Salem Spring Tri.-Behind the scenes

Often there are questions regarding how race organizers make decisions like the ones we made at the Salem Spring Tri. this year. I figure the best we can do is provide some insight and detail into how and why these decisions are made. I believe in the end it can only help everyones perspective and increase future productivity.

Here we go...

- To gain race approvals from local city, county, and state governments event organizers must meet certain criteria and conditions. These conditions are non-negotiable and if the event is to happen we must meet them. The largest concern for these organizations generally is athlete safety so most of the criteria centers around doing things to make sure you leave an event with sore muscles and at worse a nice sun burn. If we as organizers fail to meet these criteria the "powers that be" can simply say, "no more races." end of story.

- The conditions Saturday morning were very difficult from 2 standpoints, 1-the rain and 2-the air temperature.
1. The rain is a problem because of poor visibility while riding a bike and the more obvious slipping on wet surfaces. (see Jan Ullrich time trial crash at the TDF a few years ago.) The large scale potential crashes that would have ocurred with hundreds of cyclists traveling speeds of up to 40 mph in some areas was not something we or the organizations involved could allow. Our volunteer staff out on the bike course said the roads were still not completely dry until 11am and some even saw snow a little further up the canyon from the bike turnaround.
2. The air temperature Saturday fluctuated between 40 and 44 degrees. It complicated things because of the slow drying time on the roads even if the rain did stop and the exposure athletes would experience after swimming. If you have ever ridden your bike soaking wet in 40 degree weather it is not a great experience.

-8:15 We met with the Police Chief and Sheriff to discuss these weather factors. We checked the weather service reports on their computers only to find out that rain was expected until the afternoon. Had the weather report or the skies given us any hope of clearing we would have begun stalling as long as possible. With all of this information we made the decision at 8:15am to officially cancel the bike portion of the event.

-Once the bike was out we had the choice to make of what to do with the swim and run. The biggest concern for the swim is lightning and fortunately the rain that was soaking us wasn't coming from lightning clouds. We then began measuring the water temperature to find out how the rain and air temperature was affecting it. We took three measurements at different levels. The first 6 inches of water was 48 degrees because of the rain falling. Underneath the top layer, the water was 60 degrees, the normal temperature around this time of year. Even though it is called a pond or a lake it is actually a geothermal spring that is fed from underneath. At this point one of the UCSR water experts said that once swimmers got going it could mix the water up a bit and could be do-able.

-8:30 We invited some swim volunteers to get out into the water to test out it's conditions and our theory that the extra cold top layer would mix in with the warmer water underneath. Each of the swim volunteers came back with mostly favorable reports and we discussed options. The cold conditions of the water and air were still a concern and a compromise of a shorter swim was made to allow the swim to take place while not placing athletes at risk of exposure to the cold water.

-8:40 The final decision was made and the announcement to continue the race with a shortened swim and 5k run.

*On a personal note. We were all so bummed out about this event not going as planned. We have had 5 good years of Salem weather so I guess we were due. Regardless, you need to know that we dream about putting on a perfect race, just like you dream about a racing a perfect race.
Hopefully you can see from the detail above that our decisions are not hap-hazard but thoughtful and informed while taking many issues into consideration. We have been overwhelmed by all of the positive thoughts and understanding from you athletes. The large majority of communication has been supportive and thoughtful when it could easily be frustrated. Thanks.