Dallas marathon cancelled!

I live in the area and always most delighted to get snow on the ground. No problem running on snowy streets, but streets covered in freezing rain are just like an ice hockey rink.

Go try some sprints on a hockey rink and you will better appreciate the conditions here. Major streets are open but not the residential areas where majority of the marathon route is.

It was a good call imho and had to be made early before the expo opened.

I am a native Texan, have lived here my whole life and adore Texas ( we should secede! ). However, we have one weakness. When it comes to cold weather, we are p&ssi%s. I think this is dumb by I am not surprised.

I am a native Texan, have lived here my whole life and adore Texas ( we should secede! ). We are very tough. However, we have one weakness. When it comes to cold weather, we are p&ssi%s. I think this is dumb by I am not surprised.

Yes, you should secede and no, you are not tough. Texans are cowards. Only cowards hide behind guns, bigotry and tough-talking chickenhawk politicians.

I am a Texan, and agree that Texans are inept in icy weather. We aren't used to it, and it causes lots of problems for us. The northern states handle icy / snowy conditions about a million times better.

That said, we watch in similar disbelief each summer when the inevitable heat wave hits the northern states, and chaos unfolds. People invariably die, and headline after headline proclaims emergency conditions. Runner after runner comes on letsrun.com wondering whether they are risking death by going on an afternoon run. We wonder why northerners are such wusses, but then realize that, "duh," y'all don't have the infrastructure in place to deal with extreme heat.

Calm down you hater! Did you just fall azz first into a dildo factory or something? Come here toTexas and we'll introduce you to a nice pair of size 12 Tony Lamas!

You know what? I've decided that I'm just going to bandit next year. But I'm sure this will get resolved soon, one way or another.

gordon barnes wrote:

Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:

It might also have to do with the decreased interest of the general public in "running-only" events. People are pissed about the closure of public parks and roads and they'd rather watch strength related events or events combining both, like tough mudder.

You may not have read the article.

There are 25,000 entrants in this race. Twenty five thousand. No decreased interest.

So apparently crossfit guys can't read or comprehend.

Cal International is going forward with a colder predicted overnight low and they don't even bother mentioning the weather on their home page.

Are Texans going to admit to being that much wimpier than Cali's?

Freezing rain, hurricane force winds I might understand.

But no precip and light winds and still zonk the race. Nutso.

I just ran a 20 miler in 20 degree weather with a wind chill about 12 degrees. Weather was barely a factor during the run.

To cancel a major marathon for 28 degree weather is absolutely absurd. Mid to high 40s is considered optimal, so 28 is just a tad below. Put on an extra layer and you are good to go.

Chilly weather is different than hot weather. Hot weather causes serious health risks within a 25,000 person marathon. 28 degree weather presents no health risk. Even if someone ran naked, I doubt that 28 is cold enough to get frostbite.

mile high wrote:

I just ran a 20 miler in 20 degree weather with a wind chill about 12 degrees. Weather was barely a factor during the run.

To cancel a major marathon for 28 degree weather is absolutely absurd. Mid to high 40s is considered optimal, so 28 is just a tad below. Put on an extra layer and you are good to go.

Chilly weather is different than hot weather. Hot weather causes serious health risks within a 25,000 person marathon. 28 degree weather presents no health risk. Even if someone ran naked, I doubt that 28 is cold enough to get frostbite.

Good for you. How much ice was on the road when you ran? I used to live in Minneapolis and now live in Dallas and can tell you the roads cannot be run on. The first mile or so of the race goes over a very long bridge that I am sure is coated in ice. The marathon has about a $20 million economic impact for the city, so they wouldn't cancel it unless they had to. It's a tough situation, but the organizers did the right thing. All you heros on here who think they are such bad asses because they run on dry roads in 20 degree weather while covered in clothing can come down here for a run in August and see how you hold up.

Lifelong Texan here as well living in Ft. Worth. Where are you located?

This is not an issue of cold, it is an issue of ice on the streets. It layered on Thursday night, was bad yesterday, and became worse today. There wasn't even a fresh crunchy layer of snow/ice today. It warmed just enough yesterday and hardened and became even slicker today. The temps did not rise much more than about 26 today. So yeah, that ice will be gone by tomorrow morning as the temps, oh yeah, get lower tonight.

Typical letsrun idiots making rush comments about something they have no firsthand knowledge regarding.

It is not the temps people...it is the ICE!! It is not run-able here!!!

Message from DM today...

Next, we will have a special opportunity that will only be offered to our 2013 registered runners. We will communicate the details of the offer with you before 2014 registration opens.

Also, if you do complete the 2014 MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, Half Marathon or 5-Person Relay (and we hope you do), we will provide you with two medals – the medal you would have received for finishing the 2013 race and your 2014 finisher medal.

I'm a Texan also. I'm in the College Station area though (3 hours south of Dallas), and we haven't had an iota of ice, and it's not even really that cold here. We have the BCS Marathon tomorrow here. Maybe you Dallas folks should drive down and bandit this marathon. Shame that you had to train and get in shape for nothing.

Oh goodie, 2 medals. That makes it all worthwhile.

I live in Michigan and run on ice in the winter. There was a fair amount of ice this morning.

However, icy roads do present a health risk for a 25,000 event. If if only 0.5% had a serious fall, you are looking at 125 injuries.

[/quote]

Good for you. How much ice was on the road when you ran? I used to live in Minneapolis and now live in Dallas and can tell you the roads cannot be run on. The first mile or so of the race goes over a very long bridge that I am sure is coated in ice. The marathon has about a $20 million economic impact for the city, so they wouldn't cancel it unless they had to. It's a tough situation, but the organizers did the right thing. All you heros on here who think they are such bad asses because they run on dry roads in 20 degree weather while covered in clothing can come down here for a run in August and see how you hold up.[/quote]

I almost signed up for Dallas as a backup for Seattle when the conditions looked like Monsoon rains and high winds. We only got high winds.

Maybe the cancellation was justified here, but overall it seems like race directors are all too quick to cancel races these days.

SP wrote:

It is not the temps people...it is the ICE!! It is not run-able here!!!

Message from DM today...

Next, we will have a special opportunity that will only be offered to our 2013 registered runners. We will communicate the details of the offer with you before 2014 registration opens.

Also, if you do complete the 2014 MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, Half Marathon or 5-Person Relay (and we hope you do), we will provide you with two medals – the medal you would have received for finishing the 2013 race and your 2014 finisher medal.

Gee, a second 50 cent medal. How much is the entry fee that the race is keeping?

Nutella1 wrote:

How to make money 101:

1. Collect thousands of dollars for an event

2. Cancel it because it is below freezing

3. Rename your company and create a new event next year

More to the cancellation than that. There's indication there was some sort of threat.

I'm from the North and I have never heard of using sand on the roads. Does sand really help that much with traction? I am also curious why Dallas doesn't use salt at all, some posters are saying this happens at least once a year? Is salt really that much more expensive?