When I got up this morning, there was a steady heavy rain. I looked at my weather app to see 55 degrees and rain most of the morning with a bit of wind.
I should not complain about the rain. My front lawn has turned three shades of brown with the lack of moisture, two shades of crunchy.
My typical Saturday morning run is an easy six miles. As I have said in the past, I never want to skip a training run because it is raining. I’ll never know when I will need to run a race in the rain.
It may have been more challenging to get out the door this morning. I dressed for the wet forecast, put on an old pair of shoes, and donned my rain hat. Is mixing odd colors the first sign of dementia?
Typically, I start out walking for about a minute. This morning, I ran right out of the door into a torrential downpour, large puddles, and stiff winds.
I made it through my six miles. Still recovering from last week’s marathons, I took walking breaks every ten minutes.
Last weekend, 21 runners in a 100 km ultramarathon in China perished between 30 and 40 km into the course. I heard news reports on the radio and read a couple of internet articles on the incident.
There were 157 starters in temperatures just above freezing and rain. Most of the competitors were wearing shorts and t-shirts, some had on sleeves.
Just after 30 km, the course started up a steep climb on an open mountainside. During the rise, heavy rain started, including heavy winds. On this mountainside, the 21 either continued until collapsing, got off course, or unsuccessfully tried to seek shelter until help arrived. It took 12 to 24 hours for rescue to find the fallen. The top six male competitors were part of the 21.
No participants made it to the top of the climb. Those who turned around and headed back to the previous aid station or huddled in groups survived.
Then came the story about the deaths being the fault of the race organizers. That, the organizers are only in it for the profit motive as the sport of long-distance trail running has boomed in the past couple of years, and the organizers should have had a list of required equipment.
From my perspective, as an ultramarathon race organizer and ultrarunner, as long as the race organizers provided the aid as promised, only me, the runner, is responsible for my demise. If an elite runner can not get up a mountain, how should they expect rescue to get there?
The race had a significant prize money pool. Perhaps the prize money carrot pushed the front runners past their sensible limit. The young think they are indestructible. With age, I know I’m not.
The race did have a list of required equipment which included a cell phone and GPS beacon.
As a runner, I need to produce my equipment list to match the forecasted weather during the event. I know I’ll take 15 or more hours to finish 100km. I need to pack for cold, rain, and darkness.
By knowing how to read an hourly weather forecast, I can be reasonably sure of my needs. We’re lucky in the US with NOAA providing good detailed information and reporting on sites as weather.com or wunderground.
I need to know how to read a map and understand the course layout. I should never have to depend on a course marshal or arrow to tell me which way to turn. If I have not memorized the map of the area, I’d better be taking a waterproof contoured map with me.
Like this morning’s in the rain, the runs help me test and better understand my clothing options. So, my next training run at 35 degrees and heavy rain will be another test rather than a reason to take a day off.
An observation from the 2018 Boston Marathon with temps in the 30s, high headwinds, and driving rain. Does that sound familiar? None of the significant apparel manufacturers had the necessary clothing available to protect their elite runners. Or, the elites never trained in those conditions or equipment. Most looked unprepared.
If you are interested in running your first ultra and need a little guidance on clothing and preparations, check out entries in my book “Go for 25”, now on sale in Kindle and paperback formats on Amazon.
The Chinese Government has banned all ultra and trail races in China until safety measures are put in place.
At first, I thought they were punishing all organizers for the issues with one event.
Upon further review, the organizers of the failed event were a subset of the Chinese Government. All events and companies in China are government owned and operated.
One recommendation is to enhance a participants required equipment list. I would rather have an enhanced waiver and event information and make a choice for myself.