Ryan and I planned on heading down to the keys after work. The weather reports were calling for "severe weather" throughout the keys and South Florida all weekend. We usually luck out and have beautiful weather in the keys no matter what it's like in Fort Lauderdale, so we were keeping our fingers crossed that the meteorologists would be wrong. (Like they are most of the time!)
We made it to Marathon around 8:30pm to pick up our race packets and then headed back North to Islamorada where we were staying for the weekend. I took it easy and Ryan limited himself to a few cocktails before calling it a night much earlier than usual.
I usually don't sleep very well the night before races, and this was no exception. I woke up to heavy rain and cracks of thunder throughout the night. We all got up as scheduled, but didn't start getting ready due to the extreme weather conditions. It was pretty much a full on hurricane outside. We checked the race website, facebook page and called the info line and there was no mention of the race being cancelled. We called a few other friends that were running to see what they thought. They were already near the start line and at that point it wasn't even raining in Marathon. So we all agreed to get ready and give it a shot.
As we got closer and closer to Marathon, it seemed like the weather was getting a little better. Still raining pretty heavy but no thunder or lightning. We parked about 3/4 of a mile from the start line and headed out in the rain. Within minutes we were all soaked and miserable. A Marathon "local" told us, "they never cancel this race....we must be first timers for even thinking it was a possibility."
We got to to the start line and by this point the rain had picked up as well as the lighting and thunder. The most interesting part of the race to this point was that the new shorts I had been waiting to wear for this race, were completely see through!
The race was scheduled to begin at 7:30am. As we all stood around wondering why we were even attempting this... a race official started spreading the word that the race was cancelled due to lighting and thunder in the area. The race has never been cancelled in it's 31 year history.
This meant it was now time to sprint.... back to the car. It was pretty funny seeing hundreds of people running in the opposite direction from the start line in the pouring rain. Back in Islamorada a hot shower and mimosas were waiting.
Although I never got the chance to attempt the run in the hurricane like conditions, I did receive a $60 t-shirt. (No refunds are being issued for the race registration fee)
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