Wokingham half marathon cancelled

2014 News

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7.2.14 15:30.  We are sorry to announce that Sunday’s race has been cancelled due to flooding on the course, this is 8 inches deep, still rising and is overflowing from the ditches Please return your timing chip in it’s prepaid envelope directly to Sport Systems.

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Comments

  • this sucks... anyone any idea which part of the course is flooded, I guessing up near Hurst...

  • gutted - won't hit my 100 at Reading now image

  • What a set of idiots, could not organise a drink up in a brewery!



    Why call it off today? It's probably the best day we have had for about 3 weeks, so the course cannot have become worse. If they relied on the forecast then that has been the same all week. It's a nonsense.



    Personally I have driven 300 miles booked 2 nights in a hotel, all lost because of these jokers. All of it could have been avoided and then they top it off by not giving refunds!



    It's a lot easier to just cancel, they get to keep the money anyway.
  • It's not the weather on the day, it's the weather leading up to it. Have you noticed that there's been a bit of rain? The council closed some of the roads on the course, not the race organizers.

    Also, you seem to have missed the bit where they say they're carrying entries over to next year.

    It's a pity you've lost out with the travel and hotel, but that unfortunately is the risk we take when entering races in advance.

    The Wokingham organizers deserve praise for doing all they could but giving us advance notice of the cancellation. Also, a few years back they also cancelled but reran it in summer. So these guys are conscientious. I understand you being pissed off but I think your rant is unfair.

  • In one of the villages the race goes through, residents are not currently able to flush their toilets, as their 'output' comes straight up into the gardens. 

     

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Since they have called it off it has been heavy rain continuously.

    It's not ideal but they cannot predict the worst storms in nearly 30 years back when the opened for entries last yr.

    it's just one of the risks you take when signing up for events. If you want to lower the risk run a local one where travel / hotels are not needed.
  • The organizers have been excellent . Totally back their decision. 

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Two risks in becoming a racing tourist.

    The first is the possibility that an injury will stop you running at all. And the second, booking up for an expensive race in a far off place which is then called off.

     

    🙂

  • very unusual for the organisers to carry entries over,,........amazing decsion as they must already have paid out for things this year.....

    the majority of races now keep the money and any excess either helps the club or is donated to charity.........

    the chip company alone must be a large bill as they were all sent out etc alreadyt.....and the postage.......

     

    even if they had kept the money there is no point in moaning.....it happens......its only a race.if you woke up with a sickness bug then its just one of those things bad luck and you have to miss it..

     

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    shin splints wrote (see)
    What a set of idiots, could not organise a drink up in a brewery!

    Why call it off today? It's probably the best day we have had for about 3 weeks, so the course cannot have become worse. If they relied on the forecast then that has been the same all week. It's a nonsense.

    Personally I have driven 300 miles booked 2 nights in a hotel, all lost because of these jokers. All of it could have been avoided and then they top it off by not giving refunds!

    It's a lot easier to just cancel, they get to keep the money anyway.

    What a crazy post, we'll put it down to disappointment.

    If you're in the area, just go and have a little jog around the route...might possibly find it a little wet...

  • I appreciate being told well in advance that the race is off, and pleasantly surprised our entries will be carried forward to 2015.

    Well done the organisers.

    Also spare a thought for the people living in Hurst whose homes are flooded and are without lavatory facilities - puts our disappointment into perspective.

  • I've just driven round the course - in a Land Rover. No way it could be raced tomorrow. Well done to Mr Evans and his team.

    And Shin Splints - water levels will continue to rise for 48 to 72 hours after the rain has stopped as the water works its way through the hydrological system - so yes, the conditions may get worse - and its pissing down here (1 mile from the start line) right now!

  • Council comment; puddles on the road cannot run it as its a risk of to health and safety. Dont make me laugh. Running in itself is an health and safety risk!

    I cant wait for my free entry and to do it all again next year - talk about blind faith....

     

     

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Why not do another half in the next couple of weeks? Shame to let the fitness go to waste.
  • Those of you who think that the race should not have been cancelled please read this article from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26111598 (Hurst is one of the areas the race goes through) and I quote:

    "Another resident Paul Palmer, who lives in the village of Hurst told BBC Radio Berkshire: "I've lived here for 44 years and I've never known anything like it. Every entrance, every exit to Hurst is flooded now. We've had no use of our toilets since Friday morning, our sewers are completely blocked and it's starting to back up into the toilet. The council won't offer an emergency toilet unless you're a council tenant. It's like going back to the dark ages. You'd think they could get at least one chemical toilet cubicle at the local village hall or something."

  • shin splints wrote (see)
    What a set of idiots, could not organise a drink up in a brewery!

    Why call it off today? It's probably the best day we have had for about 3 weeks, so the course cannot have become worse. If they relied on the forecast then that has been the same all week. It's a nonsense.

    Personally I have driven 300 miles booked 2 nights in a hotel, all lost because of these jokers. All of it could have been avoided and then they top it off by not giving refunds!

