UKH

Well there must be a lot of disappointed runners today! I was amazed at how late the Reading Half was cancelled and I have to confess I am very happy to be warm and dry this morning. Now looking for an alternative half or similar in the next couple of months.

Others perhaps have interesting tales of cancellation or failure to cancel, this weekend or in the past?

The Grizzly was partly cancelled last night. They normally have two races a 20 mile race, The Grizzly and a 10 mile on The Cub. It's mostly off road and it would have been really difficult to rescue people had they got injured, really cold etc on the longer run. As some people had already travelled they decided to put on a modified shorter run.

Like you I've stayed at home, I couldn't have driven to Seaton from where I am anyway. Going for a snowy run after lunch

Shame about the Grizzly. Further west, the Falmouth Half and the Tavy 13 were both cancelled. Bizarrely, in between these two I was able to go for a short run under a blue sky this morning, although it looks a lot more menacing now. I think snow is about to fall.

The Hardmoors 55 mile ultra went ahead yesterday in what was reported to be some pretty horrific conditions.  My club mate said his right eye froze over for an hour!

The newport half marathon was cancelled today for the second time after it was cancelled the last time because of the first load of snow. That must be really irritating for everyone, runners and organisers. 

My first two bike races have been cancelled, which although both have been the right decision is getting a bit frustrating. I was training in shorts on Tuesday and Thursday, then on Saturday it was Baltic again...

The 2012 Rutland Water Marathon wasn’t cancelled. It was November, raining and about 3’C not including the wind coming off the lake.

One footpath was under 4” of water. 

It was a nightmare. Lots of very unhappy people on Runners world and Facebook. I spoke to the organiser and he said they’d had problems transporting both hypothermic runners and marshals.

They didn’t run the race again. 

Luckily my half round Eton Dorney lake Sat morning went ahead. It was snowing lightly at that time. It was grey, cold and with a surprisingly tiring cross-wind though. Worst part was not being able to feel my face when I finished and my right hand fingers taking half an hour or so to defrost!

I've just seen on your profile you've done a 3:10 Grizzly! Wow great time.

Thank you! I was dead chuffed with that. It was in 2015, on the back of six months of consecutive 50+ mile weeks, and 5000 miles in two years. Shortly after, I cracked a rib and haven't got close to that level or volume of training since. 

The Brown Willy Run takes place each year in Cornwall on New Year's Day. About 400 runners do it and it is for charity. One year I did it, the next, two or three years ago I marshalled. I was 'injured'. Honestly, I'd rather have run it. It is 7-8 miles, goes from the Jamaica Inn, across Bodmin Moor to the top of Brown Willy and back again. It was cold, very, very boggy all the way to our marshalling point, and raining. They didn't cancel, but why would they? I even saw people doing it in vests. The horror! Anyway, the sleeveless and the rest got an especially vigorous hand clap from a marshall just trying, but failing, to keep the circulation going. I wouldn't have liked to do that for another couple of hours.

I live round the corner (ish) from Reading. I had to drive to Oxford after lunch yesterday and back at about 7pm. Going up the roads were clear, even actually dry, despite the forecast and snow being in the air.  At about 6 a shit storm hit and transformed everything in about 2 hours.

Yes - definitely right to cancel.

The Hardmoors 55 ended up being cancelled and mountain rescue had to get involved!

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16095407.100_runners_rescued_from_snowy_con...

This was the message to athletes taking part in the English Schools XC in Leeds yesterday: 

‘The weather forecast is brrr... with strong cold winds bringing maybe about 20mm of snow...perhaps...no more. This is normal cross country weather in England and the Championships will go ahead as planned. This is your chance to decry the increasing perception that kids nowadays are 'snowflakes'! Turn up. Run. Get cold. Get muddy. Enjoy getting warm again! This is proper cross country weather.’

Thanks for giving me a chance to vent my frustrations at the running Gods...my last FOUR event haven't gone to plan!

• Nottingham Half Marathon (Sep 2017) - injured (first time I've had to miss an event).
• Abbey Dash 10k (Leeds, Nov 2017) - I was tripped at 2k and hit the deck hard, continued to the end bleeding and wimpering.  Slow!
• Cheshire 10k (Mar 2018) - cancelled on the morning of the event (waterlogged car parking).
• Lincoln 10k (Today) - cancelled on the morning of the event (snow, ice etc. etc.)

Getting a bit grumpy!

Anyone suggest a 10k - flat, road, PB-potential - in the coming weeks, within a couple of hours of Sheffield?  Please...!

That was certainly the right call. But I think there is a big difference between XC small loops when safety is around the next bend and a 55 mile ultra.

However its a 55 mile ultra over high terrain in March.. this should not have had this much of an issue. I've done the 40+ mile HPM in March over similarish terrain a few times and I'm pretty confident anything thrown at us we'd get to safety with the gear we carry and experience most have (most important).

I think there is too much reliance on gear though and less on personal responsibility.

Strangely in the litigious USA gear requirements are much less stringent. I've done 30 mile races in brutal conditions with little gear requirements out here.. They look at your experience. 

Quite a contrast to when I did that half in 2012. Probably one of the hottest March weekends I've known - it was about 22 degrees Celsius with some serious sunburn potential!

The weather for Lakes in a Day was appalling last year but I think the organiser was right not to cancel it.  However, there were a number of cases of hypothermia caused in some cases by people not carrying the required equipment for the weather which in that case was no surprise and had been forecast for days at least.

The kit lists on that kind of race are not there for a laugh, and LIAD makes it clear that they are a bare minimum and you should adapt based on weather.  I went out with full hillwalking kit (other than shoes) including a couple of fleeces and a hillwalking waterproof rather than a lightweight one (and a heavy orange bivi bag rather than a foil blanket which would have been pointless in the strongly windy conditions).  Apart from the bivi bag I very much needed the lot.  Yet my 30 litre rucksack was just about the biggest bag carried by anyone there.  OK, some people will have had quite expensive technical kit (and also noting that I am very much not a classic runner in build terms - XL warm stuff takes up a lot more space than S), but some people had barely more than a stuffed-full Platypus bag type thing; there is no way they were doing anything other than a tick-box exercise.

It does sound like in this case most people had heeded such warnings, though, as per this quote:

"Carl Faulkner, Cleveland Team Leader, said:  "The events last night show how important it is to be prepared when you head out into the hills or on the Moors; because each Hardmoors competitor was well equipped- with appropriate winter clothing and knew how to read a map and use a compass, they were able to keep moving until they reached a place of safety."

Obviously races in towns are different as if you're really getting cold there are enough pubs and coffee places to duck into, but in this kind of weather while you might want to "be bold and start cold" you really do need to carry warmer stuff with you if there is any significant part of the route where that will not be viable if, say, you turn your ankle and can't move easily or quickly.

The problem with vetting runners based on experience is that it can be difficult to find an event to "get in".  It is only because of Lakes in a Day's open entry policy (and long cut-offs) that I've even tried doing ultras.

Of course experience isn’t the same as wisdom. Ben Mounsey got caught out a few years ago in a race that I did.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/benmounsey.net/2015/11/30/bad-education/amp/

Another runner, someone who has completed (and competed) every hard race going, ended up in hospital.

True,

I take a lot of risks when racing but will just DNF is I get too cold. I don't go out intending to last going slow in the cold. Obviously the risks you take are less if say doing the HPM in March.

But I did a mountain trail marathon in NY state a few years ago, over a few 4000 ft peaks and seriously considered canning it when I got into one of the huts. It was cold, wet and windy and I wasn't keeping a pace to keep warm, but in the end I realized I basically had one summit more and then down so kept going.

Generally I think most front runners go out to win or place high and a DNF isn't a huge issue so we take greater risks. 

Shoddy reporting. Everyone was suitably equipped and experienced to get themselves off the hill, but mountain rescue, being there in any case to provide support, went out to meet them to make sure they were OK. 

The Heptonstall Fell Race was cancelled on Sunday, mainly because of the impossibility of getting to the start. We ran the route anyway (parked in Hebden Bridge), there were cars in the village completely buried under the snow and we had to wade through waist-deep drifts to get to the hills.

Some accurate info on the Hardmoors

http://ajc-runninglate.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/2018-hardmoors-55-one-runners...

Hi Simon. That's a helpful version of what actually happened. I was fortunate enough to run the route and finish before the decision was made to stop runners at Kildale. Although it was cold and pretty windy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the organisers deserve enormous credit for the way they managed what was after all a winter event.  

Hi Simon. That's a helpful version of what actually happened. I was fortunate enough to run the route and finish before the decision was made to stop runners at Kildale. Although it was cold and pretty windy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the organisers deserve enormous credit for the way they managed what was after all a winter event.  

Heptonstall is being run this Sunday. I won’t doing it, supporting my other half doing a 75k, also those steps!

Yes, we were there. Only had to knock 4 minutes off my time to break the three hour barrier, so in perfect spring weather I duly added 11 minutes instead, for a personal worst