The organizer of the half marathon that continued in New Jersey despite torrential flash flooding is facing questions Monday about why the race went on despite video showing clearly unsafe conditions.
Runners in the Racefaster Half Marathon in Paramus Sunday found themselves up to their waists at times in flash floods. Others were seen holding onto a railing on an incline to avoid being swept away.
Racefaster pushed the race start time back two hours, which runner Garrett Nathan says he thought was a good idea, given the morning’s heavy rain. Then he started getting flash flood alerts on his phone.
“I keep checking my email from the race directors and get no notifications about a cancelling,” he said.
Nathan said the race began in Ridgewood “at basically the top of the Saddle River.”
He says once the race timer started, “I’m like, ‘alright, I guess we’re just actually doing this thing’ because it was such downpour and you couldn’t even walk on the grass. It was muddy. It was all flooded out.”
“There really wasn’t any, like even on the way back, after crossing like five or six river crossings, you can call it, it’s waist deep, chest deep, holding onto the railing,” Nathan said. “I was like, ‘Are they going to like change the routes for us at all?'”
Racefaster hadn’t responded to NBC New York’s request for comment as of Monday morning.
(Image obtained by NBC New York)
Runner Zac Clark panned his phone camera back to himself after showing the raging flood and runners grabbing the railing.
“Bro, this is nuts!” he said.
About 250 people were said to have completed the race.
(Image obtained by NBC New York)
Source link
