Wichita Falls Hotter'N Hell 100 Goes Virtual Due To COVID-19 Pandemic

I attended the final day of the Wichita Falls Hotter'N Hell 100 event my first year in this town. I was impressed by what a HUGE deal it was, and how well executed and entertaining it all was. But, I have not returned. I do not remember what caused the non-returns, but I had planned on returning this year.

As recently as a week ago I saw HHH officials indicating the event was still on track, despite the ongoing COVID-19 nightmare.

And then this morning on the front page of the online Wichita Falls Times News Record I saw the following article headline...

In-person HHH canceled for this year

I had already used up my month's clicking allotment so I just had to sit and wonder what it meant that "in person HHH" had been canceled. What other option could there possibly be for a bike race and its surrounding events if not in-person?

And then I went to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where I do not have a monthly click allotment and saw another front page online headline about the Hotter'N Hell 100, with the Star-Telegram providing more clarifying info about this year's HHH than the local paper provided on its front page.

From the Star-Telegram we learn "The HHH is offering a virtual event that allows participants to ride or run their HHH event in their hometowns and receive a 2020 HHH ride t-shirt and finisher's medal via mail."

Well, now, that sounds sort of pitiful. A virtual event? Is this some sorta scheme to avoid refunding entry fees to those who have already paid? The actual bike ride races of their various iterations are only part of the HHH event.

I have seen multiple new hotels under construction in town, and have assumed they are aiming for an open for business date for late August when the town is flooded with thousands of people attending the HHH.

I don't think those new hotels are going to be getting much virtual business from the 2020 version of the Hotter'N Hell 100.

Of course our Dear Leader may be right, and not the Uber Idiot the majority thinks he to be, and the Coronavirus will have gone bye bye by August and all will once again be normal in the world, with the Hotter'N Hell 100 able to take place in the real world, not the virtual...