Myrtle Beach Marathon Cancelled

[pstewart]

Any advice for the organizers of the Myrtle Beach marathon which was cancelled. Here is a link to the story:

http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/1312646.html

Also an interesting story about folks who ran the course even though the race was cancelled at: http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11980070

I know when officials mulled over cancelling the Boston Marathon a few years ago one of the things they realized was that if they cancelled the race, people were going to run the course anyway with none of the usual protections for runners (i.e. roads closed to traffic).

Any opinions about refunds?

[JamesM]

Probably a wise decision based on the fact that it was a smaller marathon without fully closed roads. Being a smaller field the runners would be strung out and there would be lots of opportunities for cars to get in between them and tangled with them.

All the more reason to go somewhere hot for your January and Feb marathons, Like Miami or Fort Lauderdale, where it just don't snow.

[Veteran Runner]

Probably a wise decision based on the fact that it was a smaller marathon without fully closed roads. Being a smaller field the runners would be strung out and there would be lots of opportunities for cars to get in between them and tangled with them.

All the more reason to go somewhere hot for your January and Feb marathons, Like Miami or Fort Lauderdale, where it just don't snow.

Hot in January??

I worked course clocks for 3 days at the Disney events and froze my NH butt off.

Then went back down to St Petes beach for the Chronotrack conference and had to wear long sleeved shirts and wind breaker.

[PSmith]

I am curious how they do the refunds for this event, they do use Active.com for their registration and Active is very up front about not issuing refunds. So it could be even more of a headache for race directors.

I know here at RaceIt.com we have a bulk refund engine and had to use this past weekend for a 300 to 400 participant race, this saved the RD a lot of work and headache.

One solution if they can absolutely not issue a refund is to transfer registrations to the next year or give a hefty discount. I'm not totally sure how much something like this could effect the overall economic health of a race like this.

[JamesM]

Re: Hot in January?? Orlando is often cold, much colder than Miami. They even have frost up there. I too have done some COLD Disney Marathons.

We are a few hundred miles south of that, and normally much warmer. This year Miami marathon was warm to hot. It was about 70 degrees at the start, in the dark,at 6am, an hour before the sun came up. Fort Lauderdale marathon last week end was warm and hot too.

The average January high temp 67. Which means some days it is cold and some days it is hotter. Down here, in the city and along the coast, we don't get frosts, not even on the coolest days.

Wikipida says, for Miami Marathon, "The average temperature at the start of the race for the years 2003-2007 was 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit (17.4 degrees Celsius)" That's for the start, in the dark, at 6am, BEFORE the sun comes up. So unless we get a cold snap, we are dealing with a fair number of over heated runners on the finish line.

They are two winter races you could comfortably do in a bikini and still think you were over dressed, unless we get a random cold snap, but even then you will be warm enough once you start to run.

I can't guarantee you a warm race, because some times it does get cool for a spell of a few days, and the locals break out their jeans and jackets. But today for example, or rather tonight, at half past midnight, in the middle of February, it's 72 degrees outside.