Races in Ohio and Tennessee were also cancelled Monday. See VIDEO of the event's pitch. And take a POLL.
Mike Burke wanted to see if he could handle a mud-drenched obstacle-strewn 5k race.
The Bushkill Township man, a former New York City police officer, said he chose a race that was connected to a charity he felt worthy — one that benefits wounded veterans. He convinced his girlfriend and about 10 other friends to sign up and give it their best shot.
And then Monday, three weeks before the Great American Mud Run at Pocono Raceway, Burke received an email from the race organizers. The event was canceled. There’d be no refunds.
“I was furious,” Burke said of receiving the email. “Part of the problem with this thing is I felt responsible for getting them all to sign up. It wasn’t like a rinky-dink thing ... it seemed like it’s a huge, real thing.”
The Sept. 28 race in Long Pond, Pa., wasn’t the only casualty. Races in Ohio and Tennessee were also abruptly canceled Monday, according to accounts on other news outlets.
Bob Pleban, a spokesman for Pocono Raceway, said the venue was informed Monday about the cancellation — with no real explanation as to why. The email sent to the venue was almost word for word the one sent to participants. With one big difference: the participants were out their registration fee.
“It’s going to be a headache getting this worked out,” Burke said.
He and his girlfriend ponied up $70 for the race — as did many of their friends.
The email sent to participants urges them to contact their credit card companies to “explore your available options” but discourages participants from bothering to contact the actual event organizers — who Burke said have only corresponded via email.
“Many of you will want to contact us to discuss, please understand that at this time we do not have the staffing capacity to respond to inquires,” the email reads.
“It’s a scam,” Burke said, his voice betraying his frustration. “You can’t get in touch with anyone.”
Complaints filed
An email sent to the organizers of the Great American Mud Run was not returned — nor was a phone call to Wounded Wear — a Virginia-based nonprofit that provides modified clothing to wounded veterans that was listed as the charity for the mud run.
Though earlier today the race websites were up and running — with examples of course obstacles, videos of past events and information on registering — none of the Great American Mud Run Web pages are accessible any longer. Reviews from dozens of bewildered and angry participants had begun to fill the testimonial pages on the sites in various cities.
Pleban said the Pocono Raceway has hosted many obstacles races like the Great American Mud Run and has had no trouble in the past. Pleban said the entire event began to appear strange when no contract was ever drafted with the raceway and the organizers failed to show up for site inspections.
“We basically had lost all contact with them,” Pleban said. “We just didn’t know what was happening.”
Pleban said the experience will likely mean venue management will look into prospective events more closely next time.
“This is a first,” he said.
The consumer protection branch of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office is aware of the race and its unexplained cancellation, according to spokeswoman Kate Hanson. She could neither confirm nor deny whether the office is investigating the race organization for wrongdoing under consumer protection laws.
“We are urging those affected to file complaints with our office,” Hanson said. “And letting people know that if they paid by credit card, they need to contact their company as soon as possible.”
Hanson said six formal complaints have been filed with the office since Monday.
Messages left with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office — where the race organization is based — were not returned.
‘They chose the wrong way’
Burke said he, his girlfriend and his buddies had been training for weeks.
“It’s not the hardest race, but still, you can't take it lightly,” Burke said. “We put our time in. We wanted to help a good cause.”
Any cancellation would’ve been a disappointment, but Burke said he could have lived with it if the race organizers explained themselves and offered to donate the proceeds to the charity.
Instead, the cancellation of a race with a patriotic name, tied to a worthy national cause only two days before the anniversary of Sept. 11 — it was almost too much, he said.
“It's going to sound corny, but canceling it only a couple days before 9/11 … it's just wrong,” Burke said. “I don't know that this is what they intended to do when they started out — defrauding people. I mean, I'd like to think it was a matter of bad business decisions, but even then, they had two ways to deal with that and they chose the wrong way.”
The 47-year-old said he is determined to tackle a mud run someday and won’t let this ruin that future goal.
“I'm not going to let someone else’s bad behavior dictate what I'm going do with my life or my goals,” he said. “I hope everyone else feels the same way.”
Below is a video advertising The Great American Mud Run 2013.