Its been a challenging week in triathlon both locally and in California, with possible cancellation or significant modification of large-scale events. Lake Tahoe Ironman due to fire, and the Lifetime race in Tempe because of a 100-year-flood causing elevated E-coli levels. I was on the fence in Tempe, and decided the night before that I would not compete. Too much on the schedule ahead, and I couldnt see enough upside to take a small risk on something like this. I commend other racers who had to make the same decision and decided to compete! This was a personal decision for everyone, and even I felt the chances of getting sick were pretty small. I do know a few people look to me for advice, so I decided not to go down there and support, as the last thing I wanted to do was put negativity into anyones mind who had decided to compete and was about to jump in the lake! It seemed like the right thing to do as I wouldnt want to see me there not racing for this reason too! It worked out ok though, because I got to go watch the Cardinals put a whuppin on the 49rs with a few friends out in Glendale! Both Ironman & Lifetime Events are professional, and I can assure you these decisions arent easy, often times theyre a lose-lose no matter what they do. They have to focus on the safety of athletes, PR, short and long-term business goals, community impact, and countless other things. I believe both companies made the right decision respectively in these two events, and that even includes a short period (24 hours) of 20/20 hindsight that they didnt have. For us in Arizona, we need to remember how paramount Tempe Town Lake is to the growth of triathlon here. When I first turned pro and came to stay with OC here in 2002, there were a total of 3 events in the Valley. Latest count has the number at 50+ events and probably 20-30x the 02 participant numbers, in large part due to the advent of Tempe Town Lake. To my knowledge, its the only location to have staged two large-scale Ironman Triathlons in one year, and it has hosted tens of thousands of athletes in the last 15 or so years. The lake is safe to swim in the overwhelming majority of the time. If you are local and became interested in triathlon in the last dozen years, a large part of your exposure to the sport was because of the lake in Tempe. Endurance sports are fun, often due to the challenge of overcoming variable conditions. Every now and then situations arise that make events difficult to pull off, but we need to remember that these situations are part of the game of endurance sports, which we do, for fun. #KeepItFun #Perspective #Triathlon #AZ
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:00:04 +0000
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