After I had to bail on my two key events in June due to work, I signed up for the Leadville 50 in mild desperation. Now I see that there is a potential for thunderstorms on race day, which seems less than optimal up at 12-13,000 feet.
Any notions on whether they make a race day call or just send us out in rubber suits?
I'm pretty sure it's rubber suits. Good luck!
Watoni--You can assume that in the mountains of Co., Wy., and Mt. that you will have a quick hitter roll thru almost daily in the mid to late afternoon in the upper elevations. Thing is you can see them coming and you get off the exposed ridges if you have the good lightning happening. Leave the course and head down to treeline if possible.
Not sure about Leadville in particular but every mountain race out there I have done the RD will give the same basic mention regarding T-storms and say to get down into a sheltered area if possible, crouch down on the balls of your feet, etc. Usually the race continues on.
So assume the worst and embrace it. And have fun and good luck.
Will run for scenery.
I ran the Leadville Marathon last month. Forecast on race morning was 50% chance T-storms, mainly after 11:00 AM. Start time was 8:00. We got raindrops before the starting (shot)gun went off. There wasn't even a murmor of not starting.
The day turned out to be mostly beautiful. The sky is very big; T-storms are (sometimes) rather small. Many times we could see a storm "down yonder" or "up on that ridge" but it was nowhere near us. Some scattered rain/hail but it was welcome. Only one lightning/thundetbolt. Crazy torrential downpour late in the afternoon (when beer was being cut off).
So my guess : it would have to be crazy bad for them to cancel. Otherwise, you get to decide for yourself what is safe. Just keep in mind: bad forecast ≠ bad weather.
Stupid feet!
Stupid elbow!
Got it.
When we rode in the Alps a few years back, lightning storms at the top of the Galibier were quite intense, and on a road bike it is quite dangerous to be exposed up there ... we rode but an amateur cycling event for the next day was cancelled, I believe.