Sunday 11 September 2011

The deluge

Flooding close to downtown Harrisburg, September 2011

Well, things appear to come in threes here; first an earthquake, then a hurricane and finally...I hope finally, flood. it rained heavily much of last week and this. I got drenched on about five occasions during my run on Tuesday. The following day followed this up when the race director of the half marathon I was scheduled to race on Sunday, sent an email announcing that flooding in Harrisburg meant the race would be postponed until October. As luck would have it I cannot participate as the new date coincides with a relay race I am participating in. It now looks like I will be unable to do any races in advance of my marathon. This is the result of half marathons being either too far way, sold out, or ridiculously expensive; many appear to think $85-$95 is a reasonable entry fee! That's worthy of a post in itself!

2 comments:

Brian said...

I've lived in the York, PA area for most of my life and I've never seen anything like the flooding we've had this week. My farther compared it to 1972 when hurricane Agnes flooded the region.

I agree about the price of races. How do prices in Europe compare and is there any difference in what you get?

Westley said...

Brian, rather like here, it depends on who is organising the race. Club organised events are generally the best value for money and put on really good events. Commercial outfits will generally charge exorbitant prices. However, I have never seen anything as much as some half-marathons charge here. Suffice to say, I will never run a 'rock n' roll' event. I think the most I paid for a half-marathon in Ireland was about $50-$60 for a very poorly run commercial event. Bristol half, the second biggest/prestigious in the British Isles, and a good race, cost about $50 this year. However, a tech-t would have cost additional. There are many event management companies trying to cash in on the second running boom, especially as the recession has eroded their traditional sources of revenue. Frankly most of them are useless and make their money from the naive.