Running is a lot more fun when you're not jammed in with thousands of other people.

If you’re registered for this weekend’s P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, I’ve got bad news: You signed up for the wrong race. The race you should be running is the 10th Annual Lost Dutchman Marathon on Feb. 20.

Here are the reasons why the Lost Dutchman Marathon in Apache Junction gets my vote for Arizona’s best marathon.

The Running Experience

So you’re going to run in a crowd with more than 25,000 other people. Can you imagine the parking situation? The crowds of spectators and media? When the starting gun goes off, you’ll shuffle your way to the start line. The automatic timer will read the timing chip on your shoe. You’ll barely be able to find a comfortable stride for the first two miles. That’s not going to add up to a good experience. Why first-time half and full-marathoners subject themselves to this event is beyond me: It’s stressful enough before your first major running event – dealing with a crush of people and parking doesn’t help. Then you get to run through a concrete city jungle. The only remotely scenic bit is near Camelback Mountain.

Now check out the Lost Dutchman. I don’t think it gets much more than 2,000 people. It’s laid-back with just enough sponsor support to add quality amenities for the runners. But the consumerism never overshadows the running. And then there’s the course: The Superstition Mountains, a caldera formed by a cataclysmic volcanic explosion millions of years ago, looms over the course. It’s spectacular and makes the course unforgettable. And so do the people lining the course. Local residents set up chairs and cheer – and sometimes hand out drinks and hose overheating runners down with cool water. It’s a very friendly vibe.

Blatant Commercial Hucksterism

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon isn’t a race: It’s a brand. It’s about pushing product. It’s a swirling mass of TV-friendly images, banners and shouting pitch people. With a foot race thrown in to tie the concept together.

The Lost Dutchman? It has a laid-back expo area. Low-key, but friendly and attentive.

More Categories for More People

You get two choices with the  Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon: Half and full marathon.

The Lost Dutchman offers a number of different categories: half-marathon, 10K, 8K trail run and two-mile fun run/walk. That means your whole family and your not-so-fit buddies can get out there, too.

But Isn’t All the Hoopla Fun?

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon is certainly a noisy, colorful, vibrant experience. Given my experience running the Midnaeturhlaup in Iceland, I think it would bemuse the average Icelandic runner (the crowds there clap, but they don’t hoot, yell and carry on like American spectators). I suppose some people get off on the cheering. Maybe they like the salty Asian food hawked by the title sponsor. Maybe it’s the rock bands (most of which are too unspeakably bland to be called “rock” … auditory baby food).

But it’s a study in sensory overload. Even in spectator mode, I don’t like it. The Lost Dutchman’s homey, close-knit feel is my bag. The combination of welcoming volunteers, staff and spectators along with the spectacular scenery makes it a genuine Arizona experience. If you’re traveling to Arizona for a running event, The Lost Dutchman is by far the best choice.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not running the Lost Dutchman this year. Unfortunately, it occupies the same spot on the calendar as the Kona Bikes 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. I’ll be racing as part of the duo team Bone Resistance in its quest for middle-of-the-pack, not-crashing, avoiding-unneeded-trips-to-the-outhouse glory.

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Comments

• July 26, 2011, Joyce M. writes:

  Annual Lost Dutchman Marathon

  This sounds like a good reason for runners to visit AZ. I am not much of a runner. In the area though, there are other stuff to enjoy as well. I'll look into adding events for runners in our guide. Joyce Yuma Community Guide
• November 3, 2011, Stan Hjerleid writes: I love Arizona and will put this on my calendar for next year. Found out about this too late but I found your blog very informative. Thanks Stan

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UPDATE:

Ah, the frustrations sets in again. Athlinks says on its Twitter account to send them results and they’ll post within 24 hours. Well, I sent the results in early December. Not only are they not posted, but they haven’t posted  or even mentioned the 12 Hours in the Papago race. I took to Twitter again, and got the same response: “which races are you looking for? Email results@Athlinks.com and we will post in 24 hrs. Over 3 million results in last 30 days.”

I guess it must only applies to triathlons and running events, though. Judging from below, I thought Athlinks.com would bring mountain bike events into the fold.

But no. It’s just talk. Look, don’t big-note about how many races you’ve posted. That just makes it more obvious that you’re missing lots more.

It’s tough to respond to Internet flak. Especially for businesses that have to put their best foot forward. When I took athlinks.com to the woodshed in my last post, I understood that I was putting them in a tough position.

All credit to them, they listened. And responded. I’ll post that response after this here little introduction.

