guessing that would kill the race and/or production company. We'd be discussing on an RIP OUTERBANKS thread in 5 months.

discounts and or compensation seem like a generous middle ground for an act-of-god natural disaster. It's not like your entry fee is sitting there, liquid, padding someone's bank account and collecting interest.

interesting that races don't carry some kind of cancellation insurance. If they don't, they should.

Yeah Cycle Oregon was cancelled this year because of forest fires. They are offering $500 refund, 50%.

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Coach at KonaCoach Multisport

I don't really give a s*** what it would do to their race they should give us our money back. If it's a money thing on there and maybe they should purchase insurance

Yeah people need to get over the idea of a refund if the race is cancelled. That money was gone before you even signed up. A discount or transfer do seem like a good enough offering. The race company probably gets some of the money back but not all of it. As said before, a total refund likely results in the end of the race in it's entirety.

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Superfly Coaching
http://www.superflycoaching.com/eric

IL PIRATA VI GUARDA

it s my understanding that if i sign up for a race and it get cancel for weather situation, there is no refund. perhaps some discount or transfer of registration to next year etc.

it s out of the RD controle and he as already paid for many of the services needed for the race. big part of the money is already gone

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

People think signing up for a race is like purchasing a pair of socks at Walmart.
Spoiler: It's not.

And people wonder why the sport is dying

I agree - I think the onus is on the athlete to purchase via his CC that offers some sort of travel insurance
The organiser has already sunk his money into hiring everything; often a year in advance
He does not start organising things the week of the event when he has made sure it will be a nice sunny day......
We are all big boys and girls - sometimes things happen outside our control

People are funny - a huge hurricane happens and its a global news story. People are dying and losing houses etc
And everyone goes "thats a shame" and carries on with their day to day with barely a second thought
But as soon as you are moderately inconvenienced and might not do a silly Triathlon and it then becomes tangible to you

I'm hoping it won't be cancelled. My thinking is that Irma should mostly dissipate and stay a bit off coast by the time it swings through NC, and that it's going to hit Tuesday ish anyways. But maybe I'm just convincing myself of that because I hate when races I'm in shape for get cancelled...

If it is, I hope we get a choice between partial refund or discount on next year's race.

Yeah, the *race* should have purchased insurance.

What about you?

From the website:

Refund Insurance
Please review the Refund Insurance prior to registration.

The Refund Insurance Program is administered by Stonebridge Benefit Services, a Transamerica company. To contact Trans-American about your race refund insurance.To contact them directly: Phone:1-877-527-0956 Email: EventRefund@transamerica.com
Registrations made after February 21, 2017 will contact the following for refunds:
The customer service phone number is 1-888-497-6987
email address is eventservice@allianzassistance.com
This runner benefit is offered during the registration process only. You cannot add the insurance once you have completed your registration.For more information on coverage Click Here.
Please do not call OBSE with questions about refund insurance they have no administrative access to the plan and suggest that you call the 800 number listed.

get over it man. the race is during hurricane season, on the east coast. whatd you think was gonna happen? Roll with it and stop complaining

So many things I would like to say to that response but I'm not going to be the jackass trying to act like a tough guy behind the keyboard. Yes I understand it's during Hurricane Season but I also have dealt with these rental companies and the property owners and Outer Banks long enough to know how they treat people in bend the rules to make it fit their f****** needs. Look at when Hatteras lost power this year due to a construction company hitting the line and even the people who paid for travel insurance who are not allowed to even come to the Outer Banks were then denied their refund

I hope you are just trolling. I do not think Irma will hit the outer banks but will affect the central and western part of NC.

In 1989 I was registered for a Olympic Triathlon near Charleston SC when Hurricane Hugo hit. Did not need to even think whether race was happening or not. A month later I received a package with my race t-shirt in it and a note. Note read- After accounting for all monies already spent before the race, we have determined that we can refund $10 to each participant. We were given two options- take the $10 or have it donated to rebuild the play ground on the Isle or Palms. No brainer- donation.

