Metric Marathon & 5K

Metric Cancellation Information
08 Dec 2009

Unfortunately, due to icy weather conditions, the Metric Marathon was cancelled this past Sunday. As race directors, we were particularly disappointed, especially because this situation also occurred last year. Up until last year, we have never had a cancellation—that’s 31 years! We spent months getting ready for what we hoped would be an awesome event with numerous awards, lots of randoms, gloves, and a great post-race pizza party. We appreciate our volunteers who worked behind the scenes—those who worked packet pick-up, and those who showed up on the cold race day morning to address the needs of the runners who did show up. And we appreciate your patience and support while we did our best to get the word out on the Howard County Striders website, the radio stations, and on Active.com, and thus minimized inconvenience to everyone.

Like last year, many parts of the course (roads, bike paths, and foot bridge) were iced over, making conditions unsafe for runners as well as the police, course marshals, other volunteers and the general public. The snow and precipitation that had fallen the day before had turned to ice, and temperatures remained below freezing. The safety of those involved is, of course, our top priority, and if there are any doubts, we will always err on the side of safety.

With regard to refunds, the policy of the Metric (and most other race events) is stated that fees are nonrefundable. The majority of expenses are already paid out whether the race is run or not. In addition to the custom printed tee-shirts and the gloves for the Metric Marathon finishers, we incurred the costs of printing the applications, advertising the race, rental of portable toilets, the pizza, and other food vendors, and race numbers. However, due to the unusual circumstances of having the race cancelled twice in a row, we plan to offer a free 2010 registration (without Shirt) for those people who were registered for both races: 2008 and 2009. Shirts will be available to those runners who want to purchase them at cost. The procedure for claiming your free entry will be posted on the Striders website (www.striders.net) soon.

Some people have questioned why we couldn’t just re-schedule the race. The police permits and permits for use of the lake front and bike paths have to be in place months in advance for the date and time. Neither can we ask hundreds of volunteers to change the time as they are likely to have prior commitments. So do many of the runners!

For runners who did not have an opportunity to pick up your packets, you can pick them up at Feet First, Hickory Ridge Village Center, 6420 Freetown Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. (Phone: 410 992-5800) If this is not convenient for you, we can arrange to have them mailed to you. Prizes are being distributed on a random basis.

Finally, in conjunction with the Howard County Striders Board of Directors, we have decided to move 2010 Metric to an earlier date to avoid another icy event. We are scheduling the 2010 Metric Marathon for Sunday November 14, 2010. We consider this race to be one of our premier events. A significant portion of the race proceeds goes to our scholarship fund, which recognizes high school runners who are distinguished scholar-athletes. We are committed to continuing the long tradition of this race, which is one of the oldest continuously held running events in the Washington Baltimore area.

Thanks again for your kind words and understanding as we proceed ahead to make next year’s Metric one that everyone will enjoy.

Sincerely,
For the Howard County Striders
John and Ann Worley
Race Directors

Nadia Wasserman
President