My Marathon cancelled to April 28

Contact your credit card company and do a "chargeback" because you never received the goods or services that you ordered.

You and the race management company have an agreement/contract that:

1. They would put on a race on this date

2. The race would be of this distance (in this case, a marathon)

3. You agree to pay X dollars for #s 1 and 2 above.

You agreed to #3. They did not fulfill #s 1 and 2.

ha ha you're fvcked

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Contact your credit card company and do a "chargeback" because you never received the goods or services that you ordered.

You and the race management company have an agreement/contract that:

1. They would put on a race on this date

2. The race would be of this distance (in this case, a marathon)

3. You agree to pay X dollars for #s 1 and 2 above.

You agreed to #3. They did not fulfill #s 1 and 2.

I'm not sure how this works with a credit card company. They may be gracious and refund your money. However, the credit card company will still be paying for the race.

BHM 26.2 clearly explains (like many races do) that in the case that a race is cancelled or if you cannot make it that the race fee will be converted to a donation to the charity. You can read about a legal case here:

Once you agree to those terms, you have to follow through with them.

Blondie Gurl Run-r wrote:

Has anyone done this race before. It's only the second year

Also - I have done this race before. Ran it last year. It's a great race. Was planning on doing the half on Sunday. I've previewed the course and there are some awesome hills to test you.

One thing to note is that April weather in Alabama is no joke. Once those confidence levels rise for severe weather, there's no sense in risking anyone's safety. I'm rather happy the race was proactive in delaying the race (it isn't cancelled BTW) a few weeks because with the forecasts where they are now, we probably would have been waking up to bad news that the race was actually cancelled.

Hey Blondie,

Your marathon wasn’t cancelled. It was postponed. Run it on the new date. Or don’t. This thread is useless without pics.

Fair points and thanks for the actual answer from someone who knew what race it was/has run it.

Love the "Your race fee with be converted to a donation to the charity" line...the skeptic in me says "yeah, like this really happens".

Hello The Captain Obvious,

Yes. That’s is what I said. My Marathon was cancelled for this week and moved to April 28. Do other Marathons do this?

Do I just have a four week taper or should I go back to running?

That sucks, I'm sorry. I'm a long time runner but only did a marathon once years ago. So, take my advice with a grain of salt.

I guess you've already tapered. I wouldn't try to 'maintain the taper' as you'll detrain. I think most people taper too much anyway. My recommendation:

April 13/14: 2 hours or 20 miles (whichever comes first)

Week of April 15: match your highest milage week from the last 2 months, do at least one workout, e.g. 5x7min hard

April 20/21: 90min, last 60min at goal pace

then start cutting it back

Or, just find a new race this weekend.

I agree with kokoro that you can still get some quality runs in.

I'm running a marathon on the 28th and am doing a 10 day taper (Hansons Advanced), so I still have two workouts left to do next week (Tuesday and Thursday). I will probably run do a 13-15 mile run on Sunday (the schedule calls for 10 miles, but I have been doing longer long runs than called for). Don't let yourself detrain and get some quality runs in.

And the run you are doing is for charity anyway, so don't get too wound up over the money. It sounds like it is going to a good cause.

Do all runners run charity miles? I saw that this race in Alabama is 100% charity but I don’t know how that works.

Thank you Non-Blonde for the training plan for next few weeks. Good luck in your race on the 28th.

Blondie Gurl Run-r wrote:

Hello The Captain Obvious,

Yes. That’s is what I said. My Marathon was cancelled for this week and moved to April 28. Do other Marathons do this?

Do I just have a four week taper or should I go back to running?

You keep using that word (cancelled). I’m not sure you know what it means.

decide or announce that (a planned event) will not take place.

If there was a marathon planned for April 14 and it is not going to take place, then it wa s cancelled.

Whether or not it is rescheduled is an independant issue of the cancellation.

Go back to training and taper the week before.

You will most likely benefit from the rest.

I have run 15 marathons and qualified for the Olympic trials btw.

Your mind needs to hit reset too, that might be the most important part.

Good luck.

I find the semantic argument over the meaning of ‘cancelled’ hilarious. (Seriously? It’s postponed, not cancelled. Be precise, people.)

And ditto on the weather. Since 2011, we don’t mess around when the indicators line up.

Urban B wrote:

I find the semantic argument over the meaning of ‘cancelled’ hilarious. (Seriously? It’s postponed, not cancelled. Be precise, people.)

You could say that it is more concise to use "postponed" rather than "cancelled and rescheduled" but both mean the same thing.

Bystandingly innocent...... wrote:

Urban B wrote:

I find the semantic argument over the meaning of ‘cancelled’ hilarious. (Seriously? It’s postponed, not cancelled. Be precise, people.)

You could say that it is more concise to use "postponed" rather than "cancelled and rescheduled" but both mean the same thing.

They don’t mean the same thing. Cancelled and rescheduled is an oxymoran.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Contact your credit card company and do a "chargeback" because you never received the goods or services that you ordered.

You and the race management company have an agreement/contract that:

1. They would put on a race on this date

2. The race would be of this distance (in this case, a marathon)

3. You agree to pay X dollars for #s 1 and 2 above.

You agreed to #3. They did not fulfill #s 1 and 2.

This is very bad advice. If you do this the race would be within its rights to invoice you and then, if you don’t pay, send you to collections and ban you from all future races organized by the same group. Ive seen this done, and it’s not worth the potential downside.

Most of the training advice in here has been good, though (and the semantics discussion has been highly entertaining)!

#TeamPostponed

Urban B,

May I ask you what happened with the weather in 2011 that made Marathons cancel and make runners stranded with out a place to race?

And thank you every body for the advice on the taper situation.

My friend down there sent me a text last night saying it was going to be canceled. The email today said it will be on the 28. On FB people asked to defer. What does that mean? This is my first marathon and want to get it right.

TheNoBeardRunner,

You said that the weather could be bad down there in April and if that is true why would they plan a Marathon for then?