Ive been there man. I did Maryland the year hurrican Jaquien came into town. flooded cambridge, had to cancel all my hotels, shorten my trip, not get money back for a hotel and rebook another....i was grateful for the option they gave us, which was a postponed race or entry into another IM the following year. But i knew the risk of signing up for a race on the eastern shore of MD the first weekend of October. and the IM was 600-700$ with months and months of training. I get it. it sucks but no one should ever expect to get there money back

How about changing the event to a sand bagging competition? I would think that if you have trained for a 70.3 you could spend a day shoveling, filling, and stacking sand bags. Give finisher medals to all those that assist and qualifying slots to those that do the most. Maybe it would make the national news and help promote some good will to the sport.

Sorry to hear that. That really sucks.

You are throwing a fit before a decision has even been made. The same issue comes up every year and every race the outcome is typically the same ... no refund. I've already lost two entry fees for weather this year which is pretty rare. For the most part, races go off again and again, so you should at least wait until there is an actual cancellation before you bitch.

BTW, I was registered for a Sprint Tri in Florida this weekend and fully expected to lose my registration, but instead here's the e-mail from the RD today...as good as it gets.

Triathletes
Thank you for your patience while we have been processing all of the information from police and local government. Due to the magnitude of Hurricane Irma we will not be hosting the Tarpon Springs Triathlon on Saturday, September 9, 2017. We are currently working to move the race to October 7, 2017. There is nothing you have to do for the change in date as your registration will automatically transfer to our make up

date. If you cannot make this date please understand that the Tarpon Springs Rotary Triathlon is a charity race. We cannot issue refunds, however we will provide those that do not check in for the 2017 triathlon with a half off discount to our 2018 event. That code will be available after the October 7th make up date. Simply email Suzanne at XXX and I will provide the 2018 half off code for you.

It's good they are offering something back.

Think from the RD perspective. Things are not lined up (services, rentals, closures, police) ahead on a handshake deal that they will be paid only after the event takes place. An insurance policy has to be in place well before the event as well as any permits local to where the race will be taking place, plus more if you're serving food or having booze after the race. If you need districts to control traffic intersections, you need to secure the police headcount ahead to do so, they won't cut headcount walking the beat to go direct race traffic, same if the DOT needs to cone and block of lanes. Bathroom rentals, dj services, quite possibly timing if the production company isn't capable of doing it themselves. All pre-secured, and generally not out of pocket 100% prior to opening registration, your money helps turn the wheel unless it's a much larger company capable of backing all costs.

While the production may or may not something in place in the case of cancellation, even if only a partial payment is due to some of these services, others won't bat an eye.

So after they pay for all the things they secured even though they are not going to happen, the fact they are offering you back some cash out of the remainder is actually pretty decent of them, especially if this is their single source of income meaning they did quite a bit of logistics and organization for nothing.

I'd call it a decent gesture.

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Regards,
J. Smith

There are so many things to say to that post but it seems everyone has touched on them so I don't need to add. But maybe you need to try to relax and think about the path of destruction of that hurricane instead of your lost $300.

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Twitter - Instagram

Your disappointment is understandable. You sunk in time and money in this race. Maybe this is your A race of the season. Maybe you trained super hard for the past year to podium your AG and told all your friends and family about it. I would be disappointment too if I were in your shoes.

But just for a second, put yourself in the race director's shoes. As many posters have mentioned, there are a lot of sunk costs and organization which went into the race, and the organizing team would be just as gutted if they had to cancel the race. I host a couple of races in my area and I can safely tell you that I put in $ and time into the event way before the registration page even went up.

The way I see it, the RD is being upfront and communicating with the participants to give them a heads up of what could potentially happen. And perhaps some participants would want to reconsider travel plans if Irma was indeed coming their way.

My 2cents FWIW

"If the race is canceled due to our hurricane we should get our money back."

So you think the RD should be on the hook for all of their expenses to date?

Thanks for your input. It's amazing to me how many of you guys our understanding of the fact that someone would be incredibly pissed off at this situation. It is my A race for the year and we all know how much it takes away from our day-to-day lives and family live not to mention our wallets to try and do good in these races. So yes I am upset and clearly venting. So I appreciate those of you who are understanding and offer a different Outlook but then there's also those on here who just like to poke the bear.

Don't sign the release unless you are willing to live with the terms. It's really pretty simple.

Did you buy the race insurance? Seems you need to take some responsibility for protecting your investment given the importance to you (ETA I a not sure weather cancellation would be covered... granted)