Rich on Running: Marathons can’t mess with Mother Nature

Not only do marathoners need to respect their limits, the marathon organizers themselves need to respect how much Mother Nature might limit their plans.The running community learned this twice in one year: First with record high temperatures compelling many runners to drop out of the Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day ? and second with the New York Marathon organizers calling the whole thing off in the wake of Superstorm Sandy this past fall.On Thursday, there was a fitting conclusion to the NYC non-marathon. Yesterday the New York Road Runners announced that would-be marathoners who didn’t drop out until late October would either get a refund; a guaranteed (but not free) spot in one of the next three Marathons; and a tentative spot (neither guaranteed nor free) in the NYC Half-Marathon in March.For the most part, this seems like the right response – albeit a bit tardy in coming. This seems to mirror the non-marathon itself. The Road Runners ultimately made the right call in canceling the marathon, but it took a fair amount of foot-dragging before they did it. They should have paid less attention to prestige, and more to New Yorkers struggling to cope with the storm. The only people who came off noble in the event were those who assembled at the Staten Island ferry terminal and opted to run a different route: a route on which they carried goods to distribute to people in need after the storm.Regarding the Road Runners’ decision on the refund ? well, better late than never. Marathoners paid between $216 to $347 to enter and in these tough economic times, everything helps. They only thing they won’t get back from management is the $11 processing fee. Of course, they also won’t get back the money they spent on transportation and lodging. However, I wouldn’t complain about this too much, given all the people who lost their homes in the storm.The Road Runners’ decision brings back thoughts of that sweltering spring day in Copley Square, when marathoners crossing the finish line in Boston did so after battling not just Heartbreak Hill, but also the heat in general.”With temperatures forecast in the high 80s, the B.A.A. (Boston Athletic Association) encouraged runners to skip April’s race and run next year instead,” the Associated Press reported on May 23, about one month after the Marathon. “To be eligible for a deferment, runners had to pick up their bib number but sit the race out.”The runners who did so numbered 2,160 and got a head start on registering for the race in August, before everyone else.Why do people go to so much trouble to organize, and run in, these races under such unfavorable conditions? Maybe it is just something about the running psyche. There is an element of stubbornness to runners. Why else would we pile on one extra mile onto our daily regimen? Why else would we shrug off that achy knee on the bike path? Why else do we keep running when it’s freezing out ? and wear shorts while doing it?This stubbornness extends to race organizers, with common sense and compassion being the casualties. The organizers in Boston did seem a little more proactive and better-prepared than the ones in New York. I hope the heat of April, and the superstorm of October, demonstrate the need for more flexible marathon-planning in the coming year.Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].