The following email was sent to all participants registered for the 2020 Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon on March 27, 2020 at 10:05am.
Good morning, I have been working with all our event partners to determine the best course of action given the extreme and unprecedented events caused by COVID-19.
Due to the guidance put in place by federal and state authorities, restrictions on our venue partners, event limitations placed by the City of Katy, and most importantly, the health and safety of all our participant, their families and friends, and our race crew including the many volunteers and coordinators that make the race possible, the 2020 Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon will be converted to a virtual event. A virtual event allows us to introduce kids to multi-sport and earn their finisher medals while maintaining safety precautions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
All currently registered participants are transferred to a virtual version of the scheduled event. For the virtual event you’ll submit your times and we’ll mail you your race packet and finisher’s medal once you complete the instructions that can be found at https://typhoontexaskidstri.com/Race/TyphoonTexasKidsTri/Page/virtual-info. I will be updating the page with more information over the coming days. Once I have all the details finalized, I will communicate via email and will post on social media. For those completing their 5th consecutive year of the event, you’ll also receive your medal display with your finisher items.
If you choose to not participate in the virtual race, you can select the option to defer your entry to the 2021 event. When registration opens for the 2021 event (most likely in late September/early October) you’ll receive a link to register. By selecting this option you are opting out of the 2020 virtual race and won’t be eligible to receive your race packet or finisher’s medal. If you would like to opt for event deferral please visit https://typhoontexaskidstri.com and select the deferral option on the website popup. There is no fee to defer your entry but we are limiting deferrals to the first 300 participants that select this option and the cutoff to make the selection is Friday, April 3rd at 11:59pm. If a selection isn’t made by this time or if the deferral limit is reached, remaining athletes will stay in the virtual race.
Any add-on purchased through the registration platform will be refunded over the coming days. This includes additional waterpark tickets, race morning packet pickup, and training mini-sessions. This is a manual process and we ask that you please be patient while we issue add-on refunds. My goal is to get this completed within a week but am asking that you please allow 2 to 3 weeks.
Store purchases will be shipped out at no cost to you over the coming weeks. I will attempt to include the items with race packets for those that completed the event virtual depending on how/when items were purchased.
I’ve made available an FAQ specifically regarding this transition to virtual that can be found at https://typhoontexaskidstri.com/Race/TyphoonTexasKidsTri/Page/faq-supplement. I’ve tried to anticipate your question and will update accordingly as needed.
This has been an incredibly difficult email to put together because over the past 10 months I’ve put everything I have into planning this even, expanding the event to introduce more kids to multi-sport without sacrificing the experience or safety of all participants and celebrating out milestone 5th annual race. This unprecedented pandemic has caused a lot of disruption in our daily lives and I was hoping we would be able to celebrate getting through this difficult time with an amazing day at the waterpark. With your patience and continued support, we will be back at the waterpark in 2021 with an even bigger and better event.
Thank you all for your support and I’m looking forward to see pictures of the kids completing the race virtually!
Sincerely,
Tony Sapp, Race Director
