High Lonesome COVID19 Update #3 (Runner email)
This email was sent to runners on April 19, 2020
Hello runners,
We had a very productive board meeting last night and we've identified three primary routes the race can take. We've decided to survey you all (sooner than originally indicated) so that we can gauge the viability of each option from a runner POV. We think each option has pro's and con's, but we need to see how they all impact you guys before we feel comfortable making a decision.
PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS THOROUGHLY.
General notes:
This survey closes at 9am MST on Thursday, April 23rd. Please vote before then.
The options below are general frameworks only and are not final decisions. As such, things may be changed between now and our final decision.
These options do not cover logistical changes like limits on crews, changes to our normal schedule (like eliminating the pre-race meeting) or other changes that might be necessary in either of the three options.
We will take the results of this survey and pick one of these options on Thursday evening. We'll wait to announce the final decision until May 1st so we know what the Colorado Governor does with the current shelter in place order.
OPTIONS:
We go for the July 31-August 1st dates
I estimate about a 30-40% chance the race would happen in this option. If we go this route, the event would either happen or get canceled shortly before the race date. 100% of your entry fee would have been spent, there are no refunds or deferrals to 2021.
This is a go-for-broke option. We're all in...you, me, the race team...everyone. If it goes, we have a great race...if it doesn't, we gave it our best burn and it didn't dance.
We postpone to the first weekend in October.
I estimate about a 60-80% chance the race would happen in this option. If we go this route, we would offer 3 different options to runners. This is a good option I believe, but does have a few drawbacks...weather being the biggest. There's a chance that being so late in season could bring some dicey weather...though it's not a huge chance. We would use our "Low Lonesome" course before canceling in regards to weather. The low lonesome is a bit contrived, but still a good course. It has about 16k of vert at stays primarily on the Colorado Trail. Additionally, we might change the race to a sat-sunday race instead of the usual friday-sat...just to make it easier for volunteers to make it.
RUNNER OPTIONS:
Runner accepts postponed dates - full rollover of entry fees to the new dates. Basically nothing changes except the race date
Deferral - the runner can't or doesn't want to make the October date. They take a deferral of a TBD amount (see a few bullet points below) and are given a lottery bypass for 2021. They are not eligible for any other deferral nor a partial refund if the 2021 date gets canceled. They are all in for 2021.
Refund - the runner can't or doesn't want to make the October date AND doesn't want to wait on 2021. They get a refund of a TBD amount (see a few bullet points below) and we go our separate ways.
How the amounts of a deferral or refund are calculated:
We survey current runners and they have a few days to indicate what they want to do (stay in, defer, or refund). We take the total pools of runners wanting refunds and deferrals, then we offer that number of spots to the waitlist (and potentially the general public) for a certain period of time (probably a week). At the end of that time period, we take the amount of waitlisters who are willing to take spots and we use that pool of money to determine the amount of a refund/deferral.
Potentially, if every spot gets filled, we could give 100% refunds or deferrals. Given the popularity of the race - and the chance to skirt the lottery - I think we could fill at least 75% of the spots if not 100%.
Runners who want to take a refund or deferral would have to commit to the option BEFORE we know how many waitlisters are willing to take spots. It's not logistically feasible for us to do this process without hard commitments from runners first.
For those who wanted to run in October, this is again a go-for-broke option. You are in for 2020 and there are no refunds or deferrals if the event ends up getting canceled. We'd wait until the last possible minute to cancel (if we had to).
We cancel 2020 completely.
We would wait until June 1st to make this decision, as that's as long as we can postpone paying for permits and spending the remainder of the budget.
We follow our existing cancelation policy. Runners receive a partial refund for the unspent portion of their entry fee. No deferrals are given (it's not our policy after all) BUT we would treat any runners as if they weren't successful in the lottery this year. That means you'd get the same boost as the folks who were already unsuccessful in 2020. This levels the field and makes sure you guys aren't punished (in a lottery sense) for the cancelation.
This is a bad situation for everyone financially. We've already paid 25% of the entry fee in state, federal, and local taxes...plus multiple other fees, deposits, and expenses. All of our deposits for 2020 are non-refundable, so the majority of the money spent is sunk at this point. The only portion that's unsunk and that that race could float is $55/person for the belt buckles which we bought in January. We'd probably be able to refund something in the realm of $150-200 back to you all...but the exact number depends on how I can wrangle the tax situation to our benefit. Taking this option would also require Kelsey and myself to subsidize the race for the 4th year a row, something to the tune of $5,000-8,000.
In short, we all take a financial hit BUT we don't have to deal with the bullshit and uncertainty we're currently facing. It's probably the "cleanest" option but also the most disappointing.
And lastly please keep a few things in mind. First, remember that regardless of which option we choose...we could end up picking the "wrong" one. We could pick to postpone or cancel and July could end up perfect...or vice-versa. No matter what we pick, at the end of the day it's still just a barely educated guess. Each choice comes with risk, but the advantage here is that we can pick an option that lets us all be in the same boat. Second, we can't make everyone happy. In each of these choices, some people will not get what they want. It's inevitable, but the best we can do is try to pick the one that hurts the least. Lastly, we'd really love to have the race this year...even if it means the risk of cancelation is higher than just canceling altogether. The race means so much to us personally, but also to our community. If we can make 2020 go, I think we should give it a burn.
Thanks for helping us with this decision, and for your support. We greatly appreciate it.
Best,
Caleb and the HL100 Advisory Board:
PS, if you're curious who is on our advisory board, here's the list of current members:
Chair: Caleb Efta - RD
Co-chair: Kelsey Banaszynski - Ops Director
Jon Clinthorne - Course Director
David Fox - Volunteer Director
Adam Chapman - Comms Director
Whitney Barrett - Medical Director
Janetta Iwanicki - Co-Medical Director
Andrew Walker - HQ Director
Julia German - Legal/previous finisher
Zach King - finisher, 2x captain
Emily Royal - 3x captain
Jon Davis - 3x finisher, legacy runner
Kerri Bruxvoort - previous finisher
David Hoff - 2x captain/previous finisher
Heather Jossi - 2x finisher
Kevin Kaucher - 3x captain