i think a big reason for this is that it was held in China, and they have a lot more faith and trust in their gov't than is warranted. this race was put on by the local gov't. those runners trusted them to make safe and good decisions, and to be prepared for emergency contingencies, moreso than racers in US or Europe would be. that trust was obviously misplaced. the Chinese running culture is more susceptible to groupthink than over here, so when the organizers said it was ok to go, they went. i'd be curious to find out how many, if any, people who were signed up made the decision not to start.pizza-sandwich wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 3:06 pm this highlights more than anything else that if you’re going into the mountains you need to know things about weather.
it completely blows my mind that people would go into this race—anything in the alpine—without checking on the forecast and being prepared for it. that’s like the very first thing you do before you leave.
i’m sorta not sympathizing with these folks.
it's also worth considering how much information was available to the runners being in China. especially in a really remote region, where this race was apparently held, you might not have good access to forecasts, topographic data, etc. that we might take for granted, and might be more dependent on the organizers and the gov't (both the same in this instance) for providing that info.