Subject: RE: hypothetical question I would expect people to use common sense and be ultra conservative with cancelling the race.
Living in Hawaii, I am only old enough to remember Hurricane Iniki which struck on a Sunday...which is a common race day. On Saturday, every news forcast had the storm passing well south of us and causing no impact to us as far as wind or rain, just high surf. The storm was also just a tropical depression up to 48 hours prior to striking Hawaii, and the waters it was travelling through were not typically ideal for escalating a storm.
What would you have expected from your race director at this point? Especially if it's a big race with lots of tents set up, and bikes are checked in the night before? Would you expect them to just cancel the swim and have DU? Or cancel the whole race at this point?
Turns out that Iniki made a 90 degree turn north, a hurricane watch was only issued at 6:30 pm Saturday, which was less than 24 hours before the storm hit land. Had there been a tri on Sunday morning...my guess is that the entire race site would have been blow away. Not likely you're going to get enough volunteers to help you take down a race site when they're busy evacuating.
I'm not saying there is a right or wrong answer...just be aware that storms are unpredicatable, and understand if RDs play it on the safe side...even if the storm never hits. |