    It's a lot easier to just cancel, they get to keep the money anyway.

     

    Maybe you should threaten to sue for paying for a goods and service not provided. You might get your money back for a price. Don't even talk about a class action.

  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭

    Another backing for the organisers, who have done everything they could.  Wokingham is one of the best organised races out there, and the people who put this on are top notch.  I don't see how they could have played this differently.

    Presumably your 300m drive plus 2 nights was Friday/Saturday (I am assuming this because if it was Sat/Sun a simple check of your e-mail on Friday could've prevented a wasted journey)?  If so, presumably you wanted to use the Saturday to take in the ambience of the area, which you could still have done, so there was no need for it to have been an entirely wasted journey.  You could have seen some of Bracknell's charming town centre before they tear it down.

  • have to echo what Dachs has said. this is a fantastic race and the organizers called it right and gave adequate notice.

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    I'm struggling to think of what more the organisers could have done. The freak weather was out of their control and they gave plenty of notice that it was cancelled.

    It's not really their responsibility if people have decided to travel 300 miles to participate.
  • I obviously had to be cancelled and good job calling it off on Friday giving as much notice as they could. 

    The only thing I'd say about refunds though, is that my club organises a 10 mile race in January and the club funds include a contingency to refund runners if the event is cancelled (it's in January, it's inevitable that it'll happen one year).  We (the club) won't get back much of the money already paid out in organisation costs, but we don't feel that the runners should carry the risk of cancellation.

    It stikes me as slightly odd that they haven't done that here - if they can afford free entries for everyone for next year then how are they going to pay all the organising costs?  The race was full, wasn't it?

    It's one of those situations where you'll never please everybody!

  • I dont know the route but saw no floods in Wokingham or the areas nearby where i did go. Not denying that there wasnt any flooding because there obviously was.

    Where was the plan B or even C? Why not run a 10 mile course? Because its easier to cancel when you get to keep the money anyway. Surely if you run an event at this time of the year you are expecting adverse weather, it's not the first time they have had to cancel neither.

     

  • shin splints wrote (see)

    Surely if you run an event at this time of the year you are expecting adverse weather, it's not the first time they have had to cancel neither.

     

    Indeed, and it was your decision to enter a race for which you have to drive 300 miles and book 2 nights in a hotel. You're asking the organizers to bear the risk for your personal circumstances.

    You've still got next year's event paid for.

  • As far as I am aware there was a plan B. The organisers rerouted the course but the rain was so exceptional, plan B became untenable too.

    I'm surprised at people's lack of ability to acknowledge that the UK has experienced really quite exceptional rainfall/flooding in recent days/weeks.

  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭

    And that the organisers of this charity race do not simply sit on the money - they have to pay for the various costs they have already incurred.

    Cancellation of races without repaying entry fees is really quite standard practice, and the organisers warn you of this all on the race literature.

    The flooding is on the country roads north of Wokingham, out towards Twyford and around Hurst, the other side of the motorway from Wokingham, and where the bulk of the course is located.  When in Wokingham town, which is on slightly higher ground, you cannot see these areas.  The only option for a different route, assuming you have to start and finish in Cantley Park, would have been meandering around the streets of Wokingham, and closure of what would have amounted to the whole town would have been almost impossible to organise without months' of notice, and certainly wouldn't have been possible in the current situation when so many alternative routes are underwater.  Would most entrants really have been happy with a 10-mile race as an alternative?  As far as I'm concerned an entry for the 2015 race is a whole lot better than a half-baked 10 mile race.

  • shin splints wrote (see)

    Where was the plan B or even C? Why not run a 10 mile course? Because its easier to cancel when you get to keep the money anyway. Surely if you run an event at this time of the year you are expecting adverse weather, it's not the first time they have had to cancel neither. 

    Because there would have been people complaining whatever they did - no doubt if they'd run a 10 mile course there would have been some complaining that it wasn't a certified, measured course.  And as I said earlier, keeping the money isn't the 'free' option, they don't get the entry money for next year.

    Another point is that running a race like this needs support from the police.  Maybe those resources are better used elsewhere right now.

    If they've cancelled before, and you knew about their refund policy, then why did you enter in the first place?

  • Shin splints - I'd quit now before you come across as being a COMPLETE twat.

    I think the residents of the affected areas will have a pretty hard time sympathising with you.

    Suck it up and look for another race.

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Agreed Pudge. We really need to be looking at the bigger picture on this. People have been flooded out of their homes in one of the worst storms in 30 yrs yet people are complaining about not being able to go on a bit of a run. The runners may have lost out on twenty quid but some of those affected by the floods have lost out on thousands.
  • Agreed. I was thinking along roughly the same lines but I'm much too refined a chap to have said it out loud image

  • Pudge wrote (see)

    Shin splints - I'd quit now before you come across as being a COMPLETE twat.

    I think the residents of the affected areas will have a pretty hard time sympathising with you.

    Suck it up and look for another race.

    Too late......

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