#382 - Ironman Race Director - Ken Hammond

Crushing Iron Triathlon Podcast

There are many racing questions out there, so we brought on Race Director, Ken Hammond (Race Director of Ohio 70.3 and Musselman) for an in-depth conversation on how he, his staff, and Ironman have been approaching a race season hampered by a pandemic. He talks about the current state of racing, registration trends for upcoming races, and what changes might stick in the sport. He also gives us insight into a lot of challenges they've faced that most of us don't think about, like why Muncie 70.3 is on, but Ohio 70.3 isn't.

Topics:

• What’s a race director do without racing?
• how did he deal with the final cancellation of his races?
• Race directors relationship to Ironman
• Protocols with cities
• Ironman’s mindset from the beginning of Pandemic
• How open are cities to changing dates?
• How does he mentally handle losing TWO races?
• How they’re figuring out what actually works and makes
• Why some cities are racing, some are not
• Muncie is going, why can’t Ohio?
• Discussion points for possibly localizing races
• Medical support and volunteer hesitation
• Return to racing initiative
• Self-support racing
• What possible changes he thinks will stick?
• His thoughts about racing progression right now
• Proposed changes to limit contact in expo, transitions, etc
• Looking at the new finish line
• His biggest worry through all of this
• Will this pandemic actually grow the sport?
• Will people be more active or just work more?
• Race registration trends for 2021
• Will late season racing be open if you want them?
• Race Director’s perspective to negative Facebook groups
• What it was like losing an athlete at Ohio 70.3
• Where to find the grumpiest people on race day
• The communication channel between athletes and Ironman

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