HARLEM — The first ever Harlem Half Marathon was canceled last week because no permits had been approved for the event.
Mark Anthony Jenkins agreed to refund all of the money he had collected because none of the necessary permits had been obtained after a closed-doors meeting last week with State Sen. Bill Perkins, which was first reported by DMNNewsroom.com.
Initially, Jenkins blamed "white male" road race organizers for the problems with the event.
On Tuesday, however, the state senator slammed Jenkins for continuing to accept online registrations on two other websites, Active.com and RunSignUp.com.
“That’s crazy,” Perkins, who is an active runner, said of the two websites. “As the meeting ended he said he was ending the race, he was returning the money… It’s clear it was a fraudulent activity.”
Most runners signed up through RaceRoster.com and Jenkins has not taken the Harlem Half off the other two sites because he was too busy refunding the RaceRoster registrants, he said.
“I’ve never been a con artist, I’ve never been a racist, I’ve never been a lot of what people are calling me,” he said. “Have I fumbled some of my past businesses? Yes. I’m going to prove everyone wrong to the next year.
"[Perkins] told me to cancel the race and refund all of the money and I did that, but I forgot to mention the other two websites,” he said. “That’s my fault, that’s my oversite.”
Jenkins removed the Harlem Half from both websites after being contacted by DNAinfo.
Registration on his website and RaceRoster have also been taken down, Jenkins said. Only five people have signed up for the race on the two websites. They had not been refunded as of Tuesday morning, he added.
Perkins is considering legislation to crack down on websites that collect registration fees without making sure races are legitimate.
"This is a big deal, who else is playing this game?" he said. "[Jenkins] may not be unique."
This isn't the first time an event organized by Jenkins went awry.
In 2009, a trip to Washington, D.C. for President Obama's inauguration turned sour when the promised food, drinks and T-shirts never materialized, he said.
He blamed the busing company overcharging him for not having food and shirts. This was his "first big event," and he learned a lot about organizing events, Jenkins said.
In 2009, Jenkins organized a $55 singles trip to see the musical "Ain't Misbehavin,'" which he ended up canceling because only two people showed up. He eventually refunded the money more than a month after the show, he said.
Cecile Jackson, who helped Jenkins on the singles trip said he means well, but his plans are often poorly executed.
"He has grand ideas, he wants to help people, he wants to be different, but in the quest of being different he forgets certain rules," she said. "He just doesn't understand the ethics of things that when you say you are going to do something you need to do it."
Jenkins said he believes people are painting an distorted picture of him and unfairly judging him because of his past. He plans to prove them wrong by hosting the Harlem Half marathon next year.
