BEING PREPARED—DON'T FORGET THE VOLCANOS!

I've always felt the number one ingredient to ensure a successful event is preparation.

Three of my favorite quotes are:

• "Winning is the science of being totally prepared.”

• "If you are not prepared for everything, you are not prepared for anything."

• "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

I try to have all the major pieces of an event nailed down a week or two early so I will be in a position either to put out fires or better yet to prevent fires from starting. Armed with my thick notebook of contingency plans, I like to think that I am ready for whatever gets thrown at me. However, I will admit that I did not have a have a chapter about volcanic eruptions in my playbook, so when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted just four days before the Boston Marathon, I was glad I had other matters generally in order so I had a bit of time to address the impact on the race.

For Boston, the biggest implications were delayed flights from Europe for race participants, some of our European-based technical consultants, and 1970 champion Ron Hill who was coming to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his win. (Fortunately, most of our elite athletes were already in town when Eyjafjallajökull blew its top.) Our strategy was to make adjustments at the last minute to prepare for late arrivals as well as how to fill in for those, including Hill and some of our technical consultants who couldn't make it due to "an act of God." Race participants who didn’t get to Boston due to cancelled flights were notified that they would be granted automatic entry into the 2011 race.

The problem was more acute for the London Marathon, a week later. London’s organizers spent thousands of dollars on alternative arrangements for many of their elite runners ranging from chartering private flights, bringing them in via more circuitous routes, and using alternative modes of transportation including trains and taxi-cabs!

The bottom line? Don't forget to add a plan for volcano eruptions to your race contingency planning list from now on!