R2AK 2020 Postponed

"There are two ways to say this:

1. R2AK and SEVENTY48 are canceled in 2020.
2. R2AK and SEVENTY 2020 aren’t canceled, but you can’t cross the starting line until 2021.

Either way, Race to Alaska and SEVENTY48 are not running this year. Beyond the barrage of fan/hate mail for putting off the decision until now, we’ve been working behind the scenes weighing ethical and practical issues and holding hope in a chaotic environment. These days, finding answers is like reading tea leaves while skydiving. Foregoing the near impossibility of getting leaves to stay in the bottom of a cup, when we did, we were left with answers like, “bird, Aries, purification, wheel”—oddly on par for this virus. In the end, we switched back to coffee and chose to answer the same questions we ask of racers when racing:

Can we do this? Yes or No.

Is it worth the risk? Yes or No.

Can we survive this? Yes or No.

If you haven’t guessed, you need a triple affirmative before pushing away from your last success. The first error leading to any great debacle is often a simple decision compounding into a chain of errors leading to a free-fall, tea-leaf dive reading, “spiral, anchor, knots, stop.” (Which is apparently bad.)

Race heroics are often race jeopardy, and we refuse to gamble with others’ lives without their consent. We could race; there is a route around all the closures, but, like driving with your feet, could isn’t should, and it’s not worth the risk for racers or communities along the way.

Out of all the scenarios, pandemic was not a culprit calculated to close our races. It’s the correct and painful decision whose wake leaves us formulating our next steps. Dates are already set for next year (June 7, 2021) and barring, I don’t know, gigantic dinosaur extinguishing comets, we will be on the water in 2021 taking pictures like tourists and high fiving finishers. We hope to see you all there, and stay tuned for next steps.

In the meantime, we still plan on honoring the humans who signed up for 2020 and delighting/angering our fans by completing the bios for this year. Sure, there’s no race, but these people are still awesome, and you should know about them. We’re also working on some other content to keep ourselves busy and the R2AK nation remotely together.

It’s an ironic/dated phrase at this point, but we’ll be in touch.

Dan
Race Boss"