Ah, the Race Director has emerged. He responded to my post on the FB site for the race (which, incidentally I think is a little inappropriate, and I could have taken the opportunity to take it offline, but I am stooping to his level. If you disagree with my approach, share your opinion with someone else). Here was his response:
My name is Erik Boucher I am the person who responded to your request and the person responsible for everything related to this event. I do empathize with your situation and hope that your treatment goes well. I understand that life happens and have created policies and processes to accommodate unexpected situations that prevent runners from participating and gives them options. Most race directors offer no refunds or deferrals. I allow deferrals for any reason until a certain deadline. I offer a refund option for people who don’t want to defer and would like their money back. I allow people to transfer their registration to another person. My philosophy is that I would rather make people happy so that they come back the next year. But there is a point in time before the race when I start to incur expenses that can’t be reversed – I get charged for things even if a person doesn’t participate. I denied your request because it came at the 11 hour when I had no room to maneuver. The database had been submitted to the timers, a bib had been created with your name on it, and your race shirt had been shipped. I’m sorry if my response came across as being curt or insensitive. At the time I was in a hospital NICU with my wife and new born who almost died at birth a week earlier. I’m also dealing with an event that has nearly 2,000 participants and the weather forecast is calling for temperatures in the 40s-50s, heavy rains, and high winds. If you were in my shoes what would you do?
Here's my response:
Eric,
I think it's unfortunate that you didn't have anybody to delegate to
while you were dealing with your own issues with your baby. As a parent I
can't imagine how stressful your situation must have been and I
certainly hope your wife and baby are on the road to recovery. However,
as a race director, dealing with the event issues you outlined is your
job. That is presumably why you have the position--because you have the
skill set to deal with what Mother Nature presents as well as manage
the many running events that the festival offers.
I
hope you can respect the fact that my situation was an extreme one--I
didn't know I had cancer until after I had registered for the race. Needless to say, on April 3, my life changed forever. Additionally, I didn't receive the
clearance that I couldn't run until sometime in May. To that point,
with everything else I've been dealing with, such figuring out
my treatment plan, etc., I apologize that reaching out to you to defer
the race didn't happen sooner rather than later.
It's
clear that we're not on the same page about this, and I'm disappointed
about that. I find it interesting that while you were dealing with your
own crisis, it didn't make you more sympathetic to mine. Additionally,
since I paid for the shirt separately, I presumed that was a loss.
However, please also know that cancer survivors have a very strong
network. I will be passing along this race to all sites where runners
who are cancer survivors congregate and letting them know that this is a
race they should avoid in the future.
If I hear a response back I'll be shocked. If I do, I'm sure it will be as whiny as his first one. If the Fox News station that was a sponsor calls, I hope they do so after I've lost my hair. I really think that will be more impactful. That is supposed to be happening imminently (the hair loss, not the call from Fox News). The whole hair thing really deserves it's own blog post, and I'm sure that will happen.
On another note, yesterday was my 2nd chemo treatment. They gave me a new post-treatment regimen and I must say, I feel much better than I did two weeks ago. Not 100% for sure, but not nearly like death as I felt before. Two treatments down, two more to go.
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