Crazy 2012 Weather

2012 has been yet another interesting year in the world of running. As the fall marathons started hitting the calendar the weather became the headliner. From stories of people who ran the Marine Corps marathon only to be stranded at airports, to the NYC marathon cancellation debacle, we witnessed something unprecedented, but becoming increasingly more common. The week after we ran the Grandmas marathon in June, Duluth had torrential downpours and the worst flooding they had seen in years. Look at the weather here in Dallas the past two years at the White Rock marathon: A horribly cold and rainy day last year, followed by higher than normal temperatures and extreme humidity this year. Marathon directors are starting to look at moving their races to less volatile dates, but it seems to me that no matter the date, the weather is a hit or miss. This is a sign of our times. Fretting over the weather has always been an issue when running marathons, but we never had to worry over extreme and potentially dangerous weather conditions. We never had to worry about marathons being cancelled. That was simply unheard of. This is no longer true today, and with good reason. The NYC marathon did indeed need to be cancelled, as would have Grandma's, had it been held one week later.

So what to do when planning to run marathons? Obviously, planning has gotten a bit more complicated. First of all, don't book anything that's non-refundable, or at least partially refundable. Secondly, have a back-up marathon a week or two later if possible. Third, and most important, pay close attention to the forecast and pull the trigger when it's becoming obvious that the weather is going to be potentially dangerous. (In the case of the NYC marathon it was after-the-fact, and the weather was actually picture perfect on race day, so I am not talking abut NYC here). Pulling the trigger on NYC would have been a really hard call!

Odds are that in 2013, no matter what, we will be running races in less than ideal conditions. We will be dealing with more unpredictability than before. On any given day we can get extreme heat, flooding, snow, storms, and possibly frogs, who knows? Be prepared for anything to happen!