Wildfire smoke filled Downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley with a pungent haze as seen from the North Shore on Nov. 16. While visibility and air quality have improved since then, the concerns about smoke from wildfires was enough for the Red Bank Gators to cancel their 5K.During a regular doctor’s visit last week, Red Bank Gators team secretary Jessica Martin was asked if she was doing any outdoor exercise, like running. Her doctor advised against it, citing air quality concerns.
Around the same time, a friend of Martin’s tried to go for a run at Chickamauga Battlefield, but it took only a mile before she realized that even though visibility was clear, the air was still thick with smoke and particulates that irritated her lungs, Martin recounted.
After discussing the issue with the board, Martin and the Gators announced on Nov. 22 they were cancelling their inaugural Gator Run 5k, planned for Dec. 3, and offered full refunds to all who had signed up.
“We didn’t want to risk even a few people’s health,” Martin said.
In the days leading up to the decision, the air quality of Chattanooga was listed as moderate to severe due to numerous wildfires burning across the Southeast.
“I know some poeple that are still running outside, but that’s dependent on each person’s health and physical ability,” said Martin. “We didn’t want a negative outcome for anyone in our first year of the event.”
Hopefully, she said, the Gators will get another shot next year during the 2017 Red Bank Holiday Festival and Parade, which is still scheduled to run normally this year. In addition to wanting to schedule the Gator Run during a community-wide event, Martin said most weekends between now and then have at least one race going on somewhere in Hamilton County, so timing it with the Holiday Festival was really the best choice.
Martin said the Gators board’s goal with the new 5k was to host an event that would help bring about more community involvement and participation, and the festival is the perfect opportunity to do so.
While the Red Bank Jubilee in May would offer a similar opportunity, Martin said the Gators don’t want to step on the toes of the Chattanooga Track Club, which has hosted a 5k that weekend for several years. The Track Club was instrumental in the planning of the Gator Run.
Martin said the club was going to allow the Gators to borrow official timing equipment for the Gator Run. She added that the president of the Track Club, John Crawley, decided to donate his registration fee to the Gators instead of accepting a refund after the race was cancelled.
“It broke my heart to cancel the event, because it could have gotten better by the day of the race,” she said. “But the last thing we wanted was to put all these resources into it and have to cancel it the day of the race.”
As a replacement fundraiser, Martin said the Gators are looking into hosting a tried-and-true pancake breakfast around May or June, near the start of the season, as they have in years past.
The Red Bank Gators can be reached at rbstgators@gmail.com.