Announcement written by Rob Goyen, owner of American Trail Running Association member Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT). The Brazos Bend 100 was scheduled to host the USATF 100 Mile Trail Championships in Needville, Texas on December 5, 2020.
I wish I had better news for all of you today, I wish I had better news for us. And probably the worst is I wish I had better news for our team. Since march we have convinced ourselves all we had to do was get to August. Then august came and we convinced ourselves that all we had to do was get to October. And then when October came we said just keep plugging away until 2021. It’s probably a broken record for many of you guys and lots of people who run service businesses.
I wont lie to you and tell you this one doesn’t sting the most. We have worked a long time for a chance to be a western states qualifying race and like last year to put on the USATF 100 Mile Trail Championship as well. And what came to mind today was the thoughts of so many of you guys that have emailed us over the past moth or few months saying your are waiting all year for a chance. That all other races have cancelled but you have this one chance in December to do it.
But the truth is behind the scenes daily we are getting cancellations from people with covid, exposed to covid, cant fly anymore and cant visit Texas. So let’s get into the why and then the move on point.
Many of you are unaware but we no longer have a 1 to 1 relationship with just the venue where we are putting on races. All events no matter how big or small have to go through the country in which you plan to have the race before it happens. In small towns the process is one that requires a phone call where as large counties has multiple people, permits, contracts and a lot more people.
This race Brazos Bend 100 cancellation doesn’t have to do with any of our other races but is like most other events that was or is scheduled to be run in Fort Bend County. Not only does our process go through the county but it also goes through the TPWD levels as well. Instead of it being a local agreement the contracts are at the highest levels of TPWD and are watched on as levels rise in locations.
So I want to thank both fort bend county HSS and also TPWD with Brazos Bend State Park. These folks have always treated us fairly, been on our side in all situations and always done everything they can to allow us to have events in the past.
But the race is being cancelled due to the COVID-19 rise in numbers and the precautions of the public and the park. With the numbers rising in Texas and forecasting being that they are rising in the holidays like other big races in the area the risk for the counties/parks outweighs the rewards. At the end of the day our job is always going to be that we keep our runners safe, the staff safe and we don’t adversely effect the community along the way.
While I know you might read this and be frustrated or pissed we feel the same way. Just like you guys we only started putting on events so that we could work through our policies and system to make Brazos Bend 100 a hit. We used these races as our training before the big day as well.
Our refund polciy/cancellation policy:
When you signup for races and ours we do have a no refund, no credit policy that you initial when signing up. This year we have made the decision in the previous races to give you 100% race credit towards a future race.
So we will give all of you 100% of your race that you paid towards any race we put on via Ultrasignup. This credit should be in the system within 7 days and will be automatically applied when you sign up for another trot race.
And I know when this email hits you that a lot of you guys will email us with a ton of questions in regards to things you are thinking of that might help us. We appreciate the offer and the emails but we have been down all the roads to travel.
As always I’ll respond back to emails like always doin due time. Its a shell shock moment to have a dream race go away and be packing for another to be honest. But we are here we appreciate you guys and we’ll keep trucking on.
Thanks as always
Rob and Rachel
Race Directors
Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT)
