USATF club XC debacle

I was in the Masters race.

I got to the start at about 1035...looking for check in. At that point the tree was down, but nobody knew what was going on.

It was announced, "postponed indefintely." So I found a green tent to stand under. There were two ladies (both in winter coats) only under the awning. When we asked if we could stand there (3 guys in singlets) they gave us the stink eye. We stayed anyway.

Eventually, Postponed indefinitely turned into, "we'll announce when the race is 15 minutes away." Then it was moved to the track.

I tried to take my spikes out...but couldn't get them out. Then I just tried to put my trainers on, but my hands were too cold to untie my double knot, so I wore spikes.

I hugged the line as best I could, and got 5.97. I lost 4 spikes in one shoe, and wore the other 8 down to nubs. I wasn't too happy wiht my race. Perhaps it was last year that entered my mind, or the intense shivering at the start, but I never got in the race, running 525 pace for the first half and 512 pace for the second half (and feeling like I could keep going). So not bad for an old man, all things considered.

As for the fast times...I ran 3 seconds/mile faster than I ran for a fair 5 mile turkey trot. I think there's a chance that some of the fast times are from getting in a train and holding on. (which I wish I would've done).

The difference in weather between the master's race and the open race was unbelievable. I think the right move was postponing the whole meet 2-3 hours, and at that point moving it to the track if they had to.

The experience was decent, but mostly because the vast majority of teams/individuals did a great job of coping with a bad situation.

San Fran should probably never host. That park just isn't ideal for a 10k race. Way too much asphalt/path not meant for xc. There are just way too many dedicated xc courses all over the country to not use them.

Great post and I agree.

I agree. Again, a fixed time would have been nice. Even an hour warning would have been ideal. Regarding San Francisco hosting, GGP just isn't very good for a cross country race of that size. I didn't like the original course at all. The paving of the Polo Fields track hasn't helped, but it's more than that. The section down JFK is bad, and the Chain of Lakes meadow is also bad and gets basically single-file narrow as you leave it. That and then the narrow hill back up to the track in a huge crowd would have been a bottleneck.

+1

My day was killed not due to the course change, but due to the fact that we had no clue when the race would start. I was told that it could start any moment so I stayed in the area in singlet/shorts. That ended up being 1 hour. I was so cold when we finally raced, I couldn't run race pace. I started about 20-30s/mi slower than what I could have run if I was warm. I warmed up a bit by mid-race but since I started so slowly, I just didn't care by that point so it was barely a workout. The real course would have been fun. I heard from the people that actually ran it that it was very challenging with people slipping and sliding all over. That would have made for a great xc race.

I was in the 60+ race using "the real course." I found the footing most difficult in the turns on the mud. I lost my balance and came to a stop several times. However, I did manage to stay vertical, unlike a number of people. Also challenging were the squishy grass and the ankle deep puddles. Since I live in the Bay Area I have run variations of the course on many occasions and I will always hate the stretch along JFK Drive with the rocks. The wind was not bad for our race because we were generally sheltered by the trees. I did not see or hear the tree go down and did not know why the 40-59 race was not starting when scheduled. I was too cold to hang around for the other races and only found out later what had happened.

Well, you didn't read the thread then. It has been discussed ad nauseam. Parks Dep't pulled the permit due to concern about more trees coming down. Though I tend to think that was an overreaction, it wasn't unwarranted to be concerned about old trees during the first significant rainfall of the year during what was officially (via NWS) "gale warning" conditions. Regardless, it wasn't USATF's call.

I did not know at the time what was happening and "found out later" what had happened.

YOu sHouLd hAVe reAD ThIs THreAd dURinG thE rACe!

Only kidding, that was a dick response.

I ran in the Master's race on the oval. Our team had 60+ runners and 40+ runners. I went back to the car after the 60+ race started. I was already soaked from watch their race start. Was a really good decision to go the way I did to my car, as I could well have been in the way of that tree if I had gone the other way.

