Vermont City Marathon Stops Marathon Prematurely

Blorunner wrote:

RD was prepared though. They originally had water every 2 miles for the first 12, that changed to every mile for the entire 26. At the end of each water stop there were cups of ice and ice cold towels. Those towels was a godsend. It was hot, hot, hot.

Echoing this post; I don't think I went more than a quarter of a mile without being sprayed by a hose, sprinkler, open fire hydrant, or something like that. Huge, HUGE respect for the number of spectators gettin' it done for the runners at Buffalo this weekend. Great energy through almost the entire course, especially helpful during the tough 17-20 mile stretch north of Delaware Park. It was a bad race for me, but would have been a real death march without the crowd support.

Buffalo Resident wrote:

Echoing this post; I don't think I went more than a quarter of a mile without being sprayed by a hose, sprinkler, open fire hydrant, or something like that. Huge, HUGE respect for the number of spectators gettin' it done for the runners at Buffalo this weekend. Great energy through almost the entire course, especially helpful during the tough 17-20 mile stretch north of Delaware Park. It was a bad race for me, but would have been a real death march without the crowd support.

I think that VCM did a decent job. I think they just haven't faced this in the past and so they weren't fully prepared. They added water stations and misting stations and ice and fans were out there.

But the last 5 miles are on a bike path. Very few spectators and while they had water every mile at that point in the race, people were struggling to make it to the next mile. Also the humidity rose a lot at that point. the last 4-5 miles were horrendous.

HiJack wrote:

You guys are highjacking a thread on a side topic, but...

Back in the 70's there were less races so Boston may have been THE race to run in the spring. Now there's marathon every weekend in every part of the country, so those 220's-230s guys are spread all over the place.

Nice try. Truth is that Boston has become a parade of facebook posers and soccer moms. Pretty much everyone who toed the line in the 70s and 80s was fast. Everyone cared about winning, not just finishing. We didn't need finishers medals back in the day to motivate us.We were all about testing our limits and running fast.

Does anyone think the BAA will allow for adjusting finishing times based on the extreme weather at the VCM marathon? I just saw where they adjusted times for the Chattanooga marathon where the course was half a mile or so short.

I heard from people in the 4+ hour crowd that the waterstops along the highway had ran out of water...that sounds like a failure on the RDs part of true, especially since the race was hyping up the extra preparations for the heat. But there may be circumstances I'm not aware of since I've never put on a race.

I'm with RunVermont, first chance to check in on the board since Sunday. Tough day out there, kudos to those who had the guts to give it their best. A few notes:

--We use the ACSM recommendations for exercising/competing in the heat. Not all races do, so I can't speak to anybody else's policies. We monitor WBGT at 3 locations on the course, every 15 minutes. Above 82WBGT moves us into the black zone. If we have 3 consecutive black zone readings at 2 of our 3 measurement sites the race moves into interrupt status. Note that WBGT is more than air temp. I believe it's possible for the air temp to be >90 and WBGT below 82, and I also believe it's possible for the air temp to be

Sorry guys my response got cut off. Dang! Will try to remember what I wrote and post it later.

d2xccoach wrote:

Sorry guys my response got cut off. Dang! Will try to remember what I wrote and post it later.

From those who ran the race, it sounds like you guys were not prepared for the weather. Hopefully, races like yours will take what your learned and use it to make future races better for runners.

Ill Prepped wrote:

From those who ran the race, it sounds like you guys were not prepared for the weather. Hopefully, races like yours will take what your learned and use it to make future races better for runners.

It sounds like everyone complaining the race organizers were not prepared "heard about it from their running buddies"... I'm not sure I remember anyone on this thread saying "I ran this race this year and the race ran out of water and didn't have enough medical staff tending to the runners".

Do you REALLY think a race who increased their water stock 20-30% and increased aid stations ran out of water even though they stopped the race after just 4 hours?!?! That just doesn't add up.

ekw wrote:

Ill Prepped wrote:

From those who ran the race, it sounds like you guys were not prepared for the weather. Hopefully, races like yours will take what your learned and use it to make future races better for runners.

It sounds like everyone complaining the race organizers were not prepared "heard about it from their running buddies"... I'm not sure I remember anyone on this thread saying "I ran this race this year and the race ran out of water and didn't have enough medical staff tending to the runners".

Do you REALLY think a race who increased their water stock 20-30% and increased aid stations ran out of water even though they stopped the race after just 4 hours?!?! That just doesn't add up.

Yes. Running out of water at early aid stations has nothing to do with halting the race after 4.5 hours.

Adder of things wrote:

ekw wrote:

It sounds like everyone complaining the race organizers were not prepared "heard about it from their running buddies"... I'm not sure I remember anyone on this thread saying "I ran this race this year and the race ran out of water and didn't have enough medical staff tending to the runners".

