Patriot's Half (Page 4)

 from Set Up Events

9/5/08 - Patriots Half - Cancelled due to Hurricane Hanna
We deeply regret to announce that the Patriots Half scheduled for Saturday morning at 7AM has been cancelled due to Hurricane Hanna. All athletes currently registered for this event will receive a 50% credit for the 2008 Patriots Half. The Patriots Sprint and International will go on as scheduled for Sunday exactly one hour later. Sprint starts at 8AM, International Starts at 9AM. This just gives us an extra hour of daylight to take care of any hazards on the course.

Why cancel? After meeting with local officials it was decided that to have an event with heavy rain, high winds, and the threat of tornado's and thunderstorms throughout the duration of the event would be completely unsafe for athletes, volunteers, and the municipalites supporting the event. With Williamsburg now in the exact center of the projected path we had to take the only prudent path which was to cancel the event. We know how much everyone has looked forward to this race and how much time and money you have invested in coming to race here. Your dissapointment in this change in the weather and it's effect on the race is not lost on us.

Why the 50% credit for next year? In a nutshell, everyone has to get paid. Everything from shirts, food and water bottles to site rental fee's and municipal support all have either been paid or have to be. While we regret that we cannot give a 100% refund of your entry fee, we are deviating from our standard policy of NO REFUNDS within 2 weeks of the event. As was mentioned earlier, we have A LOT of gear staged for tomorrows race that will now sit in storage for a long time. Basically, everyone that registered for this event will be sent an email in December with a discount code to use for the following year.

Thanks for bearing with us through this unfortunate turn of weather and thank you for racing with Set Up Events.

Cancelled - I'm bummed!  I've worked all summer toward this event.  And I'm out $150 too!  Why doesn't Set Up Events have insurance to cover a cancellation?  The money's spent - will I get my tshirt and other swag? 

And why isn't at least being able to run the International distance an option (still on for Sunday)?

Anyone have any suggestions for a still-available HIM somewhere in driving distance of Virginia this fall?

Aargh.  Grr.  Sigh.

 They cancelled the swim in 05 due to runoff, if i remember correctly

I'm sticking to my local self-race (Hanna-man) due to the risk of swims being cancelled at formal races.  I'm not going to pay last minute diamond-man registration just to do a du.

I called comfort in on Thursday evening and they said they would not charge the penalty if the HIM was cancelled for a last minute cancellation on my room.  When I called this morning to tell them my HIM was cancelled, they were very nasty in reminding me they had a 48 hour cancellation policy, couldn't care less about the man I spoke to last night or the general manager named Nancy (the receptionist said "well I'm not Nancy"

She did confirm I would not be charged, which is all I really cared about.  But if you want your money back I would CALL not do it online.

Here's my correspondence with the RD for Diamondman (bottom line - no promises about having the full 70.3, or getting in... although there's a chance for both)...