Mike Wolanin | The Republic Participants and spectators leave the staging area for the annual Kids Fun Run at Mill Race Park in Columbus, Ind., Friday, The Kids Fun Run was canceled due to inclement weather.
Mill Race Marathon organizers have decided not to reschedule the Kids Fun Run that was canceled Friday after high winds and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Helene doused the course and resulted in falling tree limbs around Columbus.
There were 1,066 registered participants for the fun run, with monetary prizes for school physical education programs on the line. The race was canceled shortly before its start time late Friday afternoon.
While the youngsters from numerous area schools were disappointed, organizers said rescheduling is not possible due to not having all the resources necessary to set it up again.
“We pull so many resources together for the marathon and the Kids Fun Run, and all together, it is one event,” marathon race director Randy Stafford said. “With the cancellation, we just don’t have enough resources to come back and put it together again later.”
Stafford mentioned that the marathon will use the fun run medals planned for this year for next year since there is not a date inscribed on them.
Anyone who would like to receive a Fun Run T-shirt may send an inquiry at [email protected], Stafford said.
The T-shirts will cost $10. If a person has already paid for a T-shirt and didn’t receive it, they can also send a message to the same email address.
“We buy a limited number of shirts, and we have the parents buy them and pre-order them in half the cases,” Stafford said. “If they pre-ordered them, they pick them up when they get their bibs. The remaining shirts we sell for $10, and usually they sell out before we get to the park. Because of the rain, a lot of parents didn’t bring the kids to register for the event on Friday, so we still have shirts left that are available to be sold.”
While the biggest impact of the heavy rain and high wind was the cancellation of the fun run, the wet weather also played a role in Saturday’s Mill Race Marathon.
There were approximately 250 signed up for the full-marathon, 1,332 for the half-marathon and 1,477 for the 5K.
During the race, there were 178 runners who completed the full-marathon. When you add it to the 1,082 who completed the half-marathon and 1,153 for the 5K, 2,413 runners crossed the finish line.
Stafford believes the number of finishers would have been larger if the rain wasn’t a factor.
“There definitely would have been more. I’m aware of at least a half a dozen people started but didn’t finish their race,” he said. “It could well be there were more who dropped out of the race after it started.”
Course conditions during the race were rain, drizzle, some wind and some pooled water in various locations, which slowed down some runners. However, the runners also said the rain kept the temperatures comfortable for the entire race.
This was the first year in the history of the event that rain fell during the entire marathon.
“I thought we were actually pretty well prepared. I put on race events when it’s rained before in adverse conditions,” Stafford said. “On Wednesday, we did a whole lot more planning. Normally we stage all of the food and all of the medals at the start/finish the night before, put the tables up, stage everything under the tables, so that when all the starters go through, we pull it all out and set it on tables. This year we left all of that stuff on the truck. We had then set up the tables and move everything around and off the trucks, and then unwrap and stage. We knew we had to keep a lot of stuff dry and not just like the cardboard boxes.”
