Stephanie Semple and her husband Matt, along with their friend Mike Burke were set for the New York City Marathon, but a storm named Sandy washed that dream away.
"I was definitely disappointed," Semple said.
"We found out that the hotel we are staying at in midtown Manhattan, the crane that was dangling over one of the streets there, was over our hotel," according to Burke.
So, an evacuated hotel, a canceled flight and a canceled marathon led them to Plan B.
"What better place for Plan B than Santa Clarita," according to Matt Semple.
The three runners re-routed their flight plans for Santa Clarita at the last minute.
"We kind of looked around. I had been training for six months," according to Stephanie. "I wanted to run."
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Marathon officials say 80 other runners made the same drastic changes after the NYC Marathon was canceled.
"I anticipated it," said Santa Clarita Marathon Director, Pat Downing. "I was blown away that New York was going to do the marathon. I just know how much devastation was out there."
But now that they were here, the trio of runners from Nebraska say they couldn't have asked for a better marathon experience.
"It's gorgeous here," according to Stephanie. "I love it."
