What are we doing for Back Bay Triathlon?

This email was sent out to all of our registered athletes for the Back Bay Triathlon, being held at Public Landing on Sunday, Sept 27th, 2020. Our full mitigation strategy can be found at www.BackBayTriathlon.com for review. This race only has FIVE spots remaining (at the time of this writing). Similar strategies will be used for our Mighty Matapeake Triathlon on October 17th as well (www.MightyMatapeakeTriathlon.com)

We hope that eveyone is doing well and being safe out there. These are very unique times that we are all living in, and our daily lives have changed. Though there haven't been many races to compete in this year, we hope that you have kept your fitness up, for your own well being!

Many athletes have been reaching out to us about the Back Bay Triathlon, and we want to share with you what we are doing to keep you safe. We have put our 2020 Mitigation Strategies up on the race site, so that we can be transparent as possible.

SPECTATORS

Of particular note is the Health Order from the Maryland Secretary of Health. This order bans all sporting events from having general public and/or spectators. If you MUST have someone at the event with you, please be sure to direct them to the website and have them register as a VOLUNTEER. There is a special job that everyone can do, and it keeps them right on the grounds so they can see you race.

So why the "special job" and making people sign up to volunteer? It's so we know EXACTLY who is on site, and that we are able to account for everyone, should an incident arise.

KEY NOTES FOR PACKET PICKUP/MORNING OF

There is no packet pickup the night before. Packet pickup will literally be at your spot on the bike rack. The first thing that we recommend you do is put your bike sticker on your bike. Then go ahead and set up your bike.

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN YOU ARE NOT ACTIVELY RACING. THIS INCLUDES SET UP.

TRANSITION

We know that you are used to picking your own spot for your bike, and everyone is looking for the most room, but with only TWO BIKES PER RACK, you'll have plenty of room to spread out. We will have ample spacing between the rows of bike rack as well. Plenty of room to move around.

SWIM

We will all be heading down to the swim start beach together, but WOW has it changed!!! The beach is massive now, and will really help us to create distancing between each other.

Swimmers will go off in Waves of 10 people. All swimmers will have to walk over a timing mat and enter the water. From there, they will be started every 1 minute apart. We will talk more about the swim start in a later email.

BIKE

Um.... Don't draft. You're not supposed to do that anyways.

While we are at it, let's avoid any snot rockets too. We are sure you have been practicing them all year, but let's just keep that to ourselves.

RUN

Everyone should be plenty spaced out by this point. The BIGGEST CHANGE will be that the water tables are self serve. We will have small bottles of water, and small bottles of Gatorade out on the table, for you to grab and go with. There is only one aide station for the run, and the volunteers there are on hand to restock, not to hand it to you.

If you wish, you can also carry your own nutrition or wear a hydration pack. Your call.

DEFERALS

We have opened up deferals for the event, since we are only taking 100 athletes (5 spots remain as of this writing). We have tried to remove athletes as they have sent emails, but if you have not sent an email, or you check the PARTICIPANT TRACKING tab (under MORE on the site) and see your name and don't wish to race, please let us know.

We have also given you the opportunity, through the 10th, to defer yourself. Sign in to your RunSignUp account and go to MY RACES. From there you will see the Back Bay Triathlon and have the option to defer. No questions asked, no cost, but this needs to be done by the 10th!

CONCLUSION

Take some time and look over the mitigation strategies presented. If you feel comfortable, we'd love to see you out at Public Landing on Sunday, Sept 27th! Stay tuned for more emails in the coming weeks.