I think this whole situation also highlights the difference between the road and trail running worlds. Trail runners seem to "get it" and everything you've said here makes total sense to them. Yet, if you were to try and talk sense into the thousands of people who show up at a road marathon you'd be shouting into the wind. Most of them have ZERO clue how to deal with anything other than ideal and perfect weather conditions. They're there to set a PR and get a BQ and everyone be dammed if they can't run as fast as they can straight ahead.
I have a ton of sympathy for what the TCM organizers had to go through around this because they're dealing with a huge crowd of people who won't listen to anything they tell them, and then if something goes wrong and someone runs themselves to death, it's assumed it's TCM's fault. Sucks all the way around.
I find it ludicrous that they canceled the race for heat as the entire country has had one of the hottest summers on record. Plus I'm training for a race where I'm expecting temperatures well into the 90°.
That said, people are stupid (14 years of working in an ER has proved that to me). I'm sure the event organizers didn't want to create a MCI (mass casauslty incident) . If the race has 8000 runners and 1500 go down for heat you would overwhelm the EMS system. Even with on site medical staff. To that end having enough on-site staff to hire would take months of planning and finding said staff in the current environment for what an event wants to pay is next to impossible.
Do I think athletes need to take personal responsibility for themselves and adjust race plans according to race conditions? Yes I do. Unfortunately a lot of people won't and I'm sure that's what event organizers had on their minds when they made a very hard call.
Great points Scott! But I also see Jamison's point in his comment here. Some road racers, especially rookie marathoners, can be particularly clueless. Trail/ultra runners learn to be be more self-reliant and train to be tougher. Your points need to get out for future participants in future marathons to educate and prepare themselves for the inevitably hot races in future years.
Just nuts.. I *started* a 100k event on the hottest day in the UK last summer. I knew it would be hot, as did everyone else, including the RD. He did his part by giving us a break and removing the need to carry a waterproof, but also stocked up on ice buckets and more water for the aid stations. Trail angels showed up in random spots with water, ice and ice creams. On that day, it was 80F by 8am, and topped out at 98F for 3 hours in the afternoon! Thats hot, especially by UK standard. I managed 42 miles before I gave up. Many finished, many didn't turn up. That was their choice.
One of the things I do like about the training groups in Cincy, is they all train in all the weather and actually run the course, including the actual hills for the Flying Pig marathon. The race director caught a lot of heat this year when she didn’t cancel the marathon during a lightning storm with torrential rain, but it was literally one of the craziest, funnest marathons I’ve ever run. And virtually all my running friends felt the same way.
I agree that canceling due to almost 90F temps seems ridiculous, especially to the trail running community, especially after finishing the 50K at Habanero 100 this summer. However, I started thinking about it more and I began to reconsider my initial thoughts. A lot of marathoners don't even carry water with them and just grab it at the aid stations, you are going to have people that are still going to try to get that BQ and push themselves more than they should considering the heat. I'm in Texas and it's been hot AF this year, but I'm not sure if this has been 1 occasion of abnormally warm weather for MN or if it's been this hot frequently where people have been able to acclimate to the heat? If training weather has been similar, then it doesn't seem to make sense to cancel. Is the course shaded or is it mostly full sun on pavement? If there's plenty of shade, then the race could have went on. Anyway, there's a lot of questions that I don't know so it's hard for me to judge.
In my hot 50K, I thought I was heat acclimated. However, finishing long runs between 12 to 2pm on mostly shaded trails (although very hot and miserable) was very different than starting at 12:30 on a sandy course in full sun when temps reached 109. That full sun beating down on me for so long really wore me down. I had to walk the last 2 loops, but I heard the ambulance sirens earlier and witnessed a runner whose body completely cramped up, requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital. I just wanted to finish. As you can imagine, there were people who knowingly signed up for a hot race but didn't acclimate or went too fast. If this weather is out of the norm for the area, then I can see where it could be a recipe for disaster.
I do think some adjustments could be made since this weather was anticipated. They could require runners to carry a water bottle, handheld, hydration belt, etc..., and make sure AS are set up to refill bottles with water or Gatorade instead of handing only out Dixie cups. Really reinforcing how critical it is to slow your pace. Also, if they told runners about ice bandanas / buffs and supplied ice, especially at later aid stations, that would help too. Maybe they could also offer a deferral for those that felt like the conditions were too tough for them, which would reduce the total numbers and likely reduce the medical incidents.
Generally, I agree with your position that races shouldn't be cancelled for heat. The bar should be much higher for a weather related cancellation than it is today. But I think you don't fully appreciate the practical implications of the stress on race/community resources. Yes, the vast majority of runners use common sense, but it takes only a few percentage points of knuckleheads in these large marathons to add up to significant numbers that overwhelm race resources. Another option is to provide people weather deferrals, like Boston did in 2012 when the temperature reached 87 degrees on race day.
As a race director I do fully appreciate these practical implications. Another option would be for the permit to be weather dependent. there's nothing that says any municipality could say the permit is invalid should temps reach X. Or, the municipality could require organizers to have X medical professionals per runner. Could this turn into a complete shit show? Of course. But that's literally true with every single race over 1000 people. When conditions for once of my races were likely to be in the 90's we had meetings with police, fire, ambulance, discussed contingency plans, etc. I'm also interested in why this wasn't a thing in the past. Hoping someone can send me a few races in the 90's that were canceled for weather to prove me wrong.
