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On a warm evening in July of 2019, standing on a temporary stage erected in Penticton's Rotary Park, noted Ironman triathlon announcer Dave Downey made the announcement that just about everyone in town knew was coming. Following an eight-year absence, the Subaru Ironman Canada would return to Penticton in 2020.
It was a massive deal, not just for the athletes and endurance sport buffs, but for Penticton, its businesses, its tourism industry, and its politicians.
Then COVID hit and the 2020 event was ultimately canceled. So everyone set their sights on 2021.
Then less than two weeks ago, the original 2021 date, August 29, was bumped forward to September 26. "We collectively agree that this event will be better positioned to take place on this race date," said the sparsely-worded press release.
Reaction on social media was swift. Some attendees/athletes wondered if they'd be able to rearrange their vacation times and lodging bookings. Others wondered if a few weeks would really make that much of a difference. Were they chasing a potentially open border? Might it ultimately be bumped again, all the way to 2022?
And hey, what about available daylight and water temperature in late September?
So we reached out to Dave Christen, an Ironman regional director who manages the event in Canada and in the western USA. We asked for a few answers, and he gave them.
And looking back on his responses, one thing becomes clear. The provincial "restart" plan announced May 25th, the one that tentatively okayed large-scale public gatherings as of Sept. 7, not only spurred Ironman's August to September push but just might have saved the day completely for the event in 2021.
"I know four weeks doesn’t seem like a long time to most people," said Christen. "But based on what we're seeing from the postures of all our permitting agencies, it really makes sense for us to look for an alternative that gets us on the other side of what seems to be a date in the sand that the province has laid out for events like ours to be most successful.
"So in partnership with our city and regional partners, we all just looked at each other and said let's push it."
Christen credited the BC government for doing a "good job protecting the province." But, he said, the guidance had been, understandably during a pandemic, vague. And he hinted that it was vague enough that the 2021 Ironman was pretty darned wobbly prior to the restart plan unveiling.
"It was a grey area enough for us to say we're not sure we can execute a full-blown Ironman event. But it now seems the guidance is far more clear. There's even an infographic saying you can go to a rock concert September 7th. That's more aligned to what we do."
The key issue, it seems, wasn't the athletes. Christen calls triathlons "naturally physically distanced." Instead, it was the combination of athletes, families, friends, support people, and spectators.
"We likely would have restricted significantly how spectators interact with the event. Even how many people we could have let in, or how many people can gather together at a single point.
"Whereas on the other side of that date, it looks like spectators and athletes and loved ones can be together the way it was intended to be."
Still, said Christen, some small concessions will need to be made. Due to decreased daylight, for example, athletes will be released faster than usual from the start line -- five to ten of them every five seconds.
As for concerns about lake water temperatures, Christen claims that's the "first question we had internally."
"All the athletes are asking the right questions," he said. "But we do this a lot. We do this around the world. And we have data that would suggest otherwise.
"With the amount of sunlight that still occurs in the Okanagan and on the lake, the surface level water temperature will still be comfortable. It'll be a little chilly for some, but do some jumping jacks before you get it the water and let's go have some fun."
Apparently, the organizing team has also given a lot of thought to the suddenly close proximity of the Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan, which hits just a week earlier. But not for the seemingly most obvious reason.
"There's not a lot of athlete crossover," he said. "Probably less than people think. And riding 100K or 70K the week before an Ironman is probably in their training anyway.
"It's more the impact on the community at large, with traffic control and things like that. That's why we’re working closely on with our partners at the Fondo.
"There's honestly some really great synergies that we can work with, whether it’s equipment or logistics or event experiential items that we're lending to each other. They're some of the best operators we've ever worked with."
And that left us with but one question. Does Christen truly believe the 2021 Ironman Canada will unfold like a "normal" Ironman would, on Sept. 26th of this year?
"There's a very high likelihood it'll happen," he said. "If you’d asked me a month ago, I would have said I'm not really sure. But now we're planning, we're scheduling logistics, scheduling equipment. We're spending money at a high clip right now.
"There is a level of flexibility the athlete needs to bring to the table right now, but the guidance seems pretty clear that the province is ready to open up. And there's discussion at high levels about what will happen with the borders opening up again. And those things and the signals we're getting are very promising."
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