Four days after the epic Clearwater Distance Classic event the race director,
Chris Lauber, published this memo.
He chronicles the events that led up to the decision
canceling the marathon & 50K ultra events.
After reading all these details I felt better about only doing a half marathon
instead of the full marathon I had planned on.
It really was an EPIC accomplishment!!
I'm so thankful I was not walking in his shoes!
Upfront apologies for this absurdly loooong post, but everything you want or need to know...
SATURDAY
As you might imagine, we had been monitoring the weather forecast for several days leading up to the weekend. Friday night, the consensus of several forecasts was that a fierce, fast moving line of storms would rush across Florida in the early hours of Sunday, but once gone, would drop the rain chance to zero.
First thing Saturday morning, I texted Sgt Spaulding at Clearwater PD, requesting a revised start time of 8:00 am, as I wanted to be pro-active in dealing with these storms and the likely delays from our scheduled start time of 7:00 am.
We posted at Facebook that there would be a 7:00 pm weather advisory, as we wanted to give everyone the heads-up to check back with Facebook later in the day.
Saturday evening at about 6:00 pm, after checking with multiple weather reports, including NOAA, Lt. Walek, Clearwater PD, and I finally agreed to an 8:00 am start, but if delays were to go much beyond that, we would face complete cancellation, a possibility we hoped to avoid.
We faced two issues in terms of continued delays: 1) traffic onto and off of Clearwater Beach increases with each passing hour on a Sunday morning, and 2) about 35 officers from Clearwater PD were scheduled to work this detail, but many could not accomodate a later start and finish time due to other scheduling conflicts.
I regret not being able to post our 7:00 pm advisory on-time, but I was caught in Clearwater working with Clearwater PD and taping an interview for the 11:00 pm news segment on Channel 10.
I ultimately posted our official start time as 8:00 am on Facebook on 4 different pages. I also sent out email blasts to everyone in our database at 9:10 pm, hoping our registered athletes would see the email before going to sleep, or upon awakening in the morning.
SUNDAY
By the time I left my house at about 4:45 am, I thought we had outsmarted Mother Nature by postponing our start time until 8:00 am, so I drove toward Clearwater with confidence that it would be a magical day.
All was proceeding well until shortly after I left Coachman Park at about 6:45 am to place signage indicating where each course split off. I received a call from Mike, driving the supply truck. He informed me there was flooding, more than 100 feet long, several inches deep, curb-to-curb, on Clearwater Beach, just after mile 3. He suggested I needed to check it out.
Soon after, I received a call from Lt. Walek, informing me there was flooding in Indian Shores and it could turn into a real debacle trying to maintain the safety of the runners. I told him I was on my way.
After dropping the signs to indicate the 5-miler split, I continued south towards Indian Shores. The flooding on Clearwater Beach was as Mike had described, but I thought there might be a detour.
As I arrived in Indian Shores, I saw the cycling lane and sidewalk somewhere between flooded and puddled, but the water appeared to cover more than 60% of the space allocated for our races.
I received another call from Lt. Walek, who was now in the area. He asked me to meet him and the Indian Shores Police Chief on Gulf Blvd.
En route to the meeting, I noticed a runner (not wearing a bib) heading south in the same lane our runners were scheduled to run. I noticed she stayed in the lane, but encountering one of the puddles, jumped out into the vehicle lane. Soon after, I took note of two cyclists riding right next to the center line to avoid the puddles.
After morning greetings, Indian Shores Chief Hughes expressed his concerns to me - the increased chance of injury from debris in the puddles, runners detouring around the puddles into the vehicle lane, cars splashing the runners as they passed, etc.
"But the runners will stay in the lanes we mark with cones," I said.
"Can you guarantee that?" he asked.
"No, I can't," I answered.
"Then I don't think it's in my city's best interests to go forward. I am pulling the plug," he said.
I had no response, but was devastated to know our marathon and 50K was cancelled.
Lt. Walek told me we now needed to go back to Clearwater Beach to check on alternatives to the flooding just after mile 3.
As we drove towards Clearwater Beach, I thought, "Please God, don't make me cancel the halfathon," then proceeded to call our announcer, timing company, and supply truck to announce the change in plans.
It was just before 8:00 am, when we arrived at BeachWalk, where the flooding had been. Miraculously, it had drained off, and though wet, there was no flooding.
Lt. Walek reminded me of our agreement from the previous night - that if we couldn't get the race started by 8:30 am, we would be forced to cancel.
I had less than 1/2 hour to get back to the start line, announce the cancellation of the marathon and the 50K Ultra, and get the remaining races underway.
Perhaps I should have asked for a police escort, but didn't think of it at the moment.
I pulled into a handicapped spot near the start line, checked in with our announcers, and walked out towards the back of the assembled runners to check on audio quality.
After being handled the microphone, I asked for complete silence for an important announcement, and cranked up the volume in an effort to speak over the howling winds.
I made my announcment and was overcome with emotion when I heard a few scattered boos.
"Really?" I asked.
I put the microphone down, walked away, and heard Celia announce Christopher Holloway would be singing the National Anthem. What for me is usually the best two minutes of the day - in addition to all the patriotic feelings, the National Anthem represents the transition from preparation to the race start - was a mix of total disappointment and frustration.
Soon after, our scoring crew got the race underway at 8:18 am, just 12 minutes before the deadline for full cancellation of the day's events.