I then tried warming up, and was loose and ready to go. With about 10 minutes to the start, many migrated to the starting line, but I noticed a park ranger by the tree and was like "uh oh." About four minutes before the start, the loud speaker said, "we are inspecting the course, indefinite delay." At this point, the rain started pouring. Some clubs generously shared their tents, but I also wanted to stay warm by moving, so I kept jogging, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. They told us 15 minutes, but then said nah, back to indefinite delay. My undershirt got soaked, as did my shorts. The jersey held up OK. As people kept moving around, some sheltered in tents, others sheltered under trees, weather got worse. Rumors started to fly, some thought whole thing would be cancelled, others correctly figured it would turn into a track race on the polo grounds track.

Then they told us to move to the track. Everybody figured it would start at the start line, so we trudged up there. There was unavoidable standing water at the end of the meadow, and my shoes got soaked (I chose to not change into spikes and raced in my trainers). I jogged around the track and started jogging with some guys who I didn't know but I would later find out were pretty fast. I thought it would help keep warm, and it felt fine, in hindsight, it was probably a bit too fast of a warm up. I started at the very back with some Pacific Association guys I normally race with, we all knew we would be in the back of the pack and wanted to stay out of the fast guys' way as best we could. I usually go out faster than they do, but I had a Covid over Thanksgiving and decided to run with them (I figured they would go out around at a reasonable pace given the conditions). It took us a good 20 seconds to get to the start line. Half way into the first lap, I looked down at my watch and saw they were running their fastest mile splits of the season and I decided not to stick with the pack as I wasn't feeling it, so I backed off. I was far from last, there were maybe two dozen people behind me. But I was in no man's land. Maybe three or four people behind me passed me after I backed off. I hoped they were going out too fast and would come back to me. But they ran their best races of the season and that was the last I saw of them.

I ran about what I planned to run given the conditions through 5k, but by then was being lapped by the front pack. I really tried to be cognizant of where I was and stay out of people's way. My soaked shirt and legs made me, despite red lining the first lap, cold. My legs went numb. I think I went borderline hypothermic. I almost stepped off the track (I think more than a few guys behind me did drop early and/or were told to run 6 laps by officials). Some guys from the 60+ race stayed and were cheering us on. So I kept going. The combination of being cold and constantly looking to the inside to stay out of the way made me lose my rhythm. I am usually in the back of the middle pack on the PA Circuit races, but have guys to race with. This race, I was in total no man's land. At one point, when a pack was passing me and I was in the middle of it, I got flashed the wrong number of laps by an official (I corrected and said this is how many I've run, this is why I think some of the guys behind me finished ahead of me, but I don't really consider that cheating, as they were just doing what they were told).

Basically by the 5th lap, I was just trying to keep moving. The leaders lapped me again, but this is where it got really crowded, as the leaders were lapping the mid pack guys who were lapping me. I completely lost my rhythm here and significantly slowed. The guy who let me stand under his team's tent passed me on the seventh lap (we both managed to avoid being lapped three times, moral victory). At this point, they started giving the women first call to the start line. I wanted to cheer for a few people I knew in that race, so the new goal became finishing before they started. I picked up the pace and passed (I think lapped, but who really knows as unless you were counting your own laps at the back of the pack, high chance officials gave you the wrong number, and again I don't think that matters and I think it was borderline impossible for them to track 350 guys) two guys on the last lap and ran a negative split for the last mile on my watch. I tried to sprint, but the legs were numb and just weren't there. I finished, got some Gatorade, and a too small Tshirt (I normally wouldn't care but I really wanted a dry shirt which would fit, so that was a bummer). The women's race started about twenty minutes after I finished.

The guys I normally run with ran were a few minutes ahead of me, and given the recent Covid I think I ran OK. After I got my drink, the women's race started. One person commented "what if I got my bib and started late," that oddly made me feel proud. "At least I rolled with it," I thought to myself. I watched the women's race, got a clean sweatshirt and then cheered for guys from the City I live in in the men's race.

