Refund or Defer? What will you do??

This morning, 7 weeks after the NYC Marathon was cancelled less than 48 hrs before it was scheduled to start, NYRR and Mary Wittenberg made an announcement about the resolution that NYRR and their insurance company had come to.  NYRR had been pretty tight lipped about any sort of solution that left runners less than thrilled about whether they’d get guaranteed entry, a refund or anything at all.  In short, here’s the options:

1. Get a full refund and with no guaranteed entry into any future race
2. Take a guaranteed entry in the 2013, 2014 or 2015 NYC Marathon, pay the 2012 Marathon price but get no refund
3. Guaranteed entry into the 2013 NYC Half Marathon in March and pay the fees associated with the NYC Half

Additionally, if you paid for the Marathon Eve Dinner, seats in the bandstand and a few other extras, expect to be fully refunded.  It doesn’t address the runners who ran for charity- will they have to raise their $2,500+ again to gain entry (That’s the lowest amount and how much I raised for Jack’s Fund in 2011 to get in). All NYRR says is that the charity will contact those charity runners for this year.  What about the people with a 9+1 guaranteed entry that they were planning to use for this year?  To read the full release, head over to the NYC Marathon Site or check out the Runner’s World article posted earlier today.