Issac Bailey | Whining has run its course

I never imagined I'd have to write these words:

Marathoners, please stop the whining.

Apparently, some runners are still upset that the 13th annual Myrtle Beach marathon was canceled several hours before it was scheduled to begin. The area got hit with a once-a-decade snowstorm. While I'm usually stunned when a local high school calls off a football game at the first sight of a rain cloud, city officials rightly called off the marathon.

Organizers have offered half-price discounts for those who paid and want to run next year. They have even set up a partnership with another marathon later this year to appease those who are so angry they are threatening to boycott next year's race and talk it down back in their home towns. Those are steps organizers were not required to make, given that entry fees are nonrefundable because most of it is spent well in advance of race day.

To the local and out-of-town runners who understand the decision even if it disappointed them, I say, good for you. Like real marathoners, you know there are times you must adjust.

To those who sound like petulant children, I say, get over yourselves.

The race-day forecast called for snow and possibly icy conditions.

This is Myrtle Beach. Snow isn't an every year occurrence here. Snow tires, shovels and blowers are not in large supply.

And while the snow that eventually showed up was the soft kind and began disappearing hours after it fell, I've lived in South Carolina long enough to know that it was not out of the realm of possibility that an uglier snow fall could have shown up instead. Growing up, I remember one winter storm around Christmas that produced the kind of mushy, slippery, icy stuff I later saw on a trip to New York a few years ago.

Besides that, anyone who has ever tried to put on an event - let alone one as large and complex as the Myrtle Beach marathon -knows you can't simply push back the start time several hours later without affecting the schedules of the police and other emergency officials who were going to be on hand, let alone the hundreds of volunteers who also had to make personal decisions regarding how they would deal with our rare snowfall.

I understand the disappointment. Running hundreds of miles over several months in warm, cold and sometimes freezing weather in preparation only to be denied a chance at an official marathon time has to hurt. Yes, I know of what I speak. I trained and ran the race in 2006. I get that thousands traveled and spent money in hotels and restaurants and feel cheated because they didn't get the ultimate payoff.

But I also understand that life sometimes throws curveballs. The organizers put on an increasingly attractive race for 12 consecutive years. That shouldn't be overshadowed by the anger of a few.