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DEL.ICIO.USWill tornado damage impact the ING marathon?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The race will take place as scheduled on March 30, says race director Victoria Seahorn.
The 26.2-mile course was not severely affected by Friday’s storm, she said.
But as we know in addition to residential areas, there was storm damage at Centennial Olympic Park, the Omni Hotel at CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center.
Centennial Olympic Park is the site of the start/finish line. The Omni Hotel is site headquarters where a spaghetti dinner is planned the night before the race, and many out-of-town runners and guest athletes are scheduled to stay there. And the Georgia World Congress Center is host to the health and fitness expo where runners will pick up their race packets on March 28 and 29.
At least this was the plan.
“The race will go on,” said Seahorn. “ “It’s just the logistical parts that we have to make sure of.”
Damage at the GWCC, for instance is not in the planned expo area, however, building inspectors have to make sure the structure is safe, she said.
The storms damaged several sections of the massive building’s roof, rain water washed down walls and burst pipes and soaked carpets. (See reporter Leon Stafford’s full story at this link).
We’ll keep you updated. Also visit the ING website.
How were you affected by the storm? Do you live in the neighborhoods directly hit?
On Saturday, Blogger John Tackett posted:
“Well this morning, at 4:30 a.m., despite the damage to downtown Atlanta, I did an 18 mile run from my home in East Point to my office in Buckhead. Got a little wet when the rain came through about 6 a.m., and it was eerie to run down the middle of Peachtree (and I mean the middle of the street) in downtown and not encounter traffic. Only other people I saw downtown were police, clean-up workers, and lots of homeless folks.
There was a local news crew there and they reporter yelled out at me, “Why in the world are I running after all that happened last night?” My response, “Despite what mother nature throws at us, we as humans need to get back into our daily routines as soon as possible.”
Hopefully all my “online running buddies” fared well in regards to the storms, and look forward to seeing you all at the races…”.
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