5k canceled - no refund, no weather mishap?

Good luck dealing with Wells Fargo.  I would dispute the charge with my CC.  Or you can try to contact some of the other sponsors and see if they were given a reason for the cancellation. 

I would be really pissed off though.  Races get cancelled, we all know that.  But do you ever NOT find out why??  I've had a tri cancelled due to bad water conditions on top of lightening the morning of.  I had a run race cancelled because it was a trail race and was absolutely down pouring.  Made the trail really unsafe considering some of the steep declines and switchback turns.  Never have I had a race just cancelled for no reason.

Unacceptable if you ask me.

I'd ask for a reason (in writing) from the race organization or race director.  If there is no response, or the reason is not sufficient, then I would dispute the CC charge.

Doesn't sound fair to me.  I would have complained anyway.  And if I didn't get my refund, I would have talked to my credit card company.  

I've done this before even if the payment agreement said no refund under any possibilities.  That was for a service, not a race, but it worked anyway.  I didn't get the money back from the service provider, but I did get a refund from the credit card company.

That's bull.  There are laws to protect you as a consumer, and one of them is receipt of goods for payment made.  It doesn't matter what the agreement says if it's an illegal agreement.  Talk to your credit card company and explain.

And contact the media.

I agree - it sounds to me (OP here) like a scam - I was surprised though since active.com managed the registration and receipt (I just checked it, and yes, it's in their system under the races I've paid for.)

Inform the authorities.  Wire and mail fraud are felonies. 

Unless a race has a history of selling out, I register on raceday. 

In that case I would contact active.com too. 

Yes to this

Even with a "no refunds under any circumstances"  clause in the agreement - it's illegal for them to sell you a service (in this case, it's providing you with an environment to race in) and then not give you that service and still take your money.

Just file a complaint with your CC company - they'll take care of you.  If you're particularly angry about it - contacting active.com and the sponsors would help.

most races charge a premium for this, 50% for my race ($60 early entry will cost you $90 day of race). I'm happy to take the risk if you're willing to pay for it.

So just out of curiosity if a race is canceled due to weather do you get your money back? a portion? depends on the RD?

I had a situation this year where the hurricane came through and I was registered for a supersprint. It was fairly clear (at least to all of us) that the race wasn't happening. The hurricane came through on like monday or tuesday, the race was on the beach on thursday afternoon. I kept emailing asking about it and the RD kept saying they were going to try and make it happen and they would let me know. They sent an email less than 4 hours before the race start time and said it's cancelled and the course wasn't safe. Ya think? it was still 30mph winds and the water was bad that morning. So we got 75% of our money back. I am guessing that is pretty standard. I was more upset about the race not being called the day after the hurricane (24 hrs before the race) than I was the 12 bucks I lost.

I would say that it depends upon the RD or company putting on the race.

I was supposed to do the Rev3 Cedar Point Sprint this year.  Race was cancelled due to weather.  I wrote off all the money as a loss.... they turned around and have given us all $75 off any Rev3 Cedar Point race next year.  They didn't have to.

How much notice did they give you that it was cancelled?

I just wonder because living here in hurricane alley, it is likely that races get cancelled due to weather. If I spent several hundred bucks on a race and had non refundable plane tickets or hotel reservations, It seems like it could be a huge loss for running some of these races and then to not even get at least a portion of your money back on the race registration would hurt. And what exactly do they do with the money when it gets cancelled? I can understand not refunding 100% of your money because as a RD you likely also have a good chunk of cash tied up in expo's, reservations, marketing contracts, etc. but it seems that if the race didn't happen there would be a surplus of money to refund everyone a portion of their money back or credit towards next years race something.