Dear Athlete
Like all event organisers, we have been monitoring the escalation of the Covid-19 situation very closely over the recent weeks.
The safety and wellbeing of our athletes, volunteers and staff are of paramount importance. With this in mind and with heavy hearts, we have made the decision to cancel Storm The Castle 2020 and Junior Storm 2020.
However, in an effort to recognise all of the training that each of you has put in, and to be able to reward you with your medal and finishers T-Shirt, we have decided to turn STC ‘virtual’ for 2020.
We made the difficult decision overnight to not host the physical event out of an abundance of caution following the statements from the WHO and UK Government, along with the guidance of British Triathlon.
The increasing uncertainty over the coming months, along with the UK Government’s prediction that the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is unlikely to peak until at least 10-14 weeks, has meant that the rescheduling of the event for 2020 is fraught with difficulties.
Sadly, the logistics of finding a mutually convenient date for Ludlow Castle, Ludlow Rugby Club (who will also have a backlog of fixtures to address), staff and everyone involved with running the race are prohibitive. We can’t, with any confidence, know when mass-participation events will be safe to resume. In addition, we cannot guarantee the safety of staff, medical professionals or even our loyal team of volunteers for a rescheduled date, nor can we presume that they would be willing to commit to it, without being able to know that it is safe.
With the race date just 5 weeks away, this kind of decision is our worst nightmare. We are already financially committed to this event are still liable for many of the event costs, regardless if it goes ahead or not. Be Endurance is a small organisation comprising of just three people – we all have day jobs and we don’t do this for the money. This decision has been agonising for us and the last thing we want to do is to let our athletes down.
Therefore a virtual race is a great way in which we can offer athletes a STC challenge and still be rewarded, safely, and without taking any unnecessary risks.
We will send a follow up email with instructions on the full details of the virtual race in the next few days.
All registered participants of the adult virtual race will receive, by post, a minimum of:
• Race number bib
• Large bespoke finishers medal
• Bespoke finishers technical t-shirt
Junior Storm entrants will all receive their race medal by post.
We are working hard to finalise the full details and inform you of those shortly.
We are aware that this is not an ideal outcome, but in this unprecedented situation, we feel that this option is the most sensible course of action for us to follow. The situation is developing rapidly and by the day and is out of our control. We can only hope that you understand our reasoning behind our decision making in this difficult time.
We look forward to providing a great race experience in 2021.
Sincerely,
Matt, Dermott & Matt
Be Endurance