As I touched on last week with the post on shutdown affected races, the Marine Corps Marathon is facing a very difficult decision. Since 60% of the course is on federal land, it would be logistically impossible to reroute the course with that many miles affected. They are saying they will update runners via their webpage on Saturday with the final decision.
This would be a huge blow to the tens of thousands of runners who have signed up for this. When registration opened in early spring, it filled up very quickly. Since that time, those runners have been making travel arrangements, training, and very much looking forward to this iconic race. With possible cancellation just a couple of days away, these runners are definitely facing some tense times.
If you are running Marine Corps (or, at least had registered) and they do end up pulling the plug on the race, make sure you read the post I wrote the other day dealing with when to cancel your flight reservations. One thing you should definitely do is to have your phone in hand Saturday as you check for the final race decision. If they decide to cancel it, call your airline immediately to ask for some favor in handling your flight in light of the situation. If they do not budge (the reason to do it immediately is that they will be flooded with calls and cannot help everyone), then go on to the other points listed in that previous post.
Should the race be cancelled, I will do some research to help give you some options and how to manage your already planned travel. Fingers crossed that things work out in the runners’ favor soon!