Do you REALLY think a race who increased their water stock 20-30% and increased aid stations ran out of water even though they stopped the race after just 4 hours?!?! That just doesn't add up.

Yes. Running out of water at early aid stations has nothing to do with halting the race after 4.5 hours.

So how was the race "not prepared" for the weather as the previous poster mentioned?

ekw wrote:

Ill Prepped wrote:

From those who ran the race, it sounds like you guys were not prepared for the weather. Hopefully, races like yours will take what your learned and use it to make future races better for runners.

It sounds like everyone complaining the race organizers were not prepared "heard about it from their running buddies"... I'm not sure I remember anyone on this thread saying "I ran this race this year and the race ran out of water and didn't have enough medical staff tending to the runners".

Do you REALLY think a race who increased their water stock 20-30% and increased aid stations ran out of water even though they stopped the race after just 4 hours?!?! That just doesn't add up.

They ran out of water on the Highway, which is in the early miles. Even if they didn't completely run out, it wasn't available to the slower runners. The newspaper articles on the race mention volunteers at water stops scrambling to find alternative sources for water. Not surprising that other sources werent available on the highway portion.

No, I didn't experience directly, but believe my sources 100%....also 4+ hour marathoners don't post on here so you won't get any first hand accounts.

I think when they started to run out of water they had no choice but to stop the race. They probably made the right call to CYA.

There was a marathon in Binghamton, NY that let everyone finish- it was into the 90's at the hottest.

When was it?

The race was this past Sunday.

I completed the race in a little over five hours so did not get an official time. I am a slow runner and won't apologize for that. It was, by far, my slowest marathon though.

The spectators were fantastic! Lots of water and hoses. I really owe the woman who gave my a cold towel to put around my neck. I kept filling it with ice and it really helped.

They did run out of water on the Beltline (miles 4 through 8), which was a real problem for those of us at the back of the race. After that, though, I had no water issues.

I wish I had been told that the race would be canceled. The forecast said it would be 86 degrees. I don't know what the "wet bulb" forecast was or if such a forecast exists. If it does, and the anticipated forecast was over 82, I would've wanted to know that.

Oh well. Time to start training for the half ironman.

Willy Gee wrote:

I really owe the woman who gave my a cold towel to put around my neck. I kept filling it with ice and it really helped.

That was me, sonny. Can you bring my towel back, sweetie.

I received the following in an email from Run Vermont shortly after the race. I finished earlier in the day and before the clouds provided shade around noon it was totally brutal out there and I'm fully supportive of their decision.

Now to address the questions that have come to us and mitigate the rumors:

Medical was overwhelmed - not true, they were certainly very busy but still had capacity to accept more patients if needed. Interestingly, the demand for medical attention abated very shortly after the race was terminated, even with the continuing flow of runners.

You knew the weather ahead of time so you should have canceled the race before it started - we did know the weather and our 5:30am forecast on race day projected conditions that would have stayed within the High Risk area of the Emergency Alert System which would be acceptable conditions to conduct an event. Some requested an earlier start time which was explored but deemed not possible as public safety resources could not be re-scheduled on short notice.

Why were runners allowed to continue if the race was over? - Very simple, as a race organization, we have no authority to make someone comply with our practices, and neither do the police. If the race is over, then the course becomes open to public access.

The 50 States Club will only honor those included within the "Official Results" - this one is true. And we support their position as they wish to encourage their members to follow the rules and practices of event organizers across the country.

This will ruin my chance to qualify for Boston - only if you're a woman of 65 and over or a man of 75 and over. All other age groups have qualifying times under 4:30.

I won't be eligible to complete the New England Double - by mutual agreement between RunVermont and the Hartford Marathon Foundation any runner that passed the 13.1 split time on Sunday will be included in the program.

I won't be eligible to complete the RunVermont Grand Prix - and just like the New England Double, any runner who received a 13.1 split time on Sunday will be included in the program.

Our team and our Board of Directors are just as disappointed as every one of you who were out there training for months, only to be denied the satisfaction of your accomplishment by factors beyond your control. Just like you, our team has been working for months to plan and execute this event. And we're runners just like you, we get it. That's why we immediately decided to award medals to anyone who was brave enough to make the attempt on Sunday... that effort deserves a medal.

There were certainly shortcomings in our implementation; inconsistent messages on the course, aid station resupply timing and transportation delays that we'll learn from and make the necessary adjustments. Finally, the end goal of this system is to ensure the safety of our runners, and to that measure the system did just what it was intended to do - everyone got to go home afterwards.

And we're runners just like you, we get it. That's why we immediately decided to award medals to anyone who was brave enough to make the attempt on Sunday... that effort deserves a medal.

And there you go folks. That is the mindset of our running society now.

Hey, you couldn't finish a marathon, but you tried, so we'll give you a finisher's medal anyway. Your "effort" deserves a medal.