Some of County’s Finest Staying Away From America’s Finest City Race

It’s billed as the America’s Finest City Half Marathon, but some area runners have been trying to figure out just what the finer points of the race are.

“Runner’s World magazine ranks it as one of the top 25 races in the country,” said Steve McCormack, one of the county’s best distance runners since 1974. “But I don’t think it’s one of the top 100 races in the United States.”

While McCormack made it clear he was speaking for himself, other top area runners seem to be thinking the same way. On Sunday, when the 12th AFC starts at the Cabrillo National Monument at 7 a.m., only one of the county’s nationally recognized distance runners, Charlotte Thomas, will be there.

While some are staying away because of injuries, others such as McCormack and Thom Hunt of Coronado have chosen to stay away.

Neil Finn, the race organizer, says he is somewhat perplexed as to why people would shy away from the 13-mile, 192 1/2-yard run. One reason, he theorizes, might have to do with the terrain in the first half of the course, which includes a sharp slope down Point Loma peninsula.

“I’ll probably really alienate the guys,” Finn said. “But I think it has something to do with the course. I think Thom Hunt doesn’t like to run it because he beat up his legs on the downhill in 1985.”

Said Hunt: “That’s partly true. That race, when you’re coming down that hill, you do beat your legs up.

“The downhill is very difficult on your leg muscles. Especially on the quadriceps, because they have to push on and go through a braking motion at the same time for (about) six miles--people aren’t used to that. Then after that, you still have seven or eight miles to go.”

Said McCormack: “If you go out too hard in that race, it’ll kill you in the end (with a long stretch uphill near the finish). I actually hit the wall when I ran it. I was wobbling coming in at the finish.”

But there is more than just the course, according to runners such as McCormack, who said their are shortcomings in both organization and prize money.

“I ran in it once, in 1984, or ‘85, I don’t remember,” he said. What he did recall was that the race began before all the runners were bused to the starting line.

“I had a friend who was running with a corporate team that had a chance to win,” McCormack said. “But the race started early before his bus even got to the starting line, so he had to start two miles into the race. And then they disqualified him.”

Finn said he had trouble with buses in 1987, when the contracted company failed to deliver the promised 55 vehicles.

“They decided on their own that we didn’t need that many buses and only 45 buses showed up,” Finn said. “About 300 runners didn’t make it to the start line. Since we had no way of knowing who those 300 were, we sent a letter out to every participant offering to refund half their entry fee.

“You know, the whole race depends on many individuals and vendors doing their job, and if one person messes up, the whole thing is affected.”

Last year, Finn said, the last bus arrived at the starting line 20 minutes before the gun sounded.

McCormack said there is also sentiment that local runners are ignored by race officials.

“It’s fine that (the AFC organizers) bring in other runners from out of town who are faster than the local runners, that’s what we want,” McCormack said. “I’d just like to see them give a couple guys in town a call and say, ‘Hey, we’d like you to run.’ And maybe offer a dinner or 100 bucks or something.

“I’ve been invited to hundreds of races around the country, and it’s not like these people are offering money, they just want me to run . . . I’ve never been invited to run in the AFC.”

Finn admitted he had never invited local runners but said, “They have the same opportunity as everybody else does to call me up and be in the race.”

But McCormack said there is little incentive to do that. The $6,220 purse is considered small. Of that, the men’s and women’s winners each earn $1,310. The second-place runners get $700. Only the top seven finishers receive cash prizes.

“I ran in the Lilac Bloom’s Day race in Spokane one year. I finished 11th and got $500,” McCormack said. “And that’s only a 12K.”

Added Hunt, “There’s no major reason to run (the AFC). There’s not a huge prize purse, you’re not going to make a lot of money, and because it’s a tough course, you don’t just go out there to run it.”