A finisher’s medal for a race that never started.
It would seem I was granted a bit of a reprieve.
Depending on your perspective, the weather conspired either for or against me tonight. I ate well and stayed loose all day, in anticipation of racing, then refueling and going to bed. I haven’t run on back to back days in a long, long time, but I was fairly sure that if I went easy for the 5k, I’d still be able to turn in a respectable finish for the Half tomorrow.
Then it got cloudy. Really cloudy. A look at the radar revealed an absolute monster of a storm front coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, which threatened to soak the whole weekend. Just what I wanted, right? Not only would I have back to back races to contend with, but now I would get to do them with soggy feet.
I showed up to the Nutter Center early and sat in the truck, checking the radar on my phone. It looked ugly, and sure enough it started to rain as soon as I parked. Then it started to pour. Then there was thunder. After about 20 minutes, it let up some, and I jogged from my truck to the arena to be nearer to the race start.
About five thousand runners were wandering around the arena. Their bibs told me they were also there for the 5k, and the looks on their faces told me that they were looking forward to it about as much as I was. I ran into a buddy of mine and we sat in the stands to wait, trading jokes and people watching.
A voice came over the PA five minutes after the race was scheduled to start, telling us that the race had been delayed, and to remain in the arena for further instructions. Captain Obvious repeated this message periodically for the next ten or fifteen minutes, before finally confirming what we all suspected. The race was cancelled on account of the weather, particularly the lightning in the vicinity. But we were all welcome to head to the arena floor to collect our finishers’ medals!
I thought it was silly at first, but I did pay for the thing. Why not take home the medal? I’ve earned medals in a few races that I didn’t stick around to collect, so on balance I suppose it works out.
In all, the 5k being cancelled is news as mixed as the weather. On the one hand, I’m off the hook for racing twice in a weekend. On the other hand, there went my excuse for not turning in a PR tomorrow…
The only race going on this night was the race to get out of here.