Yesterday Ironman University certified coaches had the honor of listening to Andrew Messick the CEO of Ironman give a live presentation on the way forward in 2021 for Ironman races around the world.

The presentation gave a deeper understanding of the process Ironman uses to determine if a race will take place.

The bottom line- Ironman is ready to race; they are ready to implement safe races around the world.

And if you are reading this in New Zealand, Australia, or Tawain, rejoice as they are ready to race and are confident that races will take place as planned for early this year.

No matter where you are located, here is the protocol that is in place for determining if a race is a go.

What is the current Covid infection and hospitalization rate in the host city.
What is the current Covid infection and hospitalization rate in the origin city of the athletes. Ironman combs through the participant list to determine where athletes are coming from and the risk factors at play in their country or state of origin.
What are the travel restrictions in place for both the host city and the most frequently attended athlete place of origin. For example if 25 % of the athletes who are signed up to race are coming from a country where they are technically not allowed to travel from to the host city - is the race viable?
What is the status of the vaccine in the host location.

Once these points are analyzed, and providing it is both safe and viable then the final call is made my the local health department. It is important to note that the most important factor to consider is if the local government will grant the race permission to take place, and as we all know that varies wildly from state to state, and country to country.

So will you race in 2021?

The short answer is HELL YES.

The long answer is that it just depends on where the race is and when the race is supposed to take place, clearly the later in the year, with the potential of a larger part of the population vaccinated the greater the chance of your race happening.

To put it plainly, if you are racing this fall, you better bet on the fact that you’ll be racing, so you should get on that training schedule NOW. If you’re racing in January and don’t live in AZ or NZ, well then it’s iffy.

But any way you slice it - Ironman is ready and you better be too.