well said. and this was fun thread.

The best example of what a class pro does is when I watched Jamie Whitmore at a local race I did. At the time she had not had cancer, so she just killed all the women in the field. They
had her talk about what it was like to be a world champion. But since they only had AG awards, she technically won that plus the overall. When the AG awards came up, so told the
crowd she was not taking it and let the next finisher take first place. The most class I had ever seen and will never forget it.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

In other words, "blah blah blah I'm not listening to anyone who disagrees with me".

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

There are a lot of triathletes who have all that stuff and are still mediocre.

Just the bike I raced or all of my bikes? :)

But what about the time you took the W in the 4th of July 5k??

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When all is said and done. More is usually said than done
Ba Ba Booey

I think most people do races based on the commute. I have a few ironman and elite in and even a pro woman that wins every year but her sister and dad do the same race because they are local. As for the cost of equipment who care some people have money to burn and I'm glad they spend 12k on a bike so I can point to him and turn to my wife and say I told you 6k was a steal.

Anyway, they more the more people that race the more fun.

... and in Jaime's absence, tthe second place finisher, having smashed the field, decided to pretend they didn't win, and let