Posted by Leif Irgens on January 20, 2008 at 18:57:43:
In Reply to: Re: Cancelling or postponing posted by Lois Wims on January 20, 2008 at 17:37:45:
I think I'll chime in here as well. In my opinion - as a runner - we really don't have enough sympathy for what the race workers have to go through to put on a race or that the race really can't happen without the volunteers. The Infamous Turkey 10-miler of 2000 was my first race as a volunteer. Being from the North and of Norwegian descent, I've always prided myself on being able to dress appropriately for - and tolerate - tough weather conditions. In spite of combining high quality cold weather gear and high quality rain gear, that day turned out to be the coldest I've ever been in my life. Working the finish line, I put in more mileage trying to stay warm by running back and forth between the last turn to the line than if I had entered the 5k race. It was beyond all doubt, astrinomically more suffering that the 30k cross country ski race I did in Vermont in -4 F weather.
To ask the volunteers to stand around in 35-degree rain is really too much to ask, especially when a very large percentage of the local race crowd would have opted to stay home even if the race had not been canceled . . . or postponed. Hopefully it will turn out to be postponed to a later date rather than be cancelled.