All comments are direct quotes from members.
Membersâ street addresses have been provided.
To watch the entire road race, presented by FCTV on YouTube, click here.
Worcester Avenue
The largest issue concerning the RR is that as the thousands of runners who participate are either picked up by at least one car and are probably supported by other individuals who are also in a car. Resulting in cars trying to find parking in a very small area. Illegal parking results in personal property damage, pedestrian issues, and most prominent dangerous traffic issues. Cars can simply NOT be allowed to park on either side of Worcester Ave and Worcester Court from Grand Ave to at least Jericho Path if not all the way to Lake Lehman. The civilians who were monitoring traffic did a good job but they can not tell people to move their cars. A police officer has to be walking around moving these cars. An ambulance actually hit the rear bumper of one of the school buses trying to get up Worcester Ct with a patient because the bus couldnât pull over because of illegally parked cars on Worcester Ct. In addition, trucks working for the RR couldnât make turns onto small streets because of parked cars. Just too many cars in too small an area!!
Worcester Court
Parking on Worcester Court is still a problem ⌠people try to park everywhere even where residents put cones out to block parking ⌠Police should down Worcester Ct at the Jericho intersection .. this will also allow emergency vehicles to get through ..
Eldona Avenue
Great day. Great job by the crew. Itâs remarkable to me how quickly theyâre able to set up, tear down, and cleanup. Weâll run and well done.
Raymond Street
My comment is concerning parking. The bulletin I received stated no parking on Worcester Court. There were cars all along the bike lane of Worcester Court starting from Lake Leaman Road unless homeowners put space savers in place. This unauthorized parking is difficult not only for pedestrians but also if emergency vehicles need quick access to the event area as the street is narrow due to the placement of the sidewalk. There was also a spectator who parked inside the park on the grass at the corner of Worcester Court and Jericho Path. Fortunately other cars did not follow. This person entered where there is no high curb and parked at the corner so others would not enter and block him in. The vehicle should have been ticketed although the police were obviously extremely busy. I would recommend having police but barriers at the start of the Worcester Court Parks rather than at Grand Ave.
Mayflower Street
Falmouth High School parking lot on Saturday morning could have used some police details. The traffics was backed up to brick kiln
Sycamore Street
I was a road race volunteer this year, posted between Indiana and Worcester Ct. Other than a traffic jam during the race (at about 10:30) that spilled over into adjacent areas, it seemed that they did a great job with cleanup and crowd control this year. No real issues that I saw there. I did notice that there was a lot of trash in the street by Mariner point, but that was cleaned up the next day…
Reynolds Street
I would say the Road Race was running very well this year. I have run the race for 45 consecutive years since 1979. Best decision has been made recently is having the race at 10,000 runners and also adding satellite bus at the high school.
Amherst Avenue
There were no seed times for runners at the start causing congestion. My daughter’s 9:05 start time was a myth. She did not cross the start until 9:17. Bring back the seeded times for everyone’s safety.
Worcester Court
I think that the race was well organized and executed as usual. My only observation/complaint is that Worcester Court becomes totally gridlocked in the hours after the race concludes. Between people driving down the street to pick up runners, people coming to the beach or people just not knowing where they are going, the road becomes an absolute chokepoint from about 10:30 to 12:30 or so. This can become a safety issue as I noticed at least one ambulance had a hard time going north on Worcester Court due to the traffic. Possible fixes to this could include blocking off Worcester Court at Jericho (essentially extending the closure of Worcester Ave) and/or requiring spectators, etc. to park their vehicles around Rte 28, including at Walmart and the various lots on Main Street. Also, as usual, a number of visitors tried to park on Worcester Court, which is not permitted. That further exacerbates the gridlock. I would like to see either more signs indicating âno parkingâ or perhaps more enforcement of violators. Various homeowners place cones outside their homes to prevent this, but I have seen drivers simply drive over the cones!
Young Road
Hard for me to give negative comments as I love FRR weekend so much. I have run 22 of them, so can say I am aware of the logistics of putting on such an event…..but every year it seems to happen and with little problems I know of. This year I was at the expo at the High School the day before, then race day 7 am at the finish line handing out water to runners….a very rewarding job.
Traffic was at a stand still getting away from the finish line, many drivers were confused, I think the Race Committee put out enough information, but, as usual people don’t follow.
