For those of you who follow triathlon, IRONMAN Maryland was scheduled for this past Saturday. Wednesday afternoon, the race was cancelled. The area had already received quite a bit of rain over the past couple of days and more was expected, plus there was a solid chance Hurricane Joaquin was going to show up.
It wasn’t an ideal situation, but I think that the race organizers made the best choice they could, given the circumstances. There was a solid chance that the bike course would be flooded even without a hurricane, and should bad weather hit, the last thing they needed was more people who would have to be evacuated.
Finally, and I think most importantly, the emergency personnel who would be staffing the race would be better utilized preparing for the weather.
Well, the hurricane thankfully ended up staying out to sea, though it definitely would not have been a perfect race day. A few people posted videos of the swim venue on Saturday. There was no way there would have been a swim. And it rained most of the day. It’s not impossible to race in the rain, but it’s pretty depressing and depending on the roads, a little dangerous too. There were a few photos posted of flooded roads.
IRONMAN has yet to fully announce the plans for how they are handling the cancelled race. They are planning to tentatively hold the race two weeks later, and will officially announce that tomorrow. For those who can’t make it back, things are up in the air. But we can’t do anything except wait and see.
A good number of people posting online about the race cancellation/postponement have been polite. People understanding of the situation, glad that the decision was made early, sending best wishes to the people who live in the area.
But there has been a significant amount of hate and vitriol. People saying that this was stupid, that there should have been a race, that IRONMAN is just going to keep all of their money. My favorite comment was “We should just have the race on Friday before the storm hits, because all the racers and the volunteers will already be there.” Number one, that’s not true. This volunteer worked on Friday. Number two, what about the community? It’s not like you can just pick up and host a 140.6 race on a different day with no planning.
It’s as if people have gotten out their pitchforks and have started fighting before having all the facts. This is a crappy situation all around, but people need to just settle down. It gives the triathlon community a bad name.
Ugh. I hate reading the negative comments in situations like this. Obviously everyone’s upset that things are going to go according to plan, but spewing vitriol helps no one. Unfortunately I think it’s just another sign of the entitlement our society feels. 🙁
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I found your blog b/c I’m thinking of doing Kinetic Spring in the spring and read your RR. But I totally agree with you on this! There are so many people acting quite entitled on the IMMD FB page, and it is disturbing. No wonder so many people think triathletes are full of themselves.