REFUNDS
We will not be able to issue refunds, partial refunds, nor deferrals for the downsizing of Sunday's marathon and 50K Ultra to the halfathon distance.
Athletes and race directors alike assume a risk that an outdoor event on roads not built for, nor intended for, road races may be cancelled at any time, right up until the race starts due to weather conditions or public safety.
It is a long-time standard in the sport that cancelled races do not offer refunds, but especially those that are cancelled or downsized at the last minute due to weather.
We understand your frustration in not completing the distance for which you had prepared and trained.
We, too, were frustrated that 10 months of long, hard work would not result in the desired outcome.
We understand your disappointment in not receiving a refund offer.
But we also ask you to understand that the non-refundable costs that we incurred are significant, including: - Law enforcement agencies require 24 hour cancellation notice. Though we only used the services of Clearwater PD, we were also under contract with Indian Shores Police, Largo Police, and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. All have minimum hours for an off-duty detail, generally between 3-4 hours.
- Traffic control cones were placed all the way to Seminole City Park (mile 16.5) for races that were ultimately not staged.
- Sunstar Ambulance - we had 6 crews to monitor our courses, compared to 2 for our Holiday Half.
- Portalets that went unused, were placed in position on Saturday for Sunday use.
- Paid staff was increased to accomodate all our events
- Oranges were purchased, cut, and ready for consumption at all aid stations on the marathon and ultra course
- Overall and age group awards were designed, manufactured, received, and paid for well before race day
- Coolers filled with Gatorade were prepared, but eventually dumped
- Custom concrete stickers were placed on the Pinellas Trail on Thursday night, noting where mile marks were to be positioned on Sunday morning.
- Two supply trucks, instead of one, were rented to supply 22 aid stations, instead of the 7 we used.
- Donations, which will be honored, were promised to volunteer groups for staffing aid stations. Supply trucks never even made it to most aid stations, but the volunteer groups showed up, ready to help.
Add up all of the above, and the total for non-refundable expenses is in the tens of thousands of dollars, a burden we simply can not bear by ourselves.
Perhaps, given the above, our athletes will more fully understand why this sport has adopted a no-refund policy. Without a no-refund policy, many race directors would simply not take the chance of being expected to issue refunds if a race is cancelled AND absorb non-refundable expenses.
I know I wouldn't.
NEGATIVE FACEBOOK POSTS AND COMMENTS
We've seen several negative posts concerning the decision to cancel these two races out of the five we scheduled.
Here is our respsonse to those posts:
"Why did they announce the cancellation so close to the start of the race?"
Simply because the decision to cancel the race was made by the Indian Shores Police Chief at about 7:45 am at a roadside meeting on Gulf Boulevard in Indian Shores. Once the decision was made, I raced back to Coachman Park to make the announcement and get the races underway - we started just a little more than a half hour after that fateful moment at 8:18 am.
"Why didn't the race organizers announce the cancellation before the race start?"
We DID announce the cancellation, but with gale force winds howling, it was very difficult for many in our largest filed of racers to hear the announcement. For that, I apologize. In retrospect, I should have made our initial announcement at the front of the race, but also used a bullhorn towards the back of the field to make the same announcement.
"Why didn't they announce the cancellation on Facebook or thru Twitter?"
Frankly, with all the others that needed to be contacted by phone not at the start line (supply truck, timing, traffic control company, lead cyclist, staff, etc), the last thing I thought of was a Facebook post, anticipating that our runners were at the start line preparing to run our race and not checking facebook.
"Were the roads really impassable in Indian Shores?"
The road construction that cancelled our ability to stage our marathon several years ago was done so that drainage would be off the road and onto the cycling lane and sidewalk, which were built with a more-permeable asphalt than used on the road. This should allow for better drainage, which it does, but only to point. The cycling lane and sidewalk which were flooded at the height of the storm, were still loaded with extremely large puddles up to 3" or more deep.
"I run in the rain and through puddles all the time - what was the big deal?"
There is a huge difference when an individual runner or small group chooses to run through their neighborhood or on public roads after it has rained compared to a scheduled race where the athletes have yielded responsibility to the race director, whose primary job is to look out for the runner's safety. Consider this: with deep puddles and debris on the course from the winds, imagine the outcry if we had proceeded as planned and sent a number of runners home with sprained ankles, torn tendons, or other injuries.
"Did the police chief make the right call to cancel the race?"
I absolutely support the chief's decision, 100% - remember we were to be guests through his city and his responsibility is to consider the best interests of his city and its taxpayers. Had there been injuries, lawsuits, and controversy, would this small city have welcomed us back for future races? Indian Shores hosts both our Clearwater Distance Classic AND our Holiday Halfathon. While city leaders have been very supportive of our races over the years, all that goodwill could have been wiped away in one day.
FINAL THOUGHTS
On a day that Naples completely cancelled their half marathon (no refunds), the Sunshine Skyway was closed, and there were two fatalities less than 100 miles away after tornadoes struck, we should all be grateful that we were able to stage and run our Clearwater Halfathon incident-free.
In the end, our runners achieved an EPIC accomplishment, one that may have been horrible at the time, but one that each finisher will long remember for the gale force winds and the huge challenge they presented.
My hat is off to all finishers, regardless of which race they had originally planned to run.
Hope you'll join us again next time.
Chris Lauber
Race Director
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