Putting out fires

I always have a plan when organizing a road race. But things happen. An example of this was our 10th Kelly's Logan House 5k held Saturday. On Thursday morning prior to race day I read in the News Journal about a funeral to be held at 10am Saturday at St. Ann's Church. This church is on our race route. I called the funeral director and he stated that they would be gone by noon and yes....a huge crowd was expected. The Logan House 5k was to start at 11 am. I contacted the Wilm. Police Dept. to see if we could use the old Logan House route that uses Kentmere Parkway thus avoiding the traffic of the funeral. To run on Kentmere Pkwy is frowned upon by some residents in the surrounding area and i did not have permits in place for this route. Due to the funeral I was able to get the ok from the City and we were able to change routes at the last minute. Later that same day I headed to a meeting on the Wilmington Riverfront. To my surprise the old Madison Street was blocked off with barricades. This is the route we use for our Citizen's Bank Caesar Rodney Half marathon to be held next Sunday. I called my contact at Riverfront Development Corp. and asked him what was going on? He stated that the road was going to be torn up and would no longer be used for traffic. Future plans call for this area to be developed. He apologized for not letting me know earlier since he too just found out about this construction project. The RDC (Riverfront Development Corp) said work would begin on Monday, March 16th. They set up a meeting which i attended today (Monday). I met with the construction crews and went over the plans. They gave us the ok to run our certified route for the half marathon. Construction equipment will line one lane of the road and runners will use the other lane for the race. They gave me the key to unlock the gate race morning and construction crews will sweep the road clean Friday prior to race day. Expect a new CR route in 2010. Thank you! No wonder I have no hair.