The Helsby Four villages has been one of the first races of the season for me as it’s run in early January. It’s a great friendly race organized by a running club (strangely enough the Helsby running club) for runners, this year the race was in its 33rd running. There aren’t many road races in the early part of the year; most of them seem to be trail race or track races. This is a perfect build up for the new season - it’s a demanding race which can be run at speed and is well organized. The first year I entered, the race was cancelled due to snow, which was disappointing but totally understandable, but in 2014 the race went off without a hitch and I had a good run with a fast finish. We woke on the morning of the 2015 race to find that it had snowed in the early hours, so it didn’t look promising but there was no news on the event’s website so we prepared for the race and set off to the start line as planned. When we arrived, there were lots of runners milling about and we were told that the race was delayed, whilst they tried to sort the route. The police and the council had apparently advised the organizers not to go ahead; in these circumstances the event organizers had no choice but to cancel the race. If they had gone ahead without the approval of the council and the police, their insurance would have been null and void. We decided to run the race anyway at our own risk and thought the roads looked clear pretty clear but were they fit for a race of about 2,000 runners? I don’t think you can comment on whether the race should or shouldn’t have been run unless you have seen the course. Yes the main roads were fine but as soon as the route started to climb and the roads narrow, things started to get slippy and conditions went down hill. It was alright for a small group but not for a mass body of runners – especially as this part of the race is run on open roads – a car trying to brake and losing control could have been disasterous with that amount of people…. Whilst running we were greeted with rain, hail and freezing conditions and by the time I was coming to the end of the race I was wet and nithered - if I had been out for a lot longer I could have started to have problems with hypothermia. I have to say cancelling it was the right move. I spent most of our run bobbing back and forth between the packs of runners our group had split into. In the end I covered about 20 miles. What was really nice was that the race organizers had stayed at the clubhouse and arranged for cars to sweep the event telling us there were hot drinks and bacon butties at the finish (as well as totally unexpected medals) to greet us. They were still looking out for runners out on the course despite having no responsibility for us! There will have been no one more disappointed that the race was cancelled than the organizing team themselves, they will have no doubt spent many hours over the last year planning and preparing the event and not running it is the absolute last resort but safety is paramount and their decision was the right one. Yet despite this disappointment, they hung around waiting for people to finish. I can’t quite believe the amount of stick they are getting on social media, people demanding their money back and saying how cross they are that the race was cancelled. A race in January is bound to be plagued by bad weather - they do their best to keep the race live, even paying for local council gritters and snow ploughs to cover the course this year at a cost of over £1,000; unfortunately they are not able to control the weather. It’s such a popular race as it is so early in the calendar that I am sure there will be plenty of people turning up early in January next year – and I intend to be one of them! Will I be back next year? Of course Do I want a refund? NO Do I want the date changing? Not at all, it wouldn’t be the first race of the year!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:04:12 +0000
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