I particularly credit Troy because he seems to understand my frustration. And that my frustration stems from seeing athlinks.com’s potential and benefits. It’s really super-helpful to have a website find and post your results. And I was hugely disappointed that it worked so well since 2007, but seemed to really fall off. I just want my old athlinks.com back.

I’ll also thank Troy for not point out that I’m a sucky hack of a runner/mountain biker who should be ashamed to have his results posted anywhere, much less in one handy place where people can see exactly how bad I am.

So I’m going to stick with Troy annd athlinks.com. It sounds like he cares, and that’s important. Without further ado, his response (left as a comment in the last post).

Justin,

From the bottom of my heart – thank you for laying down the gauntlet and calling us out. Rest assured, we will definitely rise to your challenge.

We’ve got the guys working on those results – they will be up in the next 36 hours.

Let me address a couple of your points, though, while I’m here:

Over the past 24 months, we have increase our monthly production from about 1 million results per month up to 2.5 million results per month. We are going to double that number in the first quarter of 2011 and settle in around 5 million per month.

In November (last month), we added 2.6 million and average 254 races per day – 7 days per week (7634 races total). So, we are definitely not giving up! We are, however, definitely hitting some scaling issues – our membership is growing faster than ever, and with it so are the number of requests. We are revamping our entire request system which will allow for much better communication and transparency. The current system was built when we had a few thousand members – now we’re at 135,000 and growing quickly.

Specific to your problem, we only just added support for fixed-time events this summer. Prior to that, we were not set up to handle these types of race.

We originally built the system with running, triathlon, swimming, and time-trial cycling in mind. It was all based on accrued time. As you know, classics, crits and tours (Cycling and Mtn Biking) often work exactly the opposite. So, we made several backend changes to be able to work with these types of results (24 hours of Pueblo for instance goes by # of laps in 24 hour period).

There are still a couple of tweaks left, so even when we add them, they will be functional, but not exactly perfect. We will make them perfect them in the coming weeks as we push much harder into cycling.

Lastly, regarding the number of cycling results that we add, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. We pull results based on user demand. Increasingly, race directors submit their results directly, but often, the results are added in order of priority based on the number of requests from our members. Mountain Biking and Cycling account for very little demand right now so it gets a raw deal. Starting last August, however, we put together a team dedicated only to cycling and mountain biking in order to increase our coverage.

Now that we are adding the Pueblo and White Mountains races, we’ll be better able to handle them in the future.

Thanks again for caring enough to blast us. We dropped the ball for you. I’ll make sure that we don’t do so again. I’m also sorry that it took a Tweet for us to be responsive to your frustration. See the comment above about our current request system.

Best Regards,
Troy Busot
Athlinks.com

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Comments

• December 2, 2010, Adam Schmid writes: Congrats to you Justin for putting it all out there and challenging athlinks.com to rise to your concerns. I'd also like to say "job well done" to athlinks.com for actually listening to their customer base and taking on their issues head on. Well too often companies nowadays couldn't careless about their consumers and will just continue to do business as usual. It's good to see a company respond and say that they will stand up to their customer's challenges.
• December 2, 2010, admin writes: Hey, Adam. Thanks for stopping by. I'll have to get you and Sarah to join my group for an outing in the future.
• December 5, 2010, Adam Schmid writes: Yes indeed!

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A friend on Twitter linked to this Marie Claire article about where women can meet men. And I just cannot let this opportunity go by, even though it’s going to throw a monkey wrench into my editorial schedule.

Obviously, if Marie Claire is telling you about these places to meet women, you’d do well to heed their advice. But they left something out: the footrace.

You might not expect this, but from the middle of the pack back, a 10K race or half-marathon is ripe with opportunity for both genders. See, 5ks are no good. They’re over before you know it. A 10K or half-marathon lets you settle into a groove. You can troop along at a comfortable pace where you can actually talk as you run along.

Guys might expect that women are feeling to sweaty and gross to talk. But I haven’t experienced that – in fact, they seem more aggressive than men. I never ran a single foot race before getting into a long-term relationship with a marathoner who eventually turned triathlete. That means she takes me to the cleaners during most races, and I’m left on my own. Every single time I’ve run a 10K or half-marathon, I’ve gotten chatted up by a lone female runner.

I’d guess this is because mid-pack runners in these distances are feeling good about themselves, and they’re not overly concerned with snagging a winner’s medal. Their confidence is up, they feel less vulnerable because the guys aren’t trying to ply them with alcohol like they would at a bar. It makes all us guys seem less creepy (and man, most of us could use the help). It’s a very positive environment for everyone.

What? You don’t run? Well, start. What can you possibly lose from giving this a try? A few pounds?

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