NOLA Best Damn Race Cancelled by the City of New Orleans

Important Message from Best Damn Race Director

PLEASE READ this message from the Best Damn Race Race Director if you registered to run the BDR NOLA on March 22, 2020. It was sent to registered participants via email yesterday. I'm posting it here in case anyone missed it.

Due to the rapidly developing coronavirus (COVID-19), all permitted events have been canceled by the City of New Orleans through this Sunday 3.15.20.

Per our discussions with City officials, they are expecting to extend these cancelations well past that date. They do not have an official date of when events will be able to resume. With that being said, we are preparing for the cancelation of Best Damn Race New Orleans on Sunday 3.22.20.

Being an endurance athlete myself, I understand how hard you have trained and the money you have spent during this process. I also understand that things like injury, among other life circumstances, come up, so we have always had a flexible deferral and transfer policy.

​This is an unprecedented event and we wanted to give our athletes a few options.

Options for Registered NOLA Runners

Here are the options available to registered runners:

1. Virtual Race Option – BDR mails your shirt, bib, medal, socks, sticker, and bag. 
2. Defer to NOLA 2021 (March 28, 2021) – Up to 400 runners may choose this option.
3. Transfer to BDR Leftover 5K (May 30 in Safety Harbor) – Up to 250 spots available. 
4. Transfer to BDR Safety Harbor (Feb. 6-7, 2021) – Up to 100 spots available.
5. Transfer to BDR Orlando (March 6, 2021) – Up to 100 spots available. 

Registered Runners: Click Here to Choose Your BDR NOLA Option

Deferrals and transfers are on a first-come, first-serve basis. Best Damn Race will honor deferrals and transfers in the order in which your request is received.

​You'll be notified if your selection option becomes full, and Best Damn Race will send an email with your remaining options. ​

What Happens to the Registration Fees?

We have purchased 2,600 finisher medals, 200 award medals, overall awards, bibs, timing chips, stickers, socks, merchandise, tattoos, postcards, posters, T-Shirts for participants, door hanger impact notices, Gatorade, GU, Facebook Ads, Flights for crew, and more.

We have spent the last 11 months planning for the event and paid employees, contractors and vendors for their work. These include work like web design, medal designs, shirt designs, updating course maps, etc.

​We are expecting to spend up to another $20,000 on mailing out the virtual packets as well as cover the cost of the deferrals and transfer options above.

How Long Will It Take To Complete Requests?

​Staring as early as next week, we will review your responses.

The deferral requests will be done manually by our team. Your “status” in RunSignup will show “deferred.” Then in a couple weeks we will email you a reservation link to register at no charge for 2021.

The Transfer to other race requests will be done manually as well. You will receive a confirmation email for those events once it’s processed.

The Virtual requests will then start to be processed by shirt size. Going from Women’s Small, to Medium, etc.. through Men’s sizes. This will take 7-10 days as well.

Host Hotel and Travel Information

Hyatt - Host Hotel
If you're booked with our Host Hotel (Hyatt Regency NOLA), call them at (504) 561-1234. They are prepared to move your reservation to our 2021 event dates of 3.28.21 or process a cancelation.

Flights
You will need to contact your airline directly. I booked a lot of flights from Southwest for my crew. I know they are good about giving credits for missed flights, so at the very least we can use the flight credits for next year.

I hope that those of you who were flying will get similar flexibility.

Additional Questions? Just Ask

Please be patient with response times, but definitely let Best Damn Race know if you have more questions. You can post them to the Best Damn Race New Orleans Facebook page, or shoot an email to  [email protected].
​

Thank You from the Race Director

Thank you for your understanding with this unprecedented and unfortunate situation.

My team and I will have a very busy couple of weeks preparing these virtual packets and handling the deferrals and transfers.

I appreciate not only your patience, but your kindness toward our support staff that will be working around diligently to help us manage all of this.
​
Sincerely,
Nick Zivolich
CEO/Founder/Runner

Quick Links:

• Request Your Option: https://forms.gle/8imP76NtpvVypMQh8
• Email the Team: [email protected]
• ​Visit BDR NOLA Facebook Page: Best Damn Race New Orleans