Unfortunately, after several delays and much deliberation by the Race & Safety Commission, the adidas INFINITE TRAILS World Championships 2018 were canceled due to extreme weather conditions on the course. The title sponsor, partners and athletes were terribly disappointed, but the decision was made unanimously with safety as first priority. The -4° temperature and snowy conditions forced the hand of the Commission to cancel the inaugural team relay trail run that had been scheduled for a 4:00 am start on Sunday morning.
As the organizers, partners and athletes stood by hoping to hear good news, Race Director, Mike Hamel grabbed the microphone to make the sad announcement.
“We unfortunately have to announce that the adidas INFINITE TRAILS World Championships have been canceled due to extreme weather conditions. With circumstances beyond our control and the safety of every runner, crew member and volunteer first in our minds, we could not go forward with the race,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“We are deeply upset and hope that the situation is understood by all involved and affected. A huge thank you to all of our team and partners who put in such an incredible effort and especially to our safety and rescue team and crew who were up through the night working on the situation that unfortunately had no safe answer.”
“We hope you will join us next year for the adidas INFINITE TRAILS World Championships 2019. Our title sponsor adidas, warmly invites all trail runners that registered this year to come for free next Summer.”
The emotions were clearly on display at what should have been the starting line and a few tears were shed for what could have been. As the groans of disappointment were heard rumbling through the crowd gathered at the Alpen Arena, Robert Mücke, Senior Sports- Marketing Manager Global adidas Outdoor, addressed the crowd to try express the feelings of
the title sponsor. Later, he said this about the painful decision: “We were in discussions from midnight onwards following minute by minute the forecast and information from our contacts on top of the mountains. There was a slight chance it would get better and clear up but unfortunately instead, it got worse and this forced us to delay the race by a few hours. But still we had hope for a start and sadly it didn’t work out. The experts on the mountains made the call. It wasn’t a gut feeling and it was not a decision we wanted to make but the people on the mountains made the call. – 4 degrees and terrible weather was just not something that we could ask our volunteers to work through even as much as we wanted to
run the race – and the safety of the runners couldn’t be put in jeopardy. I hope the athletes understand and know we did everything we could for them. I think with the infrastructure here in Gastein we had opportunities for Plan B, Plan C, Plan D etc but they all were not possible with the facts that we received from our support at high elevation. We will do everything we can to give you the best race possible in 2019 and we hope you enjoyed your time in Gastein/ SalzburgerLand.”
The “summer” conditions at the top were hard to imagine for those not used to the high Alpine region. Even the locals though, knew that this call had to be made.
“I stayed the night at the hut near Reedsee to be ready for the early runners and in the morning it was very cold, very windy and extremely foggy. Just walking down the paths I was on hands and knees trying to make it back to the center. I think the right decision was made.” Manu Marktl – a local photographer – said after his arrival back in Bad Hofgastein.
The athletes had mixed feelings about it all and though upset, they understood and appreciated that safety must always be first priority.
“However much we would like to disagree, we have to respect the decision of the race director,” said Cordis Hall of team ‘aIT Multi Mix’ – the second place team from the Prologue on Friday. He continued, “so much went into this and we were all so excited that it makes us really sad it’s not going to be happening this year. But we are excited for 2019 and hope that the routes remain exactly the same.”
“How am I going to burn off the absurd amount of food I’ve eaten this weekend now!? I am painfully disappointed but I imagine this decision wasn’t taken lightly,” said the light-hearted Ellie Lacey of ‘Team Blacks’.
Laura Schadow of team ‘Fuchdeifeswuid’ had a hard time digesting the bad news but had a positive mindset. “Now we’re sitting here with a weird feeling. You feel kind of disappointed and dissatisfied because the tension and mental racing preparation are still there but now it’s time to see how we spend the day. Probably going to the Alpentherme!”
Fortunately, as Laura mentioned, not all was lost and the trail runners were treated to an extra hour in the Alpentherme as well as many other fantastic amenities that the Gastein region has to offer. A small group of trail runners took it upon themselves to do a community run up routes not affected by weather with whoever was interested in, “making the best of the day.”
Though the clouds were black, the rain consistent and the athletes understandably upset, there was an aura of acceptance amongst the runners and an attitude that sometimes, these things happen.
Preparing for such a unique and challenging event for many, many months only to have it snatched right from under your nose is a hard thing to swallow. But swallow it everyone must then breathe deeply and finally move on to preparing for the adidas INFINITE TRAILS World Championships from June 28th to the 30th, 2019 in Gastein/SalzburgerLand.
Many of the trail runners who got small glimpse of what the event has to offer – the beautiful views, the Gastein hospitality and the incredible trails – have already decided that for 2019, they are in. Are you?
