Torchlight 5K Rescheduled for August 25

The Lifetime Fitness Torchlight 5K has been rescheduled for Thursday, August 25 at 8 PM. Originally planned for July 20, the event, which is also the USATF-MN 5K Championships, was postponed because of the oppressive weather.

Karen Leinberger, spokesperson for the event, said that race officials gathered information on the weather from a variety of sources. They were in touch with meteorologists and were watching how other events were coping with the heat. While the Minnesota Twins played their games during the heat wave, Leinberger noted that fans had a hard time, many having to be treated for heat illness.The international youth soccer tournament being held in Blaine almost cancelled some of their games as the heat index reached 105, within a degree of the 106 limit they set where they would have not merely rescheduled the games to the morning, but would have cancelled or postponed them, she said. Since the Torchlight Run is an evening race and most of the participants are not elite runners, the decision was made to move it and hope for better weather.

"Most do (the Torchlight Run) as a fun run," Leinberger said. "And many of them may not know when to back off, how far they can push it (in such extreme weather)."

Since the race's objective is to provide the participants with a fun, healthy experience, and a lot of emphasis is on the post-race festivities, it was determined that the conditions were not conducive to reaching these goals, she said. She said that the after the event celebration was supposed to be a "big lawn party, a healthy alternative to happy hour."

So, while they had increased their cooling controls at aid stations and pre and post race, they ultimately realized that in such oppressive conditions, most runners were not going to be in the mood for celebrating. "My only regret is that we didn't make the decision (to postpone) sooner."

Another advantage of moving the date is that participants will have a better chance of being acclimated to hot, humid weather. A person can gain or lose acclimation to climate extremes within a few weeks, said Dr. Bill Roberts, a past president of ACSM who also writes a medical column for Runner's World's website. Thus if the participants have been exercising outside during July and there isn't a several week cold snap prior to August 25, their bodies will be better equipped to handle the conditions than they may have been on July 20.