Venice Marathon

Venice Marathon

Venice Marathon

( 4 reviews )
25% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Venice,
    Italy
  • October
  • 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Christine Jama

Wien, Austria
0 1
2018
"More like a death race"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Christine Jama's thoughts:

I seriously question how this running event is still allowed to call itself a marathon race, let alone is allowed to even organise this type of event with the lack of so many important aspects:
*) emergency response/medical aid: apart from the fact that there were such few ambulance cars and medical stations along the course, our friend had a really bad experience after passing out along the course. Not only did no one of the medical staff speak a word of English (in an international event like this I guess it's fair to assume they take care of that), they also did not think about calling the emergency contact provided on the back of the bib number. After all that they also decided to just drop him off at a train station with a blanket but without his shirt. Absolutely irresponsible and hard to believe that race organizers can be so neglecting about this very important aspect of a race.
*) hygiene / toilets: does no one believe in toilets in the organising team? There were hardly any toilets along the course so people slipped into alleys or just alongside the course. Of course, usually that happens within a race but the amount of toilets provided along the course was ridiculously low.
*) transportation: getting to the start was already somewhat of a challenge as they packed us into a crammed bus and we had to uncomfortably sweat in there for 45 minutes. Not the end of the world but - meh.
*) music: again, meh. No proper music or something to get you pumped up at the start, bands along the course were OK, atmosphere in general meh. I've participated in much more engaging and fun races.
*) the flood: granted, the organizers can't be made responsible for the shitty weather conditions on race day: heavy winds, rain and high tide in Venice. Soooo... Pretty shitty :) however, they can be made responsible for how they respond to a weather forecast and high tide forecast that has been available for days. After finally crossing that bridge into Venice with super strong head winds and people mostly walking, we finally came into the city only having to cross many bridges and stepping into a freaking flooded nightmare. As the city was completely flooded that day, the last 2-3k we had to walk through water which at some points reached up until just below the knee, at other points it was ankle deep. How could they let the race happen anyway even though they knew before or at least set up the boards to walk on? Many thoughts on this, definitely not cool to handle it this way as it was also somewhat dangerous at some points.

I think the medical aid situation and the high tide situation and how they dealt with it were the big turnoff for me and made me rant as I did just now. Never would I ever again take part in such a badly organized race as I saw that this can have tremendous health implications as well. </rant>

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