I have to start this review by saying that the race was canceled, so most of my review will cover pre race and race day leading up to the cancellation. I did end up running the half marathon course after the race was canceled (without a bib, so I was just a runner), so I can speak to that aspect as well.

Also, I have absolutely no problem with the race management company, Team Ortho’s, decision to cancel the race. It was raining and lightning like CRAZY the night before and morning of the race. They saw even more bad weather coming, and decided to cancel the race. That weather never really materialized, but you can’t fault them for weather being unpredictable. In the end, they were right to cancel the race.

But, I did have some very serious problems with the way they communicated to runners and the timing of the cancellation. In the end, it was a lot of examples of what NOT to do.

Originally, the race was supposed to start at 6:30am. At 4am participants received an email saying that the race was on schedule, but that they would be releasing another update at 5am to confirm. They said if we didn’t see an email, we should assume the race is still on. Fair enough.

5am passed and so did 5:15 and no word from Team Ortho. Predictably, the comments section of their Facebook page was blowing up with negative comments about the race not keeping the timeline it had established for itself. At 5:30am, many people were approaching their departure time to make the 6:30am start, and then the race announced a one hour delay. So they were tardy in announcing the delay, but still far enough out to work for most runners. (I watched a video with the race director after the race was canceled and they said the decision to delay the race was made at 5am and communicated through email and Facebook at that time, but it definitely took them 30 minutes to disseminate that message. That is a VERY long time to deliver a time-critical piece of info.)

They said they would be meeting again with the national weather service and Minneapolis police at 7am and would make a final announcement at that time.

7am rolled by and no word. Now we are 30 minutes until START time with no word from the race, and everyone knows that with parking (which cost $20 - more on that later), bag drop, porto-potty stops, and walking to the start, 30 minutes is no time. So everyone just assumed the race was on and made their way to the start.

7:15 - nothing. 7:30 (amended start time) - nothing. Finally, about 7:45 as I was toward the front of the pack of people waiting to start the race (in the rain), a woman from the race management team YELLED out to the field that the race was canceled due to severe weather and the threat of lightning strikes on the course (she had to yell with no mic because their generator wasn’t working). Everyone who had just paid $20 to park had to turn around and leave with no refund. Had they made the announcement to cancel at 7am, as they told us they would do, all of those people could have saved their money.

Clearly, at 7am they were faced with a bad and worsening situation weather-wise, but delayed cancelling the race. Instead of just canceling the race, they waited and waited - letting THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE pay for parking, walk in the rain and stand together under a bunch of trees while lightning was apparently striking the course.

I get that canceling a race is a very serious and difficult decision, but their delay put a lot of people at risk, cost people money, and really left everyone with a bad taste in their mouth regarding how the race communicated.

Like I said, I ran the course and saw the aid stations - I’m confident it could have been a great race. They violated one of my biggest pet peeves though with aid stations - PLASTIC CUPS!?? No! Plastic cups are not pinchable and should NEVER be used during a race. This is race management 101 and I can’t believe races still use plastic cups. Ugh.

Not a ton of scenery, but I think it would have been a nice race. Very flat for anyone looking to log a fast time.

T-shirts were really nice, though very large (as is typical), and they also provided a race jacket for marathon runners (originally what I signed up and paid for).

The race has been very quiet since cancelling the race, and their Facebook feed is a mess of negative comments, so I’m worried their silence has led to more ill-will and negativity. I think they need to SERIOUSLY reconsider their PR and overall outreach plans, and set up protocols to trigger faster decisions and faster communication.

Again, I totally support their decision to cancel the race, but not meeting their own timelines led to so much more confusion, and ultimately negativity. After seeing so many big misses on so many basics (like timely, effective communication), I probably wouldn’t do another Team Ortho event.