A question to race directors and others. This year the amount of no shows at duathlons and triathlons has increased dramatically. I’ve been averaging above 18%. Has other people been noticing this also? How comes?
Would it be weather related? We’ve had a lot of rain and somewhat cooler temperatures around here. The first race I did, it rained. Still, 12 people showed up on race day to register. As for me, if I paid, I’m racing, unless my legs have fallen off.
Last week you come here and say that you are measuring swim courses by GPS. Now you say that you are having a lot of no shows.
Are these two things related, damm straight. Triathletes don’t REALLY want to swim 1500 meters. They want to SAY that they swam 1500 meters. Usually they just say they swam a “mile.”
If word gets out that riverwatch will have an honest 3/4 mile swim the transition area will be a ghost town. You’ll have some masters swimmers knocking out a 12 minute swim and then the winners will blaze to a 29 minute 5k, all the runners will have stayed home - nobody wants to see that.
Not to mention the aquathon you are putting on with swims that will take nearly as long as the run. That’s heresy of the higheest order! Swimming and running with equal importance - for shame. May the foul stench of chlorine follow you the rest of your days!
This past Sunday, I noticed the same thing at Blackwater Eagleman half-IM. This race sold out by February/March I believe. It had a 1800 entry limit, was as high as 1840 registered at one point, including 156 in my age group. The ag number dropped to under 150 by race time. Still, I was surprised (and a little bit pleased) to see the bike rack position on the opposite side of me empty. The number of finishers was around 1370, very few people walked during the run (it was a tough field from one end to the other), so I have to think that there weren’t more than 50-100 DNFs/DQs. This leaves around 350-400 no-shows. This business of races selling out far in advance requirinig decisions far in advance needs to rectified with better transfer policies so that a) people can get into races and b) people aren’t making big bets with entry fees which are quite steep and only getting steeper.
Our transfer and refund policy is 30 days out with a letter for a 75% refund and 5 days out to transfer to another person. Pretty liberal, but still not a lot of people asking for either. USAT races have different rules about transfers and refunds so I can’t answer for them.
The past weekend was gorgeous, so I don’t quite understand.
Kevin, I"m probably slow, but were you giving me grief?
We have around 200 for the aquathon with the equal length swim runs.
excellent point regarding sell outs and transfers
.
USAT doesn’t have any rules about refund/transfer policies; it’s left up to the RDs to decide what they want to implement. I think each RD is required to publish what their individual policies are.
Brad I forgot to turn on the tags for my post. Sorry for the confusion.
I think this will become more and more of a problem. I saw this this year with the Indy Mini (half marathon). Race is in early May. Up until a few years ago you could register up to April 1st without a problem. This year the 25,000 slots filled in December. So they bumped it up to 30k slots and it filled again quickly. They list only 19,577 finishers on the site, and there were another 5,000 or so who didn’t show up because of going past the cutoff time. So something like 25,000 showed up…that’s 5,000 no shows…unbelievable. I never sign up in time because I hate deciding to do a race in November that isn’t until the following May…blech.
It would be nice to be able to gain entry to events like this with a specific time, regardless of how full it is, but ideas such as those are usually branded as unfair.
wow…I had no idea…
if you don’t mind, posting the actual no-show rates for each of your races might be helpful in determining what happened on a case-by-case basis. I’ve got one theory already, but I think it only applies to a couple of your events.
Brad,
Nice job with the race this weekend; a very, very well planned race!
Dave Pattie from VA
Brad-
There were five local races this weekend, including the three you ran. I bet if you cross-referenced registration lists from your races with the Bay Swim and Eagleman, you’d find a lot of the same names. Since all five of those races required early sign-up, my bet is that people registered for more than one race and then raced the one they felt most comfortable with. This doesn’t answer for your other races, but I bet it’s right for this weekend.
Todd
Todd,
I know you’re right on that one. I checked with a couple of names that tried to get a refund for an “injury or prior committment” from Spud inside the 30 day window and then cross checked their name on one of the other quality races that weekend, Eagleman, Bay Swim and Xterra in Richmond and found their name there. I guess a spot opened up. There’s a good reason why refund policy’s can’t be too liberal. Can you believe that all people are not entirely honest. Most people are, actually just about everyone is, but it is that handful that ruins it for everyone.
Well, last year I signed up for the Great Floridian after missing the signups for all the M-Dot races. I signed up in March just to make sure I didn’t get totally squeezed out, even though the race was open until much later in the year. Then I got whacked off my bike, broken bike, broken bones, screwed up legs. . .No Great Floridian for me. The best they could do was allow me to swap out to the 1/2 on the same day in the hopes that I could somehow get back soon enough to be able to finish that race. Of course I wasn’t. $395 down the drain, and a no-show on race day. All because we are being forced by popularity of IM races to sign up as early as possible to ensure a spot. I don’t have a solution. Just a complaint.
Just my opinion, but…
With all the big races filling up months to a year in advance and even regional races filling up many weeks/months before the race it is VERY tough for the average AG with wife, kids, demanding job and other social committments to know exactly if race weekend will actually be free.
Case in point, I got an Alcatraz slot 8 months before the race. Fully intended to go, but shortly before the race work issues came up. Thus missed the race.
I think the no show issue will only get larger as athletes need to make race committments far before they actually know if they will be free on race weekend.
I think that applies to the real big races, that are qualifiers or once in a lifetime like races - such as Alcatraz. We filled up our race two weeks before the race. Our duathlons even with 200 competitor and where we take race day entries still have 20% no shows. Just strange.
“This leaves around 350-400 no-shows. This business of races selling out far in advance requirinig decisions far in advance needs to rectified with better transfer policies so that a) people can get into races and b) people aren’t making big bets with entry fees which are quite steep and only getting steeper.”
Interesting point. I think that there is going to be some form of shake-out or change in the next few years. At some point this is going to start to turn people off.
The smart RD is starting to make plans for this and look to the future.
well, here goes:
start with the oft-cited (on this site) growth in tri-participation…that’s lots of newbies…now consider which races newbies are more likely to enter - the shorter, smaller, and/or less expensive ones…USAT sanctioning being What It Is, the unsanctioned races are probably more likely to fit the preceding description…newbies being what they are, they are more likely than the MOPs and especially FOPs when it comes to calling the whole thing off for any number of non-emergency reasons (this is not to disparage newbies - it is a reasonable assumption IMHO, as they do not have the raceday experience history and knowledge to fall back on that more experienced competitors do and are thus more likely to punt)
so I figure more newbies means more no-shows, and anything that increases the chances of newbies registering for your race inflates the % further.
Pt Lookout Sprint Du: way off the beaten track…much further from the nearest speck of civilization (Lexington Park) than, say, Smallwood State Park (La Plata)…nice and cheap though…weather was gorgeous
Bethesda Sprint Tri/Du: a glance at the average and winning times says all you need to know about the general level of athlete who is signing up for that one
Spuds: terrible confluence of competing events that weekend…sprint distance tri and du plus an OD event…hmmm…didja break out the no-show rate for all three? if my theory is correct, the du and short tri will be driving your overall no-show percentage for that day
Cape May Sprint Tri/Du: don’t know nothin’ about them…'cept that they’re short and the weather was windy the day before