Presumably to manage the amount of time for which lifeguards and police monitoring the roads need to be paid, and/or permits need to be paid.

Except that if someone goes past the cutoff, they are still allowed to finish that portion of the race, and the lifeguards and police still need to stay in place. If the cutoff for the swim is 60 min and I hit 60 min 80% of the way though, I am still allowed to finish the swim and the lifeguards still have to remain in place.

But, if you know you're going to swim 50% slower than the posted cutoff, there's (hopefully) a good chance you won't even register for the race, knowing that you won't be allowed to finish.

If you're 50% slower than the swim cutoff, your physical fitness is probably too poor to even finish the race. I am talking about the guys who miss the cutoff by 5 - 15 min, but are still fast enough to finish above last place.

Yes, you will finish the swim, but you can't start the bike so they can get the police officers off the road and open the road. It is all about man power and opening the roads. Races can't go forever.

If you miss the swim cut off in a Sprint by 15 minutes or even 5 minutes, well you had 35-45 minutes to finish the 750 m. I doubt you then had the fitness to not finish last. I have been at sprints where people get out in the low to mid 20's int he swim, but never much slower than that.

But basically you are saying that cut offs are only cool in a branded Ironman race? Well that is just silly. All because the name Ironman is more worthy?

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Ian

Okay, makes sense about the cops and moving the race along. But some cutoffs are not that reasonable. I have seen cutoffs of 60m for 2000m freshwater for the last wave (which is the slowest wave). I dont think that is that reasonable.
I also think it's lame the first wave, which is the elites, have tons of time to do the swim and the last wave, which is the grandmothers, has the least amount of time to do the swim.

Then dont do the race, go elsewhere or start your own. Who really cares if you think its "Lame" for what an RD does for his race

Yes, because ithe works much better when granny gets swam over by the whole field. 2k in 60:00... so 3' per 100 isn't enough time? Seriously? It's a swim race not a float on your belly competition. My 72 y/o dad with arthritis can only tolerate swimming 300-500 3 days a week but still glides along at a 1:35/100 pace effortlessly. But he swam d1 university in the early 60s.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

30/1000m is what FINA masters uses for a cut off. So 90 for 3km. They state in the briefing you will be fished out if you are over the limit. If one managed to the finish just over you would not have an official result same as missing the cut in a pool race.

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___________________________________________
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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I actually do think that is plenty reasonable, if it where me I would change the Half cut off time to 1 hour and the full to 2 hours. Why, Simple 50% of the participant that swim over 2 hours don't end up finishing the bike or run. The 2nd point is safety, if you cannot physically do a swim in 1 hour or 2 hours for those distances don't try it. Get in shape, learn to swim and then go for it. To many people go in fit enough on the bike and run and neglect the swim.

Also in 2015 the cut offs for events will be HARD cut off meaning if you swim 1:12 for a 70.3 and you are in wave 2 you will receive a DNF. Same for full events....

Okay, so say we have a non branded iron distance race. What should you do with the swimmer than needs 3 hours because they spend 5 minutes every 100 meters holding onto a kayak? Is that unreasonable to assume it would happen? At some point we all want to go home. So we either have cut offs (often for safety and also for course reasons) or the slowest people finish completely alone with no one but the RD standing around. Because the volunteers certainly won't stick around, the awards will be done too.

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Ian

Because they are races, subject to a certain timeliness for the staff, volunteers, fans, locals and participants. In my experience in looking at the times the cutoffs are very reasonable. I don't think the cutoff times for Ironmans are that much different from other races... the times are very generous.

Also in 2015 the cut offs for events will be HARD cut off meaning if you swim 1:12 for a 70.3 and you are in wave 2 you will receive a DNF. Same for full events....

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They just better have the technology/resources/volunteers to actually stop them at T1 and not let them bike for 3 hours and then tell them "oh yeah your DQ'd because your swim missed it".
ETA: Just make sure they have a process that can pull the athletes in a very timely/fair process. Pulling them off the course after they biked 56/112 miles because they miss the swim cut-off and your timing mats are just too slow to catch it in T1, would in my eyes be an poorly developed process.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

I'm pretty sure that there is an RD conspiracy theory citing that cutoffs are in place to force people to train.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

They will likely not be pulled off during the race, they would
Simply receive a DNF or UNO. It's virtually impossible to catch
Them during the race for shorter distances. The % is pretty low, they know what they are getting into before the race.