The Government has its own "waiver" that once a fee is paid, the payer assumes the risk that weather, civil unrest and anything up to and including a zombie outbreak would happen. When Maryland established the state of emergency, the law enforcement protection for this event was instantly gone.

The only way to get the fees for the event, which included mandatory police staffing at intersections on the route, EMS at the swim site, and road crews to put up cones to protest riders and runners, is to file a tort claim (go to court, including lawyers and evidence). That is common practice for state, local and federal government activities. Then a judge would decide the issue. Not whether it was fair to not get the services paid for by the fee, but if the weather policy established in the contract was legal and correctly applied in this case. Which it was as soon as Maryland declared a state of emergency and the Weather Channel put a reporter on Atlantic Beach, MD.

I think it was pretty clear in the OP's quote of the email that it wasn't just about the Savageman area that was in danger. When emergency proclamations get put in place, my assumption is that resources can be reallocated outside of their normal jurisdictions. Once the race loses commitment from the necessary support resources, there really is nothing they can do regardless of whether the storm impacts their race area or not.

Police and medical support staff that were dedicated to the event are being deployed elsewhere in Maryland and to other states being impacted by the hurricane.

Here's part of the bike course. There is a road under there. The Savage River dam overtopped last weekend, the first time in its history. The downstream town of Bloomington was evacuated in its entirety. Yes, the SavageMan bike course goes past the dam and through Bloomington. Needless to say, just the risk of another foot of rain on top of last weekend was enough to put SavageMan in a distant last place of priorities for the county and state.

To those with rentals and lodging and now looking at potentially decent weather. Get out there and ride the course. Frankly it's a lot more fun to ride the course than it is to race it. Go crazy and do the 80 bike instead of the 60 bike you were planning. Or the old SavageMan course. Then do one of the Garrett County Gran Fondo routes; they're even better than SavageMan's bike. Then go hike LostLands. Yes, it sucks the race is canceled, but what makes that race is the terrain rather than competing head-to-head with others, and that terrain is still there.

Here's an unofficial gathering of people going to bike/run that day.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1776568559059736/

Just replying in general: Just read on FB that John Salt has arranged a special offer to athletes that were planning to do Savageman, to come do Barrleman this weekend. Apparently there's an email going out from the RD to athletes who were affected


Yes - confirming that this is true.

Multisport Canada, with the full cooperation of Savageman, is offering a very generous discount to anyone who was entered in the Savageman Triathlon this weekend, to enter the MSC Barrelman Triathlon in Niagara Falls, Ontario this Sunday. MSC knows this will not work for everyone, but they did want to extend the offer as best as they can.

You will need to follow a few steps. Details all below:

Details here - https://www.facebook.com/...gara%20falls%20group

Cut & Paste for those not on Facebook is below:

"We believe in trying to support other races and their athletes. Barrelman Niagara Falls will give athletes who are registered for Savageman and can confirm their entry, an almost 30% discount with a race entry fee of $214CDN, which equals about $165U.S. This fee was our early bird fee when we opened entry back in October. The current fee is $299CDN. To obtain your discount we ask that you email Claire at claire@multisportcanada.com. She will need your Savageman entry confirmation and will get you a discount code for online entry. Since online entry closes at noon Thursday you will also be able to bring this code to the race site and register on Saturday, the day before the race. All race details can be found at http://niagarafallstriathlon.com We believe this is the right thing to do to help athletes who have trained for a Half and want to race. Barrelman Niagara Falls is the largest NON 70.3 in North America with 1,100 athletes racing last year. If you do register please say hello at the race site. - John Salt"

We look forward to welcoming to the race, and to the finish line as many Savageman Competitors as we can!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

IIRC- The Savageman bike course and the Barrelman bike course might be slightly different in terms of difficulty. Slightly.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I'm one of the organizers of a very small triathlon. We go through imAthlete as our registration company. imAthlete gives organizers the option to tag on a small percentage for insurance as part of the registration processing fees. Because our race costs very little (~$60-$85, depending on when you register), the insurance cost comes out to about $1 per athlete. The athlete gets 100% refund if the race is canceled due to weather or conditions out of our control (i.e., terrorists attack, etc). We loose nothing, financially, if the race is canceled. It's a no-brainer for us to take advantage of that option.

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

I don't generally buy insurance but I did for my first IM since I was spending a bunch of money and the additional insurance was not that much and I figured it's not unusual to get injured during training for an IM.

Rock'n'Roll refunded last year Montreal marathon due to weather...

Rock'n'Roll refunded last year Montreal marathon due to weather...


We are in transition with this. It's ONLY been in the last few years, that races, and typically the bigger races will, via some form of insurance which has to be bought ahead of time, typically at the time of registration (like, say, Flight Cancellation Insurance), offering full refunds to participants.

Prior to that, it was HIGHLY uncommon that races/events offered this - a full refund.

The progressive and forward thinking races and events ARE looking into this, and things like this are becoming increasingly important in the race/event business. Why? Numbers in North America are stagnant, and it's all about the total experience that a participant feels and gets from your race/event from first point of interaction until well after they finish. Runners, cyclists and triathletes tend to be smart, savvy and sophisticated folk, for the most part with high incomes. In everything else they do in their lives they are expecting a very high level and sophisticated customer experience - Endurance Sports Races/Events are finally catching up to this!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

My limited experience being a part owner in a race series for a year: more "vendors" (in the broadest of senses) want to be paid upfront. A small local race with 30 cops: who ever shows up race morning gets handed a $50. But if you have to work through an intermediary - ie go to this guy he can get you the police you need - you are going to be paying him half upfront and you aren't getting it back under any circumstances. The gem we had to work with charged 20% ($10 per officer) wanted half upfront and would never deliver the total number needed. We ask for 50 @ $50 each + his $10 = $3,000 total. We paid $1500 up front and only 40-45 would show up. But we had to pay another $1,500 no matter what. Oh and it was cash. I am sure the IRS was getting their cut. Yeah.

The Savageman bike course and the Barrelman bike course might be slightly different in terms of difficulty. Slightly.


Oh yes . . you'll not need that 28 or even 32 tooth cog on the cassette for the Barrelman course. Might not need to ever go to the small chain-ring! ;-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Who's covering that insurance at $1 per athlete? Because that seems both crazy low and ripe for fraud. What are the criteria on valid cancelation reasons and what proof is required that criteria were met? In SavageMan's case where cancelation was called on Tuesday due to expected hurricane, but hurricane does not materialize, is that legitimate for insurance to pay out?

Set up an event. Mechanical Turk yourself 1000 entries or so into it. Cancel the event and collect the insurance. Voila, 100% return. (Then go to jail).

I think I once said I would never ever even come close to RD'ing......god bless you guys!

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

It's backed by Lloyd's of London


Overview
http://help.imathlete.com/...refund-program-work-

What is covered
http://help.imathlete.com/...tal/articles/1972245

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