Strong Winds, Cancelled Marathon Story at 17th Annual Clearwater Distance Classic.
The half-marathon became the marquee event at the Clearwater Distance Classic on Sunday, when race organizers were forced to cancel the marathon and 50K events due to poor course conditions which included flooding in parts of Indian Rocks Beach.
“Would we have liked to have done our full deal? Certainly. That’s what we planned for and were ready for, but circumstances changed that,” said race director Chris Lauber. “The police chief made the call that we weren’t coming through. Once they make the call….we’re out. I didn’t really have much choice in the matter.”
Runners were told of the cancellation at the starting line prior to the race, and all runners registered in the two cancelled races were automatically bumped down to the half-marathon event. The event was also delayed by one hour, due to localized heavy rains in the area in the early morning hours. Lauber made the announcement Saturday night after monitoring forecasts throughout the day. Even with the rain long gone by the start, participants still had to deal with 25 mph winds with gusts as high as 44 mph.
“It was awful. It really sucked,” said half-marathon female winner, Keara McGraw. “It was so windy. There was a point where I came across the bridge and I was standing still. It was rough.”
Luke Beevor, of Wimauma, a former stand-out at Florida State, won the windy affair in a time of 1:13:13. The 31-year-old, who also won the Holiday Halfathon in December, averaged a pace of 5:35 despite the adverse course conditions. Coming into the race, he was hoping to run 71 minutes, but Mother Nature would not cooperate on this day.
“I’ve run some cross country races with mud up to your waist and having to jump over stuff, but we don’t care about times when we do that,” said Beevor after the race. “In a half-marathon you still have an eye on the clock, so running today, I just tried to go as hard as I could and just see what happened. I definitely felt it on the way back when we turned into the wind. It was just brutal.”
“It was a headwind, tailwind, headwind, tailwind. So it kind of switched up. I thought it was all going to be the same one way, but it changes. Every now and then, even when we had a headwind, it would just gust. It would blow you back and blow you to the side. It was horrible out there.”
Chris McCaffrey of Seminole finished second to Beevor in 1:14:58, while Kevin Collmar of Tampa was third.
McCaffrey said that the race was, “mentally challenging” and that some of the front-runners decided it might be a good idea to unite against the windy course.
“Me and a couple of the guys up front knew that we had to work together, rotate, take some time up at the front. I’ve done this course before and I knew about the bridges. As soon as I hit the turnaround, it was like someone had stood you up in front of a wall,” he said.
Female open winner McGraw, who said that she “ignored her splits” and that “it was obviously not a PR day” finished in 1:30:10. Terri Rejimbal of Tampa and Kristen Courcelle of Colchester, VT were the second and third females respectively.
Andrew Chandler of St. Petersburg and Candia Mulhern of Spring Hill were the Male and Female Master winners, while a couple of Massachusetts runners, Blaine Alvarez-Backus of Lancaster and Roberta Myers of Norwood were the Grand Masters champions.
Greg Hodges of Tampa out-kicked Fit2Run teammate and co-worker Kyle Vuksich by one second to win the 5 mile event in 29:48 and said the conditions were “tough”.
“I’ve done a little bit of light rain, even some snow when I was up north, but nothing this treacherous,” said Hodges.
Hodges who like Vuksich is a 400 meter and 800 meter runner joked, “This was like a marathon for me.”
Kelson Mackenzie of Minneapolis, MN finished third, while Kayla Bratcher of New Port Ritchey was the top female, finishing sixth overall in 31:53.
Legendary marathoner Bill Rodgers participated in the 5 mile event finishing 37th overall in 40 minutes flat and in the process won the 65–69 age group. Afterwards, Rodgers addressed the crowd at the awards ceremony and then handed out overall and age group awards before providing photo opportunities.
“It’s a very well-run race,” said the four-time Boston Marathon and New York Marathon winner. “Chris Lauber and his wife Rya did a great job. The police and the community, they handled it well, they did a great job with the awards. So runners will come back. It’s been going on for 17 years now, so Clearwater gets a big lift from it.”
For complete race results see: 2016 Clearwater Distance Classic Results
Story and Photos by John Gregg of Tampa Bay Running News
