Weather Forces Postponement of U.S. 8-K
Posted March 17th, 2007 at 1:05 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results
A late winter storm which dumped several inches of wet snow here last night forced the postponement of the U.S. Men’s 8-K Championship until tomorrow morning.
Event organizers, the New York Road Runners, had no choice but to move the race until tomorrow because of the snow and ice which covered the course in Central Park.
Race director and NYRR president and CEO, Mary Wittenberg, decided with her event team to use a different course tomorrow, confining the race the the “lower loop” of the park which is approximately 2.7 km.
IAAF technical delegate, Dave Katz, is measuring the course today to assure proper distance. The approximately 40 athletes participating in the championship will run just short of three loops.
“It puts a little bit of a wrench in your plans as most of us have a set pattern of events that we follow leading up to race day,” said Chris Graff, the 2003 U.S. 10 mile champion. “But, having run the park this morning, it was completely ‘unraceable.’”
Two athletes, brothers Andy and Matt Downin, were traveling to New York from Madison, Wisc., but they got stuck in the Cleveland airport yesterday where they were to change planes. They decided to rent a car and drive to New York instead, about 470 miles. They made it to Patterson, N.J., just west of Manhattan, at 1:00 a.m. this morning, then drove the remaining distance this afternoon.
“We must have seen a dozen tractor-trailers jackknifed on the side of the road,” said Matt Downin.
© 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
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Tags: central park, Mary Wittenberg, new york, new york road runners, nyrr, US 8k championship, USA 8k championship
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