I was planning on signing up for this race. I was happy to not have to do it 6 months/9 months/1 year out. I wonder how many people were thinking like me?

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

at least 1 that I know of.

I was not going this year; I have IMMT a few weeks later.
I was really interested in 2013. However, this scorched-earth approach makes me think that this event is dead. now and forever. what a shame.

my default setting is to be a conspiracy crank. this fits right in there:
* it was announced with somewhat short notice - January for an August event. I say short because it’s in a competitive location, going against existing events that have longer lead ups.
* it was a partnership with a well respected group; WSEM but that respected group is now acting like a school girl. that seems out of character.
* the passivity of WTC seems to corroborate the WSEM behavior and seems to doom the event going forward. that is astonishing. it’s such an ideal site. center of a region. great logistics. great terrain. a fair bit of excitement. etc

I am baffled.

I would love to see Setup Events organize a Half in the that area in that Late July/Early August timeframe.

---

Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

WSEM's COO made changes to his employment status on FB very recently to list the event production company he founded along with his wife as his current employer while a day or two ago it was listed as a past employer. Making some reasonable assumptions this may free him up to share a bit about the goings on at WSEM regarding National Harbor (and more...) with local athletes who are likely to press him.

I'm local to the area. I think that people are discounting the strong backlash by local officials in having races there after the Hot Chocolate fiasco. The community around that neck of the woods weren't all that thrilled about the 70.3 race in the first place. Perhaps the real problem wasn't the lack of registrants, but problems with getting all of the local permits and local support.

Setup Events already has General Smallwood in July just a stone's throw from National Harbor. A much better option is for Setup Events to put a 70.3 into the Smallwood weekend. The General Smallwood area is a beautiful area with good roads to race on. They have a century ride that goes through there every year, so it can suppot it.

---

__________________________________________________________________________
My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Are you insane? A HIM just outside of Washington, DC would have a lot of things going for it. But logistics and terrain are at the bottom of the list for any race from National Harbor.

logistics are great there are about a hundred ways to get around down there and in general a fit population used to seeing events and bikes. The terrain is flatter than flat so that being a plus depends on what you like.

I like it. I'd just like to see a Half up in the DC area when school is out so we take the kids to DC and stay up there for a week.

---

Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

In the end, if the low number reason is indeed true, which I believe it is, it is just further confirmation that WTC = We Take the Cash, and it is not about growing the sport, but growing the profits at all cost.

In defense and support of this reason possibly be true, WTC did cancel 5150 Clearwater with short notice because of low numbers.

While money is important, showing that every race needs to be highly profitable is a bad model, whereas, at least in my opinion, the correct model is to promote, build and foster the interest in a race and a well run race will grow, especially from word of mouth, repeat competitors, etc.

Long and short, the current trend appears to be "give us the cash, commit to us, but yeah, in the end, we may decide it is not profitable and cancel last minute"

Granted, the posted reason could be sour-grapes and taken with a grain of salt, but if indeed true, what a screwing of the athletes who ponied up.

I agree completely. The Smallwood Oly course was awesome, just loved those roads. It would be terrific if they could set up some cross between the two and incorporate National Harbor in it, maybe a point to point would work? The roads out towards General Smallwood Park are much less traveled, basically vacant.

And I think Hot Chocolate doomed this race. Even deterred the locals from signing up for it. I am doing IMKY so it was out for this year, but was looking forward to it for next year. the backlash from having the highway lane closed was huge, and honestly, I'm not sure how used to having races that area is. Some other areas, like in Montgomery County or Annapolis, you expect it. I just don't know how many races that area is used to holding. Its sad, b/c the Hot Chocolate volunteers were some of the nicest volunteers I can remember. But the community as a whole seemed to react very negatively to it. I can't imagine they would be so quick to want to hold another race, let alone a much bigger production in terms of roads that were being employed.

Hey DC...it's Bill.
Not sure how many were signed up but thought I'd heard ~1000. who really knows.

After stewing on this email from Active.com I thought of the perspective from Active.com BUSINESS side.

Here they've accepted a bunch of entrants(and recieved their commissions I'm sure). Then they have to stop and refund a bunch of those funds back to the entrants, likely pay back some of their commissions(i'd have asked for a fee just to do the refunds for WTC). Meanwhile their biggest customer WTC is telling them...don't include on your email WHY we really cancelled this event.

We all know it's not Active's fault that it was cancelled but this email was downright strange, to get, and I'm left wondering how far up the food chain this came from within Active.com

VOICEOFIRONMAN...are you out there?

A couple folks have mentioned Set Up Events putting on a half at General Smallwood State Park; well we are. It is the Waterman's Half on October 13. It's followed on the 14th by a Sprint/Oly event. Great courses all around. We also have the Battle of the Potomac sprint triathlon at National Harbor on Sunday, September 30.