This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

I ran in the first South Padre Island Marathon. It was a long work and school week. I didn't get much sleep. So when I thought something was off about the race, I figured I was just tired.

That was until I spoke to a few other participants. "Did you guys notice there were only two mile markers," I asked. There had been promotion about selfie stations at each mile. I thought I saw one. 

A mile away from the finish line, a marathon runner ran next to me and gestured for some water. Literally, gestured. He couldn't talk. I gave him some water and part of a Cliff bar.

Overall, it was good event. (I was too exhausted to really take it all in.) It's just something felt off. A few days later, participants got an email from the race director, which explained it.

"We had two water stations stolen (tents, tables, chairs, cups, etc) during the night as well as loads of toilet paper taken from the porta-potties (if you come across a yard sale with 23 tables, 10,000+ cups and enough toilet paper to cover fraternity row, let us know!). 

​Regrettably, our staff was frantically trying to replace water stations in the early hours of the morning and were unable to get most of the mileage markers out on the half-marathon (hope you wore your Garmin)."
​
              Tim Scrivner, South Padre Marathon Race Director

So that happened. 

I have touched on this subject before. TNT dropped off water containers along the route before the run. Guess how that ended up.