Cancelled half marathon

I've just seen something on Facebook saying that the organisers had not complied with the terms of the contract they had with the water supplier, which stated that payment for the water had to be made in advance.
They were reminded several times to pay and didn't, so the water supplier didn't supply.
However they have agreed to supply the water next year for free.

DD ran Paris marathon two years ago and the day was very hot so some of the front runners taking bottles of water to pour over themselves. When DD got got to the last few miles there was no water left but nobody stopped the race or tried to make alternative arrangements . Is Athens not built on seven hills like Sheffield?

So, if there had been a broblem and some of the runners had got knocked down because the traffic had been allowed to go on the course, assuming it was onroad, whose fault would it have been, the runners or the marshals?

Yes I understand that.

What I am saying is the fact there was not the number of runners did not give the whole picture. The fact Marshalls supposedly did not know is neither here nor there.

But as Grannyknot said, even some of the marshals had not been told and allowed the run to continue.

Grannyknot

The fact the water bowsers did not turn up and some decided to run the race is on the surface 'bulldog spirit' 'stiff upper lip' syndrome' but the fact is the amount of runners who went on to run was not equal to the number of runners had it officially taken place.

The point I am making is whilst your friends were inundated with water, would they have been had the full compliment of runners elected to run??

You can be the world's best organisers but if you are let down you have to make and take decisions and the assessment was it was not safe.

That was poor organisation, Grannyknot. It's like the one run at Ponteland. The finish was through a carpark where cars were coming in while the runners were still finishing - and general public cars, not the runners cars. My son finished ten minutes before his partner, and by the time she arrived he was shaking. There were aluminium blankets at the start but none at the finish and it was below freezing, blizzard conditions.
They then had half an hour to walk back to their car in the official car park, but there were no officials to be seen. They nearly called for an ambulance.
I wonder if it was the same organisers.

durhamjen the organisers of this race were over careful yet not careful enough! Most of the runners didn't know it had been cancelled - my friend and his wife ran the entire half marathon without knowing that it had officially been cancelled, there were marshalls en route (who also clearly didn't know) and they even got Certificates of Completion. So to all intents and purposes he thought he had run the marathon that he had entered.

My son and his partner did a half-marathon round Ponteland on Mother's Day last year and nearly ended up with hypothermia. That race should have been cancelled because it was not very well organised.
My son also ran the Edinburgh Marathon when it was so hot that the runners were being hosed down by people who lived on the route so they did not pass out from the heat.
Organisers have to be so careful. Any runner who carried on after being told the race had officially called off must have been doing it under their own steam and against regulations.

A friend of mine ran this race and told me that the runners were inundated with water offered by spectators along the way ... "over the top" as he said. .

We did a 10K walk across the London bridges a while ago, back and forth across the Thames, and it was a very hot day and there weren't enough water points and most of the walkers simply popped in to a convenience store along the route and picked up a bottle.

I can remember Paula Radcliffe dropping from dehydration during the Marathon at the Athens Olypmics in 2004. But that was summer. Don't think Pheidippides was a true story anyway.

Long, long past Ana! However, the teaching technique certainly worked if I can still remember it.

Lower Fourth - there's a blast from the past!

Actually Greece can be quite cold in the winter, especially in the mountains, but a) I know nothing about the topography of the route from Marathon to Athens and b) what time of year the battle was fought. I do know the tactics, however, as I was on one of the Athenian wings, armed with a ruler, when we acted out the battle in the Lower Fourth.

People have died doing the Great North Run in Newcastle, which is a half-marathon.
I think the organisers did the only thing they could to protect both themselves and the runners.

Bet he was dehydrated though.

And Greece is slightly warmer that April in Sheffield!

Ah yes but that was a whole marathon absent

Didn't Pheidippides drop dead after announcing the Athenian victory?

Well I felt very sorry for the organisers actually, obviously also for the runners..

The company failed to deliver water bowser's and they did apparently try to get as much bottled water as possible but there was insufficient to pass the stringent health requirements. We are talking about thousands of runners! It is a fact that water would be required and dehydration is no joke.

It does seem a bit 'nanny statish' but there was actually a big problem for the organisers. They would have been 'slated' had it gone ahead and just one runner hospitalised.

Another damned if they do, damned if they don't situation.

You wonder how man ever got to the moon really.

I understand from the midday news that their water supplier screwed up with the order. The trouble is if there had been a serious problem the public would have bleated that it wasn't properly organised, not safe and sued.

If your'e on a half marathon you cannot just stop and go into a shop to buy your own, you really would need supplies to just grab as you run past.

I really don't know what the liability situation would have been. If too many collapsed and were in a really bad way my DD's night shift tonight could have been busy.

Did nobody have a tap and a bucket?

Sounds like something from Keystone Cops,surely Supermarkets on route would have supplied free of charge just for the free advertising

What a shambles.