I know where you are going with this. While I understand the business side of the Ironman organization's policy, it strikes me as incongruous, in this instance and probably other similar ones, given that the organization's roots are well grounded in the military....going way back to a long ago day in Hawaii......

Seems to me a bit of patriotism may be in order, especially given that they could fill that slot in the blink of an eye.

Does the ironman organization need the money bad enough that they will not refund our military people?in my opinion this lack of refunding the military personal a full refund is the same old story, we don't give the people that fight for our freedom the respect that they our due. should we question whether we should even participate in these sanction events.

Hmmm, why am I not surprised. Funny they could give the fireman his Kona 2001 spot in 2002 and feature it prominently on the NBC telecast.

BTW--If you know someone who has been sent over, send them letters, magazines, packages of junk food, etc. They love it. We have triathlete/Marine friend who has been in Kuwait since before Thanksgiving and I've been sending him all my magazines for the last few months. Other friends have been sending care packages regularly. Everything gets shared and is very very much appreciated.

clm in Auckland NZ for another 10 hours

---

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I agree that there should be a change in the policy regarding refunds, though not an exception just for the military.

How about something like this:

If someone has to cancel their entry up to say, 3 months out, then they get a full refund. A additional sign up or lottery could then be instituted for the newly released spots. There will be no problem filling the slots this far out. Anyone canceling up to say, 1 month out gets the partial refund. Anyone canceling after that gets nada.

I think there is a problem when we try to make exceptions just for a certain group(no matter what the circumstances), as then there are others who will feel like they have a reason just as valid, or more valid.

Of course that would mean that we'd be signing up to be on the "standby list" for any given race, if it were closed out. That way the RDs would have a ranked list of people to contact as slots open up.

I haven't ever seen anyone post on the forums that seemed to be associated with WTC or Ironman, or any other large race organizing operation. Is anyone out there? I'd think this would be a great place for them to take at least one pulse on the tri-scene. After all, Gerard and Tom have a couple of bases covered with their participation. Ultimately the races are the reason we exist as a group anyway. What say the rest of the list members?

(no matter the circumstance's) how can you compare WAR to anything else? we are talking about giving up life so the rest of us can live the way we do. there is going to be all kinds of replys regarding making special policy for our military and i hope more people believes the way i do than with you!!!

I certainly don't want to start a political debate here. Lord knows, we can't even have a discussion on this board about something as meaningless as powercranks without it getting ugly.

I probably would be more inclined to agree with you if service was involuntary. If you read my post, then you know that I AGREE with you on them being able to be fully refunded, just not for the same reasons. If they received full refunds for the reasons you suggest, then would that mean that it was not ok to fully refund someone who was hit by a car (involuntarily) during training and needed the dough to help pay the bills?

Because @#$% happens in life(war, accidents, illness, death in the family, lost jobs, etc...), there should be some sort of policy for full refunds. I think one reason IM North America might balk at making special exemptions of the rules would be that then they would have to deal with others with "special cases."

We might be successful getting them to change the rules if the rule change applied to everyone. We have to remember that what is a popular sentiment amongst a certain group may not be with another. Remember, there are participants from countries all over the world and IM races in many different countries, not all of which share the same views on every subject.

Does anyone know if IM North America can make these types of decisions on it's races or if it has to go through World Triathlon Corporation? This might have some bearing on this particular issue.

I don't want to make it sound as though I am totally unsympathetic towards the situation of the military. I have family members who have served. I always enjoyed talking to my grandfather about his time in WWII. I asked to keep the flag the army gave my grandmother when he died. I just feel that any rule instituted should not force an individual to determine which reason is more valid than another. Then that person's feelings and politics come into play.

Just my thoughts. I am sure there are MANY of you that disagree.

I agree with you about opening a new registration vice using a ranked list EXCEPT that I tried to look at it from an RD's point of view. If they have to track a new app process and go back and handle a whole slew of new applications that is creating a lot more overhead. It would take several people to track another application process. Not to mention, advertising the second app period. That's a lot of the reason they don't do it in the first place. Better to use a ranked list that would allow one person with a computer to all but automate the process on an as needed basis. As soon as a slot came open, it could be offered to entrant #1201 (of a 1200 slot race), and so on until it was filled.