TOBAY Triathlon : Official Thread

Very challenging bike course and the run has a nice climb also.  Fun race.  The swim distance has varied at times so don't be too excited or disappointed when you exit the water & look at your watch.  One year the swim ended up being 1400 meters.  My swim time was so slow based on the 1K distance, but I still placed in the AG. 

Good Luck!

Hold on for a sec.  Was this swim advertised as a 800m swim and it turned out to be a 1400m swim?  That would concern me since I've never attempted 1400m in open water yet, and that could be a problem.  If they changed the swim length over time, okay, but what's with the different measurements? 

It has always been a 1K swim.  One year it was short.  It happens as Vinny says!

Well, GLIRC doesn't know what the weekend in going to bring in terms of weather, so it should be interesting to see what happens.

Just got a reminder e-mail from them  and they addressed the possibility of the hurricane 

"We know that many of you are concerned about the possibility of Hurricane Irene causing some problems on Sunday. Obviously it is way too early for anyone to predict what course the storm may take or when it may hit Long Island, if at all. You can be sure that - in conjunction with Town and law enforcement officials - we will monitor any situation if and as it develops, and if there is any information that we need to communicate with you, we will do so in a timely manner."

Other than Gold Coast, has there been any other tri on LI that had good weather this year?  So far I'm 2 for 3 in the rain/nor'easter triathlons (Pool tri in April and Smith Point on 8/7). 

hope the race can get on before the storm if not delay it a week!

though a bit cool the great south bay race had great weather!

We understand that most of you are concerned about Hurricane Ireneand the effect it may have on this Sunday's Runner's Edge - TOBAY Triathlon. We can not predict the course of the Hurricane and its possible effect at this point.

Needless to say, our Club and the Town of Oyster Bay share your concerns. We all obviously want the event to proceed as scheduled, but we are also quite conscious of the need to assure the safety of our participants.

The Runner's Edge-TOBAY JUNIOR Triathlon will, of course, proceed as scheduled Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon we will be in a position to make a rational decision as to what changes, if any, need to be made for Sunday.

As soon as any decision is made, we will send you an email and post the information on the GLIRC and Triathlon (this site) websites.

We understand your concerns and share them, but there really is no point in contacting us before Saturday. Please watch this website for any updates on Saturday afternoon.

HTFU and race already....we dont spend money to be aero for nothing!!!

Wasnt racing anyway but there is no way this race is going on...maybe next week

Well it was cancelled.  This is what I do not get.  We do not get refunds because they spend all the money and have the rest to charity.  They will offer us discounts to next year.  What happens if it is cancelled next year, we will still loose our money.

How do we loose our money.  It makes no sense.  Sounds like poor money management.  I also think that they should cancel the juniors race.  That just sounds like negligence.  If my kid was competing, I would not let it happen.

i agree....I understand maybe they have to keep a little bit, but not all of it or even most of it....I know this will sound insensitive but I think they need to tell the charity sorry, maybe next year.

Since I'm new to the sport, I don't have anything to compare this to, but is this normal procedure to get not even a partial refund if a race was cancelled??  I know that there are charitable organizations that do benefit from some of the race fee, however, (yup I'm being a little insensitive too), we did also pay for something we're not getting, and normally that warrants a refund of some sort. I'm all for even giving the charities some of the funds, but give the participants at least a little something.

Couldn't they have free registration next year for the participants??  If not, I guess I'll be deducting this charitable deduction from my taxes for this year.

I understand what you are saying, because this race is not the first to not offer refunds but the big difference between what happened to you and this instance is with your IM race you did not attend, and the race was held.  I can see that a race cannot be responsible if a participant gets injured, flight delayed, death in family, sickness etc especially if the race is conducted.  However in this case since the race is not even taking place I think that is another issue.

I wonder if an IM or 70.3 was cancelled due to something like this, what the WTC would do...maybe its in their contract or registration paperwor

I would assume that needing to cancel it two days before it was supposed to happen also had something to do with the lack of a refund.  I'm as cheap as anyone but I completely understand from a business standpoint that commitments, contracts, and payments were probably already made to their suppliers, service providers, etc.  They might have even made a minimum gift commitment to the charity for allowing the use of their name as well (this is WILD speculation on my part but I am just saying that I am sure there are expenses we perhaps aren't even considering).

Maybe I'm easier to please than I thought though because I was pleasantly surprised by their communication to date and their willingness to mail us our t-shirt and packets.  I've got way too much to do tomorrow to prepare for the hurricane at my place and my grandmother-in-law's to pick it up but it will be nice to have a memento of my first tri canceled by a hurricane.  

Fair enough.  It is true that the communication has been great over the last few days, so I definitely have to give GLIRC props for that.  I just another e-mail saying they cancelled the junior triathlon tomorrow. 

Now, since you had every intention of participating, but couldn't because the race was cancelled, are you still allowed to wear the shirt or is that bad form? 

I say you could wear the shirt.  If you withdrew & the race went forward, no.  I wear a shirt from a tri in Austin a few years ago.  Torrential rain that morning.  Swim cancelled due to run off (dog poop!), then the whole race cancelled due to dangerous conditions.  All these decisions made as we were standing in transition waiting in the pouring rain.  NOT fun.  No refund, plus I was out cash for a hotel, gas, meals, etc...  It happens.  You really don't want to be out there tomorrow.  That bike course in the rain is dangerous. 

You may have lost the entry fee, but GLIRC is now faced with a cancellation of an event & the "bad press" that goes with that, even if it wasn't there fault.  People will remember that next year & may not decide to race.  So no one really wins, or makes out.  The vendors are not going to refund  GLIRC, so how do you expect them to give you money back?  The race organization is not happy too. They want a race just as much as you do.

I am assuming it would not be possible to reschedule the race to next weekend ?? I know it would probably be a problem for the vendors, so what, cant they do it without vendors ?? Ppl paid already and as long as they can get the ok from the town i do not see why they cannot have it, as long as they have volunteers willing to help with the course it doesnt seem like it would be that big of a deal..How many of us do races so we can see the vendors anyway .  Just reschedule the race, if possible and everyone will be happy, unless ofcourse you have a prior commitment then you will just have to suck it up and lose your entry fee, i am sure there is something i do not realize and i assume they tried to reschudule it, but if it is about the vendors then that is wrong. JMO