Yesterday we put on the "Brave the Blizzard" race... except one thing was missing. Forget the blizzard, there was no snow! In the 2 weeks leading up the event, I'd gone through an emotional roller-coaster of watching the weather conditions to see what would happen. I had numerous people tell me to cancel that event, that I was only looking to get sued up the wazoo, yet others say, "You can NOT cancel it. No event should ever get canceled."

Wednesday, Feb 16 was my first time at the intended course in over a month. I could not believe how bad its condition was. It was literally a 3 mile ice rink - death march. There was no way anyone could run it. As I was heading past the 2.5 mile mark, I cut off the course (was running with Newman) knowing that there was no way I could continue with it, and ran a different trail that I only discovered the middle of last summer. It was tremendously better, although still dangerous. I decided that we would use that.

Thursday was my typical T/Th routine of being at Hackett from 8 to 3:30, running at 4pm, showering and eating dinner on my way to my 5:45 class, getting back at 8:30, and then considering doing work before just spending 2 hours talking to Matt and Neil. Friday, I ran some errands for BTB after school, 4:30 ARE run, then we all went out to dinner together, which was fun. I went to bed a little after 1am, and woke up at 6:20 on Saturday out of sheer excitement/nervousness/whatever. Saturday morning, 10 of us descended upon the course to make it as ‘runable’ as possible. We spent 4.5 hours walking the new course, shoveling, hacking away at ice, working our butts off, only to return to my car with a note on it.

When we got back to my apartment, I left everyone, simply saying, "I'll be back in 2 hours after I get this figured out." I had to clear my head. Everyone was looking at me for what to do... ultimately all the pressure falls on the RD... and I was really uncertain of what the heck to do.

I wanted the event to go on, and knew that ultimately it had to. Especially this late in the game, to cancel an event the day prior is just wrong, as we had people traveling from all over (MA/VT too). Not to mention I had emailed all registered runners on Thursday explaining the event as now a dangerous trail race, and posted information on the website too.

After calling him a half dozen times, I finally returned to my apartment around 4pm, still without any word. 8 guys were waiting for me, all saying, "Well, what are we doing?"

About 4:30, I called his house again, and spoke with him. Turns out he had NOT walked on any part of the new course... he had used the old one, which, as I agreed with him, was an ice rink and wholly unrunable. I explained the new course, all the work we had put into that morning, and my devout explanation to runners that this is NOT a competitive event, that their safety is paramount, and the numerous signs we posted on the course at the rough spots. His response, "Then I will see you at 6:15 tomorrow morning." As I spoke on the phone, everyone was eagerly reading my facial expressions, which didn't show very much. It was my thumbs up that was cheered, and shortly after that, we headed out to Sam's Club to do our thing. Around 6:30pm, we returned to the apartment, and everyone got to work. We had people cooking, making packets, making signs, working on the registrant database, and being... busy. I made about 40 signs for the course to put up at all the bad spots, as well as a few motivational ones like, “You Have Heart.” Should’ve made more of those.

Call it OCD or whatever... I wanted Sunday to be perfect. While I probably could have gone to bed earlier, it was not until close to 3:30 that I finally laid down. Sunday had to be perfect - the seriousness of how bad certain parts of the course were (icy spots that required great effort in "not falling" or just walking/using trees) - and I wanted to make sure that at least everything else that we could control would fall into place. At 5am I was up, with the rest of my apartment getting another 30 minutes to rest.

There is something special about the morning of a race. Each time I've directed a race, I’ve woken up well before sunrise to a quiet apartment, and no time to waste... but no rush either. I brought my car over near my window, and started organizing all of the boxes as I loaded up my car. It's days like this why I own a Jeep. It was filled to the top with race materials, and at 5:59, a minute before my intended departure, I left with Brandon covered with things in the passenger seat.

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts to pick up their previous days leftovers, which were donated. Last year, it was typically 10 dozen donuts, 10 dozen bagels, and 3 dozen muffins. That morning, you ask? 36 donuts. What a bummer.

That morning I was to run the course at 6:15 and finalize course marking and post all of the caution-esque signs. I arrived at the school at 6:12 with Bob waiting for me. The sun was yet to rise, and we both looked at each other with a tacit, “Let’s do this!”

