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Sunday, April 15, 2018

The race that wasn't

I was registered for the United Way Bridge Run this past Saturday morning, a 5k over the giant Luling bridge, but the weekend was looking pretty stormy. The race was put on by New Orleans Running Systems, so before we left the house Saturday we made sure to check their Facebook page. It said the race was still on, so we headed out. That made sense, since the rain wasn't supposed to start until after 11 am. Well.

We got all the way to Luling, and headed to packet pick-up, to discover that the race was cancelled! The United Way posted the cancellation to facebook at 6:28 am - which is exactly when we left the house. But I'm not following United Way on facebook, anyway. Obviously I'm following NORSI, the group putting on the race. And they didn't share United Way's post until 6:39! We arrived at about 6:45 am, so that was super annoying. I get why they cancelled the race - concerns that the weather would create a problem as people tried to drive home post-race - but the communication was pretty awful. No twitter, no instagram, late facebook. Just not a really social-media savvy group. It turns out that they did email on race morning, so that's on me for not checking - it went to my junk email account that I don't check all the time and it's not on my phone. But that information should also have been shared on social media, especially when your most recent posts say that the race is still on.
I picked up my shirt anyway. Nice $30 cotton T with runners from 1987.

I had skipped my Friday tempo because of the Saturday race, so when I got home I decided to go ahead and get that tempo in. It was supposed to be five tempo intervals of 7 minutes each, interspersed with 1 minute jog, but I only did four. I started to struggle on the last one, and didn't want to add a slow fifth interval. It was still a hefty workout, so I guess the day was salvaged after all!


Have you ever had a race cancelled?

4 comments:

  1. That's too bad. I've had a race cancelled as well. It was supposed to be last September in the mountains on trails. A hidden gem of a race and with sweet prizes for all. I couldn't wait. But then it rained and snowed, and the trails were not in good shape. We found out the night before so that was nice not to have to drive two hours to find out. Thanks for your funny, interesting reads!

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  2. That sucks. What a terrible communication policy!!

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  4. I would have been checking my email, but I don't know that I would have checked my spam folder. And they should have been posting on all their social media platforms. Terrible communication. The only race I've had canceled was Revel when the shuttle buses didn't show up...

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