I really have no business running a track 10k with Sergio Reyes, who is a former national marathon champion, Josh McAdams, who ran in the Olympics, Malcolm Richards, who holds the Indoor Track Marathon world record, or Ben Bruce, who ran in a few World Championship races, even on a 3/4 of a mile track. I'm the guy who gets excited when I place third in the Master's Division at a local 5k.

All in all, it was a unique experience that was oddly pure. It was basically, "whomever wants to run in this crappy weather, come on down, start here, finish here, and have a good time." A race I won't forget. And really appreciate the organizers finding a way where we could still race. I wish I was in better physical shape, and hadn't had to take two weeks off, as I bet I could've been pulled to a PR for 8k if I was feeling normal.

As frustrated as I am with USATF over the race, this is a very good take. Spot on.

I don't think we can put any sort of times on this, especially with runners not being able to run on the "rail". if these are fairly accurate that's a great time for Hocker, his 5k should be due for a PR.

Masters 40+ here.
I was a bit irritated at the delay and then quite pissed when I heard it may be cancelled. Here I am on the other side of the country, soaking wet with cross spikes on ready to go, let's just do it. We jokingly said if it was cancelled we'd go to the polo fields and unofficially race whomever - weird that's what happened. Throughout the delay I ran for a few minutes at a time on five different occasions and had no problems when the race started. The XC spikes where fine and a lot people seemed to have no problems wearing Dragonflys...not sure if I missed out on anything w/o the supershoe element. It did get quite hairy when the lapping started and I chose the muddy/flooded route a few times during the final laps. Overall, I'm glad we were able to go ahead, this is the kinda thing we will talk about for years to come. I really wanted to race the actual cross, it looked cool.

I've helped organize and RD'd a few small events- when you're up against city and park officials, you take what you can get. The club folks had quite the crunch of time and resources- you have to applaud the group of adults from various sides that got together and figured it out. Sure, it sucked we didn't get a firm timeline when they gave us an indefinite hold, but holy smokes, it was amazing we were underway on the track just over 45 minutes after things hit the fan. I also liked the choice of the gazebo for the start- easy to explain where that was! Plus the announcer was sure to rattle off various regional differences in nomenclature for said structure! I was in the middle of the, "Wait, this dude said the start is here..." since it was right next to our bivvy of choice, but it was evident to me it was a tangential discussion going on among a smaller group of people about the distance. 5 stars.

I hope lessons were learned going forward about communication. There needs to be a way to contact all entrants in the event of an emergency or change of plans. It was not handled well in that regard.

Honestly, it's amazing that it worked out as well as it did.

The irony of the situation is that when the delay happened, everyone went and stood under the largest trees they could find!

Sure, we'll just have all runners carry pagers now because because of this one race where a tree fell.

Everyone with any sense knew to stick around the start area for updates, or to have a coach or teammate do so.

Not every runner was a part of a club or had a coach who could stick around. How long, exactly, should those runners have been expected to stand in the cold, windy, rain? The only reason people had “sense to stick around” is because they knew info wasn’t coming any other way. Find me one person who would have rather had it how it was instead of a text message alerting them of the situation and letting them know a follow-up would be sent when more information is available.

What about individuals whose races later in the day had been pushed back? How were they to know? With limited parking, not everyone reported to the polo grounds prior to starting a warmup just to see if things we were on schedule. A lot of people were lucky that word traveled fast through the competitors themselves.

Also, I’m sure you found your own pager comment to be hilarious, but, yes, we all carry cell phones with us and supplied meet management with contact information at sign up. Just to be clear, you think standing in the cold rain with no directives is a better idea that management shooting a text with information?

USATF twitter account posted updated start times after the debacle.

Do you bring your cellphone to the start of the race? Or if you're running around in pouring rain?

If you were at the race by yourself and wanted to go warm up in your car, you could simply ask other runners for updates as they jogged by.