Plan "B"

Many of you have heard that the Myrtle Beach Marathon was cancelled the night before race day due to the fact that an upcoming snow storm was heading to the Myrtle Beach area. Approximately 5,000 runners were in town for the marathon and half marathon. City officials made the call the night before to cancel. The next morning the snow storm was actually a slush storm and the runners were to say the least a bit disturbed. As a race director you always try to have a contingency plan or Plan B. Our Caesar Rodney committee has been discussing the issue of what would happen IF a snow storm hit the day before the half marathon. Could we move it a week later? Delay the start till noon? Cancel the event? Just things we have to deal with. And things we actually are working on. I remember when i organized the very first Delaware Marathon back in 1978 called the Delaware Minuteman Marathon. This 26.2 mile event was held in Delaware City and was staged on the first Sunday in March. I remember that a couple days prior to race day we did get a huge snow storm. Lucky for us the Delaware National Guard was our sponsor. They were able to plow the entire 13.1 mile route so we could hold this event. It is always difficult to make these decisions to cancel but the number one goal is the safety of the runners. I will be watching the weather channel in the weeks to come.