The Marathon They Almost Canceled

Ice. Wind. Sleet. Rain. Downed power lines. No-show volunteers. The minute-by-minute story of just how close organizers came to calling off the 2007 Boston Marathon, something never done in the race's 111 years.

The air inside the 10-by-10-foot command-post trailer was hot and still despite the icy rain and 50-mile-an-hour gusts outside. It was Sunday, April 15, barely 12 hours before the first runners would leave by bus for the town where the Boston Marathon begins, and the men and women in the trailer parked at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth streets near the finish line watched on their TV monitors and computer screens as information poured in about falling trees and power lines, flying camera cranes and port-a-potties, and ankle-deep mud at the staging area in Hopkinton.

Twenty-to-30-mile-an-hour headwinds had been forecast for the race, with a windchill in the 20s. Over the network of radios came news that there was snow on the ground at the starting line. Engineers were worried that the photo bridge and bleachers could come down in the wind and warming tents could collapse. Days before, a television meteorologist had predicted a storm of "epic proportions" for the historic Marathon's 111th running. Media from CBS News to the Weather Channel were driving speculation to a nationwide frenzy that the famous race would have to be called off.