Our main concern is the safety of our members. And as we have grown, how we execute things in a safe manner has had to change. Yes, yes, all of you old school folk will say, “but we ran in 3 feet of snow over blocks of ice on the causeway and only timed the uphill portions and did it all with no shoes on!” And that was Ok when there were only 17 of you.
We still believe in the “old school” values and will always try to hold the race – if our volunteers and runners can get safely to the park and run a safe route (even if it means modifying the course). Sometimes, just slowing down and that will at least allow us to get in a run, so we change the race to an informal – no clocks, but you get 5 participation points. And well, as last year taught us, sometimes mother nature just wins. (note, if we cancel a race, as we did last week, we also “count” 1 less race in the results)
The park has traditionally done a very good job of getting out to clear certain areas – some roads/paths have to be plowed due to the fact that residents need access – but there are some areas that do not get plowed or salted. We have a pretty good idea of what gets cleared and we try to find a way to work with those areas. We also keep salt in the shed.
Our goal is to try to make a decision no later than 8a. If we don’t have the final decision at that time, we will at least post an update with a final decision absolutely no later than 8:30. We post on Facebook, Yahoo group and on the club’s website. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do any of these posts this year, but we weren’t so lucky. I’m hoping there are no issues this week or the next or the next or the next or the next (well, next week I’d be OK skipping Terrible Tyler, but that’s just selfish!), but we are prepared and will keep everyone posted. Thanks!