SallyShortyPnts wrote:
Lock_N_Load wrote:
SallyShortyPnts wrote:
BGildenstern wrote:
realbdeal wrote:
Interesting that all these races are still allowing transfers into St. George on September 19th. Makes you wonder if they have reason to believe that race will actually happen.Not that this is the deciding factor but Utah is by far the most red state with an IM. St.George has a ton of events still scheduled for the fall and from my understanding have had some recently.
As a resident of ruby-red Utah, I follow the events in St George closely. I am also entered in IMSG. As of yesterday, the school bus drivers responsible for transporting athletes have refused to work. The only hospital in town, Dixie Regional, has 24 beds and 15 were already full of COVID patients.
While the RD and Ironman may want to see the race go forward, there are several weak links in the chain outside thier control, most notably ensuring health and safety in the event of a bike crash or heat-related event (very highly likely as the temperature could easily still be in the 90's).
Maybe they can get aid station volunteers and maybe they can hire outside drivers willing to do the work, but every essential worker in the healthcare field is already taken, so doctors and nurses won't materialize out of nowhere to help. And while the state is red, it's still home to Mitt Romney, the only Republican to stand up to Trump. The Mormon church is currently led by a retired Cardiologist who still has a prohibition against church services being held because of the inherent danger of COVID spread.
This is totally misinformed. The city of St. George actually just met with Ironman and the direction is that as long as the status of Washington County stays yellow or better the race, and a whole bunch of other events (i.e. huge softball tournaments) the race will go on. Gov. Herbert has only identified the city of Salt Lake as Orange. It would take a lot to turn St. George to Orange status. The whole ICU situation is a complete exaggeration, so you are misinformed there. The city is totally on board to go on and the governor will not stop it. If it gets cancelled it will be solely an Ironman decision.
I have enclosed the "misinformed" article from the St George News (local paper) for your review.
https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/...-masks/#.XxYacZNKiCg
The newer article is from the softball tournalment you referred to. It states that part of the tournament was cancelled due to a positve COVID-19 test being found after the child had already played four games. Limited social distancing was seen by the reporter and one out of eight teams was wearing masks.
https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/...lation/#.XxYb6ZNKiCg
I wrote Ironman today that I am deferring to CDA 2021 as the risk is too high for me. There is no way to keep thousands of athletes and volunteers safe under the current conditions.
Update to this is that the kid who tested positive at the softball tournament was retested that same week and was found to be negative. Thus far that has been the only COVID related issue stemming from the tournament. I can totally understand how you feel but I think when it comes to a controlled outdoor event with Ironman's new process the risk is minimal. I have done 3 IM's and the most interactions I have with others are at the buses, the expo, the wetsuit strippers, the aid stations, and the finish line. IMs new procedures in essence eliminate the expo, there are no wetsuit strippers, the aid stations are self-serve, and the finish line is a prepackaged procedure.
The only open question to me is how they will administer transportation to Sand Hollow. My guess is that athletes are on their own to get to Sand Hollow, which wouldn't be a big deal seeing that there will only be a max of 1,000 athletes. If they assign staggered times to show up at Sand Hollow this should be totally doable.
Again, the chances of catching COVID are much, much higher at work or at Costco than at a controlled endurance event. Yet, some of us still show up to work and the entire world "risks their lives" every day by going to the grocery store. I understand your sentiment but I think that with a limited number of participants IMSG can be a safe event, certainly safer than the 2012 IMSG :-).
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