CANCELING RACES CAN BE A TOUGH CALL
Last week, as the weather forecasters were predicting a fierce nor'easter for the MidAtlantic and New England states, runners who had trained and were ready to run the Boston Marathon contemplated the unthinkable. Should I go or should I stay?
Meaning, should I risk a horrible experience because of horrible conditions. Deciding not to run in a marathon for which you have trained, have qualified for, and have paid entry fees and hotel accommodations is a wrenching experience. In the end most runners went to Boston and thanks to a near miraculous cessation of the rain that had pounded throughout the area, the race went on with only tough head winds to slow the runners.
Now step back for a moment and imagine that you were not the anxious runner, but the even more anxious race director. Newspaper reports quoted John McGillivray, race director at Boston, of saying he was close to calling the race. "I was worried. I truly was," he is quoted as saying. "I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I was afraid. We just didn't want to see anybody hurt."
The bottom line for all race directors is safety, said Dean Shonts of Morristown. Shonts is the race director of the President's Cup Night Race in Millburn, which takes place in June on an always warm Monday evening. He recalled one of those evenings a few years ago when he came close to calling the race.
"One year we had the lightning and we were getting ready to cancel it," said Shonts. "We had postponed it for 15 minutes. We made the announcement to [the runners] get back in their cars again."
"Then it cleared up. We were really lucky," he said. "We would have cancelled it because of lightning."
Shonts remembers one close call back many years ago but not related to the weather. Stroh's was holding a series of 50 races that raised money for the Statue of Liberty, for a refurbishing, and Shonts was hosting the headline event at Liberty State Park, tieing in with the big re-opening of the statue.
The day before the race he received a call from the parks department telling him that they had put temporary buildings up on the course. Temporary buildings weren't the only problems. A trench ran through part of the course, and when Shonts arrived at the park, he found a crew was paving the road that was part of the five mile course.
"So I sent two guys out with a car [to map a new course] and I told them I was starting the race at 9:00, no matter what," said Shonts. "I don't hear from them. I start the race with 1500 people. The gun goes off and I don't know where the runners are going."
Fortunately the two men were able to steer the racers around the park. While Shonts watched the field of runners disappear after the start he was approached by two secret service agents who told him he had to clear the area.
"They told me they had to secure the area and I had to clear the area and I had a half hour to do it," said Shonts. "I told them I had 1500 runners out there and I can't clear the area."
The agents cut Shonts a little slack but warned him if he wasn't out of the area by 11:30 they would have to arrest him.
The first runner to finish did so in a reasonable time for five miles so the course, while not accurately measured, came close to the desired distance.
"To this day I do not know where they went," said Shonts. "The only complaint I got was there were no mile splits!"
The only race that Shonts remembers that was cancelled was in the Hamilton Park business complex in Florham Park just a few years ago. In that case the police became the decision makers when dangerous lightning dictated the race could not go on.
Lightning is a definite safety issue, but what about snow?
"I've held races in the snow," said Shonts. "When the Jersey Shore marathon was held in January and we had three or four inches of the snow."
At one time Shonts put on a 15K race at South Mountain Reservation in January. One year he came close to canceling due to falling snow and slippery conditions but compromised instead.
"They had plowed somewhat the part where you can drive so we just ran three miles and called it enough given the conditions."
Shonts said that he has never cancelled a race, but he doesn't count his club's summer series runs that were held at South Mountain Reservation. Those races, two and four miles were informal races without sponsors and in the years that they were held they may have had to call due to weather.
When asked what he would have done if he were making the call in Boston Shonts responded that he honestly did not know.
"The weather turned out OK. You would really have to almost wait until the time to make the decision."
"You have to wait and see. I don't know what I would have done but it ended up being OK," he said. The people that ran it liked it and it wasn't near as bad as they thought it was going to be."
NOT JUST BOSTON, NOR'EASTER WIPED OUT NEW JERSEY RACING
Boston wasn't the only race threatened by the weather. Sunday here in New Jersey was horrific, much worse than what Boston had to deal with. Two races scheduled for Sunday were called due to the weather and dangerous conditions. The Eden Family 5K in Princeton is noted on the CompuScore website as being rescheduled. No date for that reschedule is shown. The Cherry Blossom 10K in Branch Brook Park in Newark may also be rescheduled although no information is posted at this time.
Next week we will talk with Mark Zenobia of On Your Mark Productions and the races he has had to cancel and why it is so hard to make the decision and why it is nearly impossible to reschedule.
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, April 22, 2007
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2007
