I'll begin by stating the obvious. Search and Rescue are awesome and they should always be supported and thanked for their service.
I'll state the next obvious point. The PPM organization made a huge mistake this year and let down hundreds of their biggest fans (racers) in a BIG way. I'm sitting here in my yard in downtown Colorado Springs, the sun is still shining bright, the summit sits under BLUE skies and its 4:00 PM. So much for the catastrophic storms that ruined the entire race for 2000 of us. It's understandable to pivot a large event like this in case of weather but so much more could have been done instead. First off, was actual data used in this decision to "close the summit and mountain"? With technology, did they actually see such a monstrous storm (it must have looked worse than any preceding race because this was the first time in its 63 year history that its been shuttered before the race begins)? Being a CO native, it's well known that forecasts are somewhat meaningless and generally speaking, half the time there even is a storm in the forecast it ends up being a sprinkle or no storm in actuality. Was the person making the call not using technology and actual data to come to a logical conclusion? How could such a scary storm not only not hit Manitou (at all) but not hit any of the distant surrounding areas???
Oh and everyone who lives here knows the power of lightning storms so that's not at all a debate here, but we all signed waivers of liability so at the very least the race could have told all runners it was their personal choice to continue up the mountain or not based on storms incoming early afternoon. Every runner assumes risk, we don't need big decisions made on our behalf because we don't understand the risks (at least most of us).
Forecast in the morning of the race: storms from noon until the evening. OK so anyone finishing after 5ish hours would possibly be in a storm. Why not tell runners in the morning that based upon the noon storm looking so ominous that the cutoff times are changing for Barrcamp and A frame to X". That way anyone finishing after noon would be turned around. Still giving the bulk of the field the chance to finish? These types of logistical adjustments aren't rocket science.
Perhaps the answer is that the race has gotten too inclusive. I love races that encompass world class athletes and people who aren't but have the courage to sign up and attempt a world class event. BUT i would say, when is enough enough? Should the ascent have such lenient cutoff times and qualification standards? Should there be 2000+ runners on the mtn at a time?
Doesn't that take away from the race having traffic jams for a lot of the race... I'll say again traffic jams on a beautiful Colorado 14er?? If you made the race harder to qualify for you wouldn't have to worry about storms coming at noon-1pm with a start time of 7am because no runners would be on the mountain still.
The amount of financial, mental, emotional investment into preparing for an event like this is so much more than the actual output on race day and given what seems to be a rushed decision on the part of the race staff it's a BIG disappointment.
By the way, I'm not ungrateful but for the lofty cost of the race (compared to every other big race I've taken part in over the years) there were almost no swag but a meaningless "finisher medal" for all of us non-finishers, a shirt (I did like the shirt), a slice of cheap pizza and a beer. Just to push the dagger in slightly further, when we showed up at the tent, half of the beer was gone so the best "freebie" available was mostly in fact unavailable.
Thankyou to all the great volunteers and aid station folks, you brought probably some of the only smiles to runners faces today.
You may disagree with some or all of my sentiments but based upon my conversations and overhearing many on the hike down from Barr Camp and speaking to a few tear filled runners who invested so much for their first chance to run this race, many are feeling exactly the same as I, I'm just coming out and saying it.
Hopefully something can be learned from today's debacle and maybe the marathoners tomorrow who have put in even more work than those of us with the Ascent, don't have to be disappointed too.