I think this whole situation also highlights the difference between the road and trail running worlds. Trail runners seem to "get it" and everything you've said here makes total sense to them. Yet, if you were to try and talk sense into the thousands of people who show up at a road marathon you'd be shouting into the wind. Most of them have ZERO clue how to deal with anything other than ideal and perfect weather conditions. They're there to set a PR and get a BQ and everyone be dammed if they can't run as fast as they can straight ahead.
I have a ton of sympathy for what the TCM organizers had to go through around this because they're dealing with a huge crowd of people who won't listen to anything they tell them, and then if something goes wrong and someone runs themselves to death, it's assumed it's TCM's fault. Sucks all the way around.
I find it ludicrous that they canceled the race for heat as the entire country has had one of the hottest summers on record. Plus I'm training for a race where I'm expecting temperatures well into the 90°.
That said, people are stupid (14 years of working in an ER has proved that to me). I'm sure the event organizers didn't want to create a MCI (mass casauslty incident) . If the race has 8000 runners and 1500 go down for heat you would overwhelm the EMS system. Even with on site medical staff. To that end having enough on-site staff to hire would take months of planning and finding said staff in the current environment for what an event wants to pay is next to impossible.
Do I think athletes need to take personal responsibility for themselves and adjust race plans according to race conditions? Yes I do. Unfortunately a lot of people won't and I'm sure that's what event organizers had on their minds when they made a very hard call.
Great points Scott! But I also see Jamison's point in his comment here. Some road racers, especially rookie marathoners, can be particularly clueless. Trail/ultra runners learn to be be more self-reliant and train to be tougher. Your points need to get out for future participants in future marathons to educate and prepare themselves for the inevitably hot races in future years.
Just nuts.. I *started* a 100k event on the hottest day in the UK last summer. I knew it would be hot, as did everyone else, including the RD. He did his part by giving us a break and removing the need to carry a waterproof, but also stocked up on ice buckets and more water for the aid stations. Trail angels showed up in random spots with water, ice and ice creams. On that day, it was 80F by 8am, and topped out at 98F for 3 hours in the afternoon! Thats hot, especially by UK standard. I managed 42 miles before I gave up. Many finished, many didn't turn up. That was their choice.
One of the things I do like about the training groups in Cincy, is they all train in all the weather and actually run the course, including the actual hills for the Flying Pig marathon. The race director caught a lot of heat this year when she didn’t cancel the marathon during a lightning storm with torrential rain, but it was literally one of the craziest, funnest marathons I’ve ever run. And virtually all my running friends felt the same way.
I agree that canceling due to almost 90F temps seems ridiculous, especially to the trail running community, especially after finishing the 50K at Habanero 100 this summer. However, I started thinking about it more and I began to reconsider my initial thoughts. A lot of marathoners don't even carry water with them and just grab it at the aid stations, you are going to have people that are still going to try to get that BQ and push themselves more than they should considering the heat. I'm in Texas and it's been hot AF this year, but I'm not sure if this has been 1 occasion of abnormally warm weather for MN or if it's been this hot frequently where people have been able to acclimate to the heat? If training weather has been similar, then it doesn't seem to make sense to cancel. Is the course shaded or is it mostly full sun on pavement? If there's plenty of shade, then the race could have went on. Anyway, there's a lot of questions that I don't know so it's hard for me to judge.
In my hot 50K, I thought I was heat acclimated. However, finishing long runs between 12 to 2pm on mostly shaded trails (although very hot and miserable) was very different than starting at 12:30 on a sandy course in full sun when temps reached 109. That full sun beating down on me for so long really wore me down. I had to walk the last 2 loops, but I heard the ambulance sirens earlier and witnessed a runner whose body completely cramped up, requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital. I just wanted to finish. As you can imagine, there were people who knowingly signed up for a hot race but didn't acclimate or went too fast. If this weather is out of the norm for the area, then I can see where it could be a recipe for disaster.
I do think some adjustments could be made since this weather was anticipated. They could require runners to carry a water bottle, handheld, hydration belt, etc..., and make sure AS are set up to refill bottles with water or Gatorade instead of handing only out Dixie cups. Really reinforcing how critical it is to slow your pace. Also, if they told runners about ice bandanas / buffs and supplied ice, especially at later aid stations, that would help too. Maybe they could also offer a deferral for those that felt like the conditions were too tough for them, which would reduce the total numbers and likely reduce the medical incidents.
Generally, I agree with your position that races shouldn't be cancelled for heat. The bar should be much higher for a weather related cancellation than it is today. But I think you don't fully appreciate the practical implications of the stress on race/community resources. Yes, the vast majority of runners use common sense, but it takes only a few percentage points of knuckleheads in these large marathons to add up to significant numbers that overwhelm race resources. Another option is to provide people weather deferrals, like Boston did in 2012 when the temperature reached 87 degrees on race day.
As a race director I do fully appreciate these practical implications. Another option would be for the permit to be weather dependent. there's nothing that says any municipality could say the permit is invalid should temps reach X. Or, the municipality could require organizers to have X medical professionals per runner. Could this turn into a complete shit show? Of course. But that's literally true with every single race over 1000 people. When conditions for once of my races were likely to be in the 90's we had meetings with police, fire, ambulance, discussed contingency plans, etc. I'm also interested in why this wasn't a thing in the past. Hoping someone can send me a few races in the 90's that were canceled for weather to prove me wrong.