"No Water No Marathon", Runners think otherwise.
bryemycaz
Posts: 11,737 Forum Member
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The organisers of the Sheffield Half Marathon have been forced to cancel the race over health and safety fears after a delivery of water failed to arrive on time.
The announcement was made at the starting line after an initial delay of 30 minutes, with around 5,000 runners waiting to begin the race.
Thousands chose to run the route regardless – and there were chaotic scenes as police at first attempted to blockade roads in order to prevent them doing so.
Officers eventually allowed the runners to proceed, and have kept road closures along the route in place.
Volunteers have also committed to helping people complete the race regardless, and there have been many reports on social media of members of the public in Sheffield buying water in supermarkets to hand out to runners.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sheffield-half-marathon-cancelled-by-health-and-safety-officers-over-failed-water-delivery-9241758.html
Good on the people to make sure it carried on. The Police saw sense and not try to stop them, a riot could have ensued I think.
When people get together to do something they can achive it without petty bureaucracy.
The announcement was made at the starting line after an initial delay of 30 minutes, with around 5,000 runners waiting to begin the race.
Thousands chose to run the route regardless – and there were chaotic scenes as police at first attempted to blockade roads in order to prevent them doing so.
Officers eventually allowed the runners to proceed, and have kept road closures along the route in place.
Volunteers have also committed to helping people complete the race regardless, and there have been many reports on social media of members of the public in Sheffield buying water in supermarkets to hand out to runners.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sheffield-half-marathon-cancelled-by-health-and-safety-officers-over-failed-water-delivery-9241758.html
Good on the people to make sure it carried on. The Police saw sense and not try to stop them, a riot could have ensued I think.
When people get together to do something they can achive it without petty bureaucracy.
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"We have scoured supermarkets around the city, but unfortunately we have not been able to secure enough water for the medical-and-safety officers of the race to say it is safe to go ahead. We therefore took the very reluctant decision to cancel the race."
How much water is enough to satisfy safety standards though? I bet my local ASDA alone has more than 5000 bottles on it's own. Are we really to believe that the four big name supermarkets couldn't scrape enough water between them from all their stores in Sheffield?
well a silly suggestion also but are there no local taps in anyones houses or stores that could have filled containers up?
But that would cost them about £5000 (the little bottles I see are about £1 each) ok not that much for ASDA overall but I'm unsure the local manager could make the decision to give £5000 worth of stock away without getting the OK from higher up
Going by the story on Sky it maybe some of a H&S issue
So it looks like only approved water can be given out LOL:D
Well as the organisers charged a £30 entry fee per runner, you would think they could have afforded to buy it.
Now they will have to refund the entry fee and there are also individuals seeking reimbursement of overnight accommodation and fuel costs.
Mental. They should've gone to the pub like normal people do on a Sunday.
I assumed it was a charity thing so the money went to that so saying that if you have paid £30 plus other expenses what's another £1 to go and buy some water can H&S stop them from buying and using their own?
If everyone needs approx 5 bottles, for arguements sake, then you need 25,000...
Remember, the runners take a swig or 2 & then throw it away so they might actually need 10 per person!
It's a half marathon on a rainy Sunday morning in Yorkshire, not a ultra marathon through the Sahara.
The problem is it's not petty bureaucracy if someone who isn't used to running 13.1 miles does so without a sip of water and then collapses at the end with some sort of dehydration issue and the organisers are held to account because they failed to provide water on the course as promised. Yes some people feel water in road races is a bit of a gimmick at times but for some who aren't used to the distance or aren't well hydrated before they set off it's quite important.
I get that people were frustrated having put in training and such but the idea that the runners could have rioted if the event didn't go ahead is just ridiculous. Do they really think that they're so entitled that if the race is cancelled they would force it to happen regardless? I guess they do.
I suppose the only lesson to be learnt if there is one is the organisers of such events perhaps need to get the water delivered a day or two early to cover for any last minute hitches with the delivery.
Great publicity for a few hundred pounds of stock.
Having the organisers turn up to a Tesco Extra asking for 25k bottles may be more the issue.
Seems poor organisation though.
However being involved in the organisation of such events in the past, there are a lot of regulations and things that need to be done or provided for the liability insurance and other organisations (police, council etc) want in place, so I can understand why they wanted to pull the plug. If someone had croaked on the course, and water was not provided despite it being April and wet, the press would have a field day.
The problem with such running events these days is a lot of commercial companies have jumped on the bandwagon, charge inflated fees to enter (up to £50 for a half marathon or £35 for a 10k is not uncommon) and know very little about what runners need or expect, or have any idea on what to do if things like this happen.
Any "consumable" should have been with the race organisers DAYS before the race, so any missed delivery could have been re sourced. The actual "feeding" stations should have had the water by early morning so the "feeders" could get ready, so all this kerfuffle is down to bloody poor organisation.
Immediately without any notice at 9.30am on a Sunday morning, I don't think so.
According to posters on Sheffield Forum it was only the runners at the front who decided to run despite being told the race had been cancelled. Many of those further back just assumed that the start had been delayed. They assumed that they were still running officially, as they were never advised anything different. I don't know what the situation would be if the organisers' were required to make a claim through their insurance. They couldn't run the race because of lack of water so they had to cancel, as their insurance would have been invalid. But in failing to advise many of the runners, the runners set off in good faith, thinking they were still covered by the organisers' insurance, when in reality they weren't.
oh wrong race