Quote Originally Posted by peawet08 View Post
I hope everyone is fine!

It annoys me when the organisers of these races get targeted. They can't win either way, if they had cancelled the race then they would never have heard the last of it from a select bunch of selfish runners and now they will be critisised for letting it go ahead by the media.

I heard this "LOCAL" on the news this morning and just thought "What an ar5e!", needless to say I'll not go anywhere near his shop/cafe again in the future.
I think you miss the point. A good race organiser is not trying "to win either way" by satisfying the selfish needs of one community or another (even a community that I am part of.) He or she is simply trying to execute a job professionally.

That means: a), getting people to and from the start. b). ensuring participants have a good, generally safe, time during the race (that the event is "well run". and c). ensuring where possible the race is conducted self-sufficiently (without needing mass support from the emergency services and/or any other external agency.) To achieve this, as a general rule you take into account whether participants are qualified, the state of access roads and the terrain in general, the quality and state of the course itself, and things like the weather forecast, etc.

I think you can argue that given a). there were huge problems with access to the area 24 hours before the race (which left the organisers asking people not to show up early as the main site was unprepared until very late in the day), b). the race course itself was, while safe, teetering on the edge of danger (should there be any more rain, which it was widely predicted there would be) and c). in the event, a huge demand was placed on Mountain Rescue and a number of other services (local hospitals, etc.) I can't see who else you can target when it comes to taking responsibility except the organisers.

They are great people who've done a brilliant job running this event for a number of years but let's front up, they made a really poor call this weekend (in my opinion.) Just because I am a selfish, self-interested runner doesn't mean I am not capable of seeing this.