A traffic day no different than other events, i.e. fireworks, etc.
Cleanup was fast and swift…nothing to complain about that. Even Monday they were at the ballfield tidying up.
Just a wonderful day in the neighborhood once a year.
Lucerne Avenue
The FRR was run *very well* once again!
Worcester Avenue
I have been a resident for 7 years and this was the best road race event, in terms of set-up, tear down, traffic flow, pedestrian flow, and overall efficiency.
The setups on Worcester Ave were during ” business hours” and not at 4-5 am in the morning as in the past. It was quiet and non intrusive, the same with the tear down.
The barricades and the personnel – Flaggers manning the intersections down Worcester were courteous and professional. They did not allow anyone to take a “shortcut” and followed the plan. They stayed way past the peak of traffic and pedestrian flow. Access to view the race at the ballpark was very efficient and easy to navigate. I also watched parts of the race at mile 6.25 and it was very orderly.
The only concern I heard was from runners and the congestion of runners on the course especially in the first 2-3 miles, but easily tolerated based on the historic race and allowing for people to participate
One of the best road races in years!
Thanks to all that volunteer and work tirelessly to make this a great fun event
Grand Avenue
I have run the Road Race almost every year since 1980 and it is such an amazing event. In my opinion, it is as smooth an operation as it could possibly be with regards to safety, crowd control, clean-up, and raising money for local charities. It brings in a lot of business to the Town and while it may inconvenience some of the people in the neighborhood, it is only a one-day event a year which has been going on since 1973.
We used the âbikeâ lot near the Black Dog and that worked out amazingly well!
Thanks!
Crescent Avenue
It was a great race day. Police, DPW and race committee did a great job. Other than the clanging and banging noise at 3:30 am putting up the bike racks on Crescent Park, no issues and no other comments.
Jericho Path
People for the first, time parked on both sides of the street on Jericho Path. I am 88 and at 11:30 returning from personal matters and had the impossible task of returning to my home. To the best of my past 30 years no on parked on the sidewalk. People had no place to walk. A BIG problem. Never should happen again.
Nantucket Avenue
Everything went smoothly.
Elysian Ave was very busy at the end of the race but drivers were cautious and allowed people to join the long lines from those who were coming out of driveways and other streets. Nice job!
Elysian Avenue
This was a well run event. The VIP accommodations were much better with the raised deck instead of bleachers.
Consensus comments from several runners we know:
1. Restore the staggered start instead of the way the non-elite runners were started. With so many runners at different speed levels, this year’s start was chaos.
2. Start the race at 8:00AM not 9AM. Non-elite runners subjected to more hot and humid conditions when starting at 9AM. Added advantages: gives earlier access to beach goers and gives more time to tear down crews on Sunday.
Harbor Avenue
I thought the race went pretty smooth. The contractors they use are excellent and the police worked really hard that day. I have no complaints
Miami Avenue
Extremely well organized and executed.
Clean up is super fast. Monday morning you would never know that 10,000 runners along with thousands of spectators had converged on Falmouth Heights.
Kudos FRR!
Worcester Court
From my perspective, between the ball field and Worcester Ct, the FRR was extremely well run. Cleanup began after the race, ran well into the night and continued into the next day. I walked early the next morning and the green between the beach and Lake Leman was spotless and folks were still picking up the beach parking lot. As invested residents of FHMNA, we should all be willing to do our part in picking up trash whenever we see it. The FRR is a one day event which provides much needed monies to charities as well as giving back to our town. Thank you FRR for a well run event!
Chapel Avenue
The only problem that we saw and still see is that the porta potties were put on top of the basketball courts on Central Park. The entire length of the basketball court now has marks under where each porta pottie was. It may be dirt but it looks like quite a mess and doesnât seem to wipe off easily.The whole side edge of the court has square outlines of mud or ? and it looks terrible. Not sure why they even put them on the courts. Hopefully someone will come back and clean it up.
Worcester Court
The organization and spirit of the race was wonderful and continues to be a proud day for Falmouth. We did miss the overhead screen at the finish line. Thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work!
Worcester Court
The race was very well run – there was minimal disruption during setup, the race or take down; in fact Sunday morning was quite quiet since it seems most of the setup was done on Saturday.
Worcester Court
JOB Well done! Kudos to all involved with the setup and removal. An example of a well oiled machine.