April 7, 2020

Dear 2020 RTO, Capital or Comstock Registered Runner,

As you know by now, we have cancelled this year’s Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay Run Adventure, Capital Odyssey Relay and Comstock Odyssey Relay set for May 29-30. There were multiple reasons for this decision. First and foremost, there is no indication that it will be safe to put on the relays on the scheduled dates. In addition, certain permitting authorities have advised us that we would no longer be approved to put on the relays in their respective jurisdictions on these dates.

Race178 is offering teams one of the following 2 options:

1. Partial refund of your 2020 entry fee in the amount of fifty percent of the 2020 entry fee that your team paid.

• To take advantage of this option, the team captain will need to email race178reno@gmail.com with their team name no later than May 31, 2020. The lump sum will be refunded to the person who paid the team entry fee. Once you let us know that your team wants the refund, we’ll take the necessary steps to make the payment as quickly as possible.

2. You may defer your 2020 entry to the 2021 or 2022 relays for the RTO (full or ultra), Capital or Comstock Odyssey relay that you registered for this year. The RTO is always the Friday & Saturday following Memorial Day so in 2021 the RTO will be on June 4-5. The Capital and Comstock relays will be on June 5.

• To defer your entry to 2021 or 2022, the team captain will need to email race178reno@gmail.com by May 31, 2020 along with your team name and year you would like to defer to. In early June we will confirm that we received your email.
• If your team was one of the first 25 teams who registered and paid for this year’s relays, you will receive the same perk the year your team participates.

If you do not email us by May 31, 2020, we will assume that you are not interested in either offer and proceed accordingly.

We decided on the partial refund amount based on various factors including that we have been working on this year’s relays since last June and have spent a lot of time and money getting ready for them. Some costs we have already incurred such as the finisher medals. But there are other expenses we will be able to avoid, such as delivery and pick up of all of those porta potties at the start, finish and the 35 exchange points.

We will be fully refunding the volunteer waiver fees to the teams that have paid.

If you choose to go out and run your own virtual version of the RTO or Capital or Comstock Odyssey relays, please be safe and follow social distancing guidelines. Tag us @Race178 and #RTO2020.

As of today we intend to open registration on July 15, 2020 for the 17th Annual Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay Run Adventure, the 9th Annual Capital Odyssey Relay and the 7th Annual Comstock Odyssey Relay.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a significant toll on the United States and the rest of the world. We appreciate so many who are doing so much to help get through this crisis including health care professionals, first responders and grocery store workers. Please stay healthy and safe.

We are attempting to make the best of an unprecedented situation. Thank you for your understanding.

- The Race178 Team