Unforeseen Circumstances

Remember my August 4th half-marathon? The one I've been training for for months? Look at the message they sent out yesterday... YESTERDAY!!!

Dear Participant:

Thank you for registering for the (race).
We are sorry to announce that we have canceled the Half Marathon, 10K and Kids Fun Run due to unforeseen circumstances.
We will be issuing a full race refund within the next two weeks.

What the what?! Two weeks out and you cancel a race?? WDDDA??? I had been stalking the website for weeks for details on the course route. It always said the same thing: Course route coming soon! Wednesday night, I sent an email to the race series asking for details on the route. I decided right then I wasn't registering until I heard back from them regarding that.

Thank God I'm a member of a national running group! Before workers at the race series could respond (if they ever will), I saw several people post the message you see above. What is an unforeseen circumstance??? This is a national race series!!! Granted, they mostly focus on triathlons but they've held running only races in other cities. I would hope you know what goes into planning a race to not have "unforeseen circumstances"! And what does that mean?? Oh the mystery! On twitter, I'd ordinarily play a game where we think of the most outrageous reasons to cancel a race. You may feel free to do that in the comments. I'll start: they heard of a cholera outbreak that day and decided to cancel the event just to be safe.

I'd picked this race because it was the perfect confluence of my needs: near home, far enough out (at the time) that I could have a comfortably long training period, inexpensive. This race peaked at $60 on race day, whereas half marathons usually cost $70+ WEEKS out and upwards of $150 on race day. I guess you get what you pay for? Or don't get what you pay for. Or don't get what you don't pay for. (LOL) I'm just glad they're giving refunds to those who registered without a hassle. Many races have a no refunds policy, which when they cancel (or postpone) the race, OF COURSE, makes people very angry.

Anyway, I quickly transitioned from shock over the cancellation to making my peace with it. Just the day before, I'd done what I thought was my last double digit run before my half. I was excited that even with a bathroom break (which I normally don't take during runs), I was able to shave 23 minutes off of my first 13-mile run. And yet, I knew I wanted to shave even more time, preferably at least 7 more minutes. Plus, the more you run a distance, the more comfortable you become with that distance. So a few more times running it? Sounds good to me! I'll get better and better at pacing myself. This also gives me time to continue with the strength training I've begun and re-start my speed work. We'll also be further out from the hottest part of the year so HALLELUJAH to that! I won't have to wake up before the sun to get my runs in. YAY!!! The only drawback is I have no idea where we'll be living by September so it really doesn't even do me any good to search for a race. But in the grand scheme? That's a minor thing. I'm gonna go ahead and claim these "circumstances" (couldn't find enough grass-fed cows to fly in and hand-butcher for the post-race party?) as for the best. Hey! At least I won't get cholera!

**Update: I did some sleuthing on their facebook page. For the last week, they've been saying they were waiting for course approval from the city/county/DOT. Ummm... what???