Oh no they didn't!

Those clowns at RAM Racing are bringing that horrible hot chocolate race to my town.  Let me jog your memory about the worst race I have ever participated in (and blogged about here).  It was an overcrowded race with so much poor planning that it makes my blood boil even after nearly 7 months.

Yesterday, my co-worker innocently Skype'd me and asked if it was a Hot Chocolate race I ran in DC last year.  She then broke the news that they were bringing the race to C-bus.  While my jaw dropped, I was instantly on Google looking it up.  I'm not even going to give RAM Racing the satisfaction of putting the link on here and driving more traffic to their site (unless of course you want to go on their site and tell them what a bunch of clowns they are).

While you can register for the race and fork over $45 for the 5K or $65 for the 15K, there are practically no details on their website yet.  No race course, no parking options, no accommodations.  Maybe it's just me but I certainly wouldn't sign up for a race unless I had at least the basic details like WHERE it will be.  I'm also going to throw out there that you can register for Columbus' two largest and most reputable 1/2 marathons for about the same price and you are guaranteed some decent swag and a fully supported race course.

I will give them this:  Most areas of Columbus can accommodate a large number of people and cars.  The Columbus Marathon is one big event.  We have an arena downtown that can hold about 18,000 people as well as parking lots/garages to hold all the cars.  That being said, I don't think they would have the parking/crowd control issues they had in DC.  I've also participated in A LOT of local races and no matter what kind of swag they are giving away, other than the large full and half marathons, C-bus races don't pull 15,000 racers.  I think the largest non-half or full marathon event I've been involved with here in town has had about 1000 racers. 

I've given bad races another chance before (check out my 1/2 marathon re-do) but even a free race registration couldn't get me to go to another RAM Racing event.  In addition to a craptastic race, the EXCUSES that RAM Racing delivered after the race were downright offensive.  I blasted them back in December (and ironically, that blog post is currently my most viewed blog post EVER) and I'll blast them again now.  I have already strongly encouraged everyone I know to not sign up for that race.  I think maybe I'll start my own little protest.  You know, Occupy Hot Chocolate.

My co-worker actually said it well, "For $65, I'll just pick a day in November, go on a 10 mile run and make my husband fix me hot chocolate when I get back.  That should cost me 65 cents."

Here's how me and my BFF felt about RAM Racing back in December: