Vermont City Marathon Stops Marathon Prematurely

The temps were actually closer to the 90s when they cancelled at noon. They were expected a cool breeze blowing off Lake Champlain but IMO it was actually a pretty warm breeze.

Good thing they cancelled too since people were collapsing as early as mile five. Having those 4-5 hour runners dying kinda ruins your race reputation.

RD said anyone finishing under 4:30 would get official timing and any participants would get the medal. What else are they going to do with thousands of medals that blatantly say VCM 2016?

one degree from the record setting day in 1978. It was hot.

The problem is not wussification.

The problem is that we're now the United States of Frivolous Litigation.

They cancelled the race, but did not refund any money. If I had paid by credit card I would have done a charge back.

Wussification Nation wrote:

Will the wussification of America ever stop?

If you don't like it you can just geeeeeeeeeeeeeeet out.

Let's be clear - those who were affected are the 4+ hour crowd, who are the most likely to overestimate their fitness & ability to cope with the heat. I trust the RD to estimate the health of most of these runners better than the runners themselves. Completely agree with the decision.

Matt P still ran a 2:23 in that heat.

Blah Blah Blah. wrote:

They cancelled the race, but did not refund any money. If I had paid by credit card I would have done a charge back.

So you would have taken longer than 4 1/2 hours to complete?

I don't think you can do a charge back if you agreed to the race's terms and conditions, and they included reasons for cancellation.

I ran. It was warm, but didn't think it was so hot that ghe race needed to be canceled.

Are they refunding those who couldn't finish or offering free entry to another race? I think that would be fair.

Think again, I agree, you nailed it. A big part of the problem though is heavier runners can't dissipate heat as well as the prototypical ectomorph. Add to that a lack of training for hot weather and many more participants and you've got a recipe for someone to sue the race organizers. Ironic that 40 years ago the Boston Marathon was held in 100 degree weather. I don't need to tell LRC readers how admirably most of the field performed back then compared to the current day.

Heat affects everyone differently.

I thought it was a death march out there it.

The temp at the start was 75 sunny and humid and they called it when it hit 88 and was still very humid.

2012 Boston hit 87 I think with less humidity but at the start the temp was 65 a full 10 degrees cooler.

It was hot

Marty C wrote:

Think again, I agree, you nailed it. A big part of the problem though is heavier runners can't dissipate heat as well as the prototypical ectomorph. Add to that a lack of training for hot weather and many more participants and you've got a recipe for someone to sue the race organizers. Ironic that 40 years ago the Boston Marathon was held in 100 degree weather. I don't need to tell LRC readers how admirably most of the field performed back then compared to the current day.

I'm a big fat guy and I love hot weather running while all the ectomorph runners I know whine when it gets above 70.

It's dumb to shut it down. People push themselves beyond their fitness and collapse in cool weather also. More collapse when it's hot, but the race shouldn't be liable. It's not their fault it's hot and it's not their fault that people don't know their limits.

Those are Bernie Sanders people. They never finish anything. VT is a nanny state.

Marty C wrote:

Ironic that 40 years ago the Boston Marathon was held in 100 degree weather.

Is "Ironic" your way of saying that you are about to type a complete falsehood?

N0bama... wrote:

Marty C wrote:

Ironic that 40 years ago the Boston Marathon was held in 100 degree weather.

Is "Ironic" your way of saying that you are about to type a complete falsehood?

100 is the ironic way to write 86.

No doubt that race organizers could have handled it better. It was a clusterF out there.

Maybe

Sounds like Buffalo officials handled it much better than Vermont. Just as steamy, but we're prepared better. Put more water on the course, extra stations, start time change, etc.