@eminva 16414 wrote:
While I’m not a triathlete, I think our region benefits from a variety of major races and I am very sorry to learn this news.
I am a member of WABA and LAB and whenever I get an email action alert, I write a letter to my member of Congress or whoever I am being asked to write. If, as you suggest, local fitness groups start an initiative of some kind, it might be a good idea to get the support of organizations like WABA, or get organized somehow, so we can all lend our voices to the cause.
Good luck. Hope NPS relents at least on this one, although I guess it is too late.
Liz
It’s too late for this year. The race has already been cancelled and the organizers are processing refund requests or transfers to other races.
As for the NPS policy, I’ve been informed that the exact regulation is that NPS has the right to deny permits between Memorial Day and Independence Day because of preparations for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and Independence Day fireworks and activities.
While I understand the popularity and importance of those events (which I attend often), I still don’t understand what changed this year. NPS has not specified why there is a problem, just that they have the right to deny the permit. The triathlon would have taken place 10 days before the Folklife Festival even started. That shouldn’t have presented any logistical problems for setting up the tents and exhibits for the Festival. It wasn’t a problem for the last 3 years in mid-June.
The NPS statements continue to leave me underwhelmed and mystified.
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