Not Leaving on a Jet Plane

For They Might Be Runners (emphasis on Might), the third time is not the charm. As you no doubt know, the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland (usually referred to simply as the Iceland volcano) has halted air travel to much of Europe. London is one of the cities affected the worst. After some hope that air travel to London would resume on Tuesday night, yesterday a second ash cloud developed and is currently drifting towards the UK. There are no immediate plans to let flights into or out of London from Wednesday to Friday.

Our flight to London is scheduled to depart on Wednesday night; the 2010 Virgin London Marathon takes place on Sunday morning. We will likely know tonight whether our flight is officially cancelled. We hope for the best for our trip and for anyone whom the volcano has impacted in far worse ways. We are certainly fortunate not to be among the thousands of people stranded away from home. We are disappointed nonetheless.

We have found alternatives in the Midwest in the coming weeks, the most likely being the 2d Annual Wisconsin Marathon in Kenosha. Whichever marathon we end up running will be as much of a mental challenge to us now as ever. On a positive note, we made the local NBC news because of our fundraising along with our inability to get to London and got to plug the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its marathon training program.

Anyway, we had a good streak vs. the World for years. With the 3 of 4 days lost to travel delays on the way to the Grand Canyon in February and this London trip in jeopardy, the score for the 2010 season may soon be: World 2, Us 0. We still have hope, at least for a little while longer. By the way, there is still time for anyone who would like to donate in support of our team. http://afc.aidschicago.org/netcommunity/TheyMightBeRunners3