Start of the race moved to Friday afternoon
The 125 km schedule is often questioned by our athletes; starting at 2:00 am does not provide a good night’s rest before the start and the majority end up finishing late the following night, making it difficult to manage sleep over the weekend.
We suspect that this scheduling issue is a contributing factor to the high dropout rate on this distance (between 45% and 50% depending on the year).
In order to improve the completion rate of the 125 km and allow for extended cut-offs, we are taking the important decision to change the 125 km departure times to 2 waves, now on Friday afternoon:
- 1:00 p.m. : Start of the 1st wave (less than 20 hours)
- 2:00 p.m. : Start of the 2nd wave (more than 20 hours)
We understand that this update will completely change the 125 km athletes’ plans and we are very sorry if this decision does not suit everyone. We sincerely think that this update is in the majority of runners’ best interest.
Athletes’ overall experience improved
In addition to getting to run the most beautiful section of the course in daytime (the first 30 kilometers), the majority of athletes will finish the next day, in daylight, where the athletes will enjoy and also contribute to a livelier atmosphere at the finish line and on the main site.)
We believe that the overall experience will be improved with:
- time to chill and enjoy the main site with the other runners on Saturday
- beautiful views along all of the first section of the race
- a good night’s rest on Saturday evening
- more lively start on Friday afternoon
- better sleep before the race
- less stress to get to the starting line
- extended cut-offs to allow more runners to achieve their goals
- the experience of a long night run
- etc.
We could not consider this option in the past given that such a schedule requires significant logistical adaptations that we were not ready to assume: about fifty more volunteers (on a weekday!), much longer hours on several aid stations, security teams and logistics deployed over a longer period, etc. But, we feel that the team is now ready to implement these changes and we want the 2021 athletes to benefit from that shift.
Zoom Meeting on Monday, May 24, at 1h p.m. (EST)
We wanted to share this news as soon as possible so that you can adapt your planning accordingly. Details about shuttles and bib pickups will be shared on Monday, May 24. Rest assured that everything possible will be done to simplify logistics for all our athletes.
We hope you can join us on a Zoom Meeting at 1:00 p.m on May 24 as well (Eastern Time Zone) so that we may hear your thoughts and comments on this decision and answer all your questions.
ZOOM MEETING (join us with this link)
Questions
Since we know that many of you have already planned your accommodation and transportation for a 2:00 am departure, we will be very flexible for those that prefer canceling or transfering to another distance (ex: 80 km). Please write to us at info@harricana.info to ask for a change or share your thoughts.
Thank you for your collaboration!