- The Altitude Running Invitational (Fort Collins) has now been moved to Thursday and Fort Collins High School. Noon start time.
- The Holyoke Invitational has moved to Thursday as well.
- The Sand Creek Scorpion was canceled prior to this week and I missed getting that message.
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For a very large portion of the state, this week is spring break. In fact, you could say this is peak spring break week. Lots of teams and lots of individuals are out of action this week.
But, the fix is in the works. The fix is next week.
Meanwhile, we have this week to navigate through, and the weather isn't helping what little of track and field is standing this week to stay that way.
Saturday's Lyons Invitational has already moved to Thursday. The Altitude Running Invitational in Fort Collins is pondering the exact same Saturday-to-Thursday migration. Doubtless other meets are looking at the Saturday weather forecast and pondering their exit strategies as well.
Apart from Saturday meets abandoning ship for Thursday, there aren't any weekday qualifying meets this week. And, there are only a few Friday and Saturday meets.
Friday and Saturday meets include the La Junta Open, the Sand Creek Scorpion, and the (Broomfield) Eagle 8-Team Invite (all on Friday), plus the Cedaredge, Sangre de Cristo, Sterling, Highlands Ranch, Pueblo County, Holyoke, and Mickey Dunn (Grand Junction) meets on Saturday.
The Friday meets are facing potential weather conditions, but nothing like many Saturday meets are facing. Being at about 6600 feet of elevation, the Sand Creek meet appears most vulnerable of Friday's offerings.
On the other hand, if you've been around the Sand Creek meet for a while, though, you know that one of the most reliable things in all of Colorado meteorology is that it will never be warm for the Sand Creek Scorpion. Before they even set a date for their meet, the Sand Creek folks know it would be arctic conditions. Perhaps all that history of frigid conditions has hardened these folks and they will gamely forge ahead through whatever weather Friday brings.
Or maybe Bobby Tillman left Sand Creek for Pueblo West precisely because he got sick and tired of hosting meets at one degree above freezing with a bitter north wind? Who knows? In any case, the legacy of the Sand Creek Scorpion Invitational lives on.
The Grand Junction and Cedaredge meets might be just fine on Saturday. Weather is a different beast on the Western Slope than it is on the Front Range, and foul weather looks to have mostly departed the Western Slope by Saturday.
Sangre de Cristo will likely be chilly, but the San Luis Valley figures to suffer only a glancing blow from the weather system taking aim at the Front Range. And, who comes to a meet in Mosca on the first day of April expecting conditions to be warm, anyway?
Pueblo County could possibly survive due solely to their geographically favorable location when cold, wet weather sweeps down the Front Range. Then again, "geographically favorable" may or may not be a high enough trump card to deal with this system.
It doesn't exactly figure as pleasant weather on Saturday for Sterling and Holyoke, but a) Eastern Plains folks routinely deal with more adverse spring weather than Front Range folks, and b) it should also be a few degrees warmer--and possibly a bit drier--at the lower elevations in northeastern Colorado on Saturday. Assuming the track out in Sterling is now repaired and meet ready, both of these meets just might get done.
Highlands Ranch? That one's not looking nearly so likely. The most current Saturday forecast for Parker features five to eight inches of snow. Good luck running 400s in that.
I'll update this article as new information is received.