February 10, 2013 was the 2013 Hypothermic half. It was also the day after the Nor'easter named Nemo. *Insert eyeroll here* I think in total we got 40 cm of snow. 30 cm or so overnight on Friday, and then another 10 cm or so overnight on Saturday. Leading to raceday on Sunday.
As long as it wasn't snowing on Sunday and the route was relatively ok, I was bound and determined to run.
The race was supposed to take place in Eastern Passage. (The course and the starting place had changed even prior to the storm). Once wind of the storm took hold the organizers decided that they would move it from Eastern Passage where the roads were certain to not be plowed to Dartmouth Crossing, where the roads would have been plowed. There is apparently a 1 mile path that goes around the Village shops. The plan was to do this loop 13 times. That doesn't sound that bad. Plus it was a flat course. YAY!
They gave people the option to run in Dartmouth Crossing. You could run it on your own at a later date and email them (honour system), or the two running room stores were offering up routes next Sunday to run.
Got up at 6:30 looked outside, made coffee and then contemplated my day. It wasn't that cold. And it wasn't really windy. -6 temp with a -14 windchill. Talked with the friend I was going with and we were still not sure. In the end at 7:30, she opted out. I got dressed and headed out.
Got to Empire Theatre in Dartmouth Crossing and was really surprised at the amount of people there. I should have taken a picture. I spoke to one of the volunteers about the route and I guess HRM limited them to the Empire Theatre parking lot. That's a whole lot of yuck. If the loop is anything less than a km, we were looking at over 20 laps around and around and around. And around.
I sat in my truck watching people arrive, and watched people walk around, and watched the organizers try and get things set up. The parking lot is one big open space and the snow was being blown around pretty fierce. Along with people.
I just didn't feel right supporting that. Running is supposed to be fun. Relatively speaking. I don't think it would have been dangerous. They were doing what they could to keep people safe. Keeping people contained in a parking lot. But it just would have been a miserable run.
There were also no porta-potties. I personally can't run 20km without having to go to the bathroom.
And then looking at the people that were there, they were definitely hard core runners. These people would have been finished the half in 2 hours easy. There ain't nobody going to want to stand around waiting for a three hour finisher to run in those conditions.
So in the end, I said screw it. I will run it from the Bedford Running Room next Sunday. Came home and ran on the treadmill.
Do I think they should have cancelled it? I don't know. There were a lot of people ready to run this morning. 100 or so, by the time I finally left at about ten minutes before the gun. That's pretty significant, I think. There were less than that for the Falmouth Freezer last year and that still went on. I drove to that too. I think that if they had been able to come up with a route that was longer than a few hundred metres, I would have stayed. At least we would have been able to have some semblance of shelter running between the buildings.
Anyway, it's time to hit the shower and get ready for the Hypo Half brunch. That is still going on.
