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The long expected 35th anniversary event and first of the Millennial Trilogy series was cancelled
five minutes before its start due to atrocious weather conditions, which saw a civil defense
emergency declared in the Rotorua region.
In less than 24 hours leading up to the event some 200 mm of rain fall were recorded. On the day heavy rains continued and resulted in some areas being evacuated. As hundreds of runners proved, who went out for runs anyway, the rain itself had not made running impossible (I can tell, because I was one of them), but the real problem was that in parts the race course did no longer exist! Landslides and washouts had in parts destroyed the roads and there were raging rivers crossing the road were none had been before. My heart goes out to the organisers, who had to make this very tough decision in the best interest of the safety of us runners, and some 3,200 runners who had turned up for this popular event, among them dozens from Japan (having flown in just for this weekend!).
Just look at the time!
The one on the right is me! Please note the water which was standing some 15 cm high!
Here's more of a wet weekend ... |
Many of us tried to have some fun nevertheless ...
