was entirely out of our control................

So the 14th of October it is.........

[Pink Lady]

luckyguy, on 28 March 2012 - 08:33 AM, said:

So the 14th of October it is.........

At least now we have some clarity. (even if circumstances change  I don't think they would dare to switch again)

Now I know for sure i will not be doing MM this year.

I was not planning on an OS marathon this year however, life sometimes organises itself when you are not looking.

I have a conference in Ottawa and I am happy to go ahead with registering for the Ottawa Fall Colours Marathon,  or the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, or the Niagra Falls International Marathon, all of which are around the dates I will be there.   

Edited by Pink Lady, 28 March 2012 - 04:24 PM.

[Slacker]

might want to get the title of the post changed now from


   "2012 Melbourne Marathon 7th October 2012"

Edited by Slacker, 28 March 2012 - 11:51 AM.

[Tony123]

Slacker, on 28 March 2012 - 11:45 AM, said:

might want to get the title of the post changed now from


   "2012 Melbourne Marathon 7th October 2012"

Dont change it too quickly, you might curse the new date.

[qwen]

Was looking at doing MM this year as a warm up for GOW - would have been my first Marathon for 6 years (5th MM). Will just have to look elsewhere for my marathon comeback.

[Digger]

Deep down, I think the AFL had a hand in the date change, and finding another finish venue might be a harder task than you think.

I did think it crazy to have it 1 week after the AFL GF, because in the early days, it was always 2 weeks after the AFL final, because the police and other emergency services had already had 4 week ends on duty because of the finals, and they were then given a week off, before fronting for the Marathon.

Shutting down 42km of road, does require some effort by lots of organisations.

[Koves]

At least now it's not on the same weekend as the daylight savings change.

[DianeE]

Regardless of the date change issue (which I can totally understand is outside the control of MM), for such a major event why on earth is the MM websiteso totally useless and lacking any information at all??  That is scarier in itself.

[Lukefrazz]

Koves, on 29 March 2012 - 10:22 AM, said:

At least now it's not on the same weekend as the daylight savings change.

Yeah losing an hour's sleep the night before would've been pretty nasty.

Edited by Lukefrazz, 29 March 2012 - 11:37 AM.

[LPW]

Hi guys,
I joined up to the forum because I just had to post a reply to this topic.
To be honest I can't believe everyone is so shocked at the date change. I was surprised when I first saw October 7th posted.

Anyone who's grown up in Melbourne and (therefore) follows footy knows that there is ALWAYS an allowance for a drawn grand final. The 2012 grand final was always going to be the last weekend in september, therefore the backup/replay date was always the 6th.

Surely this is the reason for the unavailability??  You couldn't expect the setup for MM to just be done on the Sunday morning?

Assuming this is the reason I am stunned the MCC and MM made the initial error.

Unless I'm missing some other reason....

[chrisso]

DianeE, on 29 March 2012 - 11:20 AM, said:

Regardless of the date change issue (which I can totally understand is outside the control of MM), for such a major event why on earth is the MM websiteso totally useless and lacking any information at all??  That is scarier in itself.

They would still be updating all the information on the site. Currently it still has all of last years information still up

[j12]

Another new sponsor, another new website. The MM really need a long-term sponsor like Big M. The GCM has had two naming sponsors (GC Airport and JAL) in 20-something years and a virtually unchanged website.

Michael

Edited by j12, 31 March 2012 - 09:38 AM.

[Lukefrazz]

Bank of Melbourne/St George no longer the naming sponsor?

[BIGKEV]

Flights booked, 4th in a row for me. Prepare yourselves!

Keep running ( on the right weekend?) bk

[Acey]

I'm still in despite the change. I must admit though that I am not happy about the lack of accurate information on the website. For a major international marathon I think that is not good enough. Website is the official place that people go to find out about these things and 6 months out is far too late. I can't believe that they put out important info like this on facebook. Very poor IMHO.

[walker1st]

AFL should be banned, outlawed, oh well just to wait few more years

The marathon should finish inside the new athletics stadium in Albert Park, and using the F1 circuit would be ideal, no big deal with road closures.

regardless, I will talk to my achilles, what is their take on doing M in OCT this year

[Acey]

What will your goal time be this year Big Kev?

[DianeE]

OK, 10 points to the CR who can correctly name the new MM sponsor!

My educated guess is that there is a new sponsor on the way.....the [useless] website is now in shades of red and no longer the "Bank of Melbourne" purples.

Edited by DianeE, 10 April 2012 - 05:43 PM.

[Brendan90]

Hmmm... Qantas?

[Kaiser]

First thought was Westpac, since it has been banks previously sponsoring the Melbourne Marathon. Can anyone give an insight into what sponsors do? Do they provide a substantial amount of money for the race director (and his/her team), leaving them to handle the dirty work?

[Lukefrazz]

Westpac's my vote as well, since St George/Bank of Melbourne were sponsors while part of the Westpac group

[DianeE]

My guesses, based on the red colouring are:
Westpac, St George, NAB & Australia Post - all use a brighter red colour than the MM site
Qantas - similar red
Air Asia - close match

[chrisso]

Based on red colouing... Coca-Cola - no sports drinks/gels on course... just flat coke

[Pink Lady]

Its actually St George

I dont deserve the points - even if I knew what they were for - I looked it up


http://www.stgeorge....bourne-marathon

sorry I coudn't get the link process to work.

Edited by Pink Lady, 11 April 2012 - 12:46 PM.

[BIGKEV]

Acey, on 10 April 2012 - 12:26 AM, said:

What will your goal time be this year Big Kev?

G'day Acey, last year was a 4 min PB to 2:45, if all goes well I'll be aiming for quicker and I have a 2:39:59 as my ultimate goal. I'm 45 now and this may be my last chance to give a sub 2:40 a tilt... I have 3 marathons planned before Melbourne so I'll know more nearer the time......at the moment just enjoying my running....

Keep running (faster, faster, faster) bk