We unloaded my car into the building, and shortly thereafter, Matt and Neil showed up. They were to setup the finish area.

At 6:24, two other cars of early people showed up, and by 6:30, David Newman, Andy Rickert, and myself were running the course, each of us with our own 'duty.' I carried the staple gun, Rickert had the signs I was to post, and Newman had the tape to section off parts of the course. We worked effectively and efficiently, getting back by 7:30, just as another group of volunteers were showing up. The 3 of us finished the main starting area, which was a giant field that we had people zig-zag through. After that, we entered the school gymnasium and assisted with its setup. We had an entire gym at our disposal, and the custodian on duty, Melody, was nice enough to give us several tables from the cafeteria that came with little stools attached for people to sit. We had a whole dining area setup, not to mention signs everywhere regarding what the course was like, ARE information, registration table, hot drink table, cookies, real food, etc. It looked great.

When running the course in the morning, we were struck by its brevity. On Saturday, when doing the new course in its entirety for the first time, I had no real idea how long it was because it took us 4.5 HOURS to get through it. I only had a rough estimate from running it this summer.

The night before we had decided that to increase participant fun without encouraging competition, we created the "Guess how far exactly I just ran award". When people finished, they signed a sheet writing how far they thought the race was. Interestingly enough, most people overestimated by at least a quarter mile. It came out to only 1.89 miles, which is definitely on the short-end, but at least we were able to put together a course for people to run.

I started the race, then jumped in it. It was always my intention, but especially in light of the conditions, I figured it best that I participate, so at least I would get a feel for how it was. It was a blast! I was running with about 4 other guys, including Chris Chromczak who has two ultramarathons under his belt, Andy Rickert, who helped tremendously in creating this event, Brad Lewis, who runs XC for Rickert at St. Rose, and Mr. Trail/Snowshoe, Bob Dion. The course resembled a roller-coaster with its rolling nature; some sections we went flying down, while a few of the uphills we came to a crawl. On some of the icy spots, we went from running all out to holding onto trees, but eventually we hit the final turn, heading back to the field where we zig-zagged our way home.

The event had 43 finishers, with probably about 75 on hand including volunteers and family/friends of runners. The ARE volunteers were phenomenal, from those working on the course to working inside the building, and it was a great feeling to see it all unfold. The best part of the event was after the run! There was plenty of food to go around for everyone, and even some of the participants brought along a dish or treat to share. By 11:30am, it was pretty much wrapped up, and by noon, we were loading up the ARE vehicles with all of the memories of what had been earlier that day, only to return to Empire Commons with word of a snow storm just hours away.

I needed a nap. Yet I did not take one. I ended up going out to dinner with the apartment (Matt, Neil, and Brandon) and Matt's sis, getting back around 6:30pm. We had some of the ARErs coming over to help finish off the food and watch a movie, and I really wanted to hang out with them. At 7pm, though, I laid down in my bed. I woke up 14 hours later in the same position.

Life is great.

Listing of those who put together Brave the Blizzard:

Event Organizers: Josh Merlis, Bob Oates, Andy Rickert

Saturday Course Cleanup: Chris Chromczak, Emily Gravelle, Josh Merlis, Brandon Meyers, Paul Mueller, David Newman, Liz Paris, Andrew Rickert, Neil Snedeker, and Matt Wright.

Food and Packet Help: Mary Bovenzi, Chris Chromczak, Janice Hornbach, Josh Merlis, Brandon Meyers, Robert Moore, Paul Mueller, David Newman, Liz Paris, Peter Rossi, Neil Snedeker, Matt Wright

Sunday Volunteers: Andy Allstadt, Mary Bovenzi, Chris Chromczak, David Jacobs, Dillon Kopf, Josh Merlis, Brandon Meyers, Christine Miller, Robert Moore, Paul Mueller, David Newman, Bob Oates, Liz Paris, Andrew Rickert, Jamie Rodriguez, Peter Rossi, Liz Schilling, Neil Snedeker, Jessica Waltzer, and Matt Wright.

Photos: David Newman

Race clock and urns courtesy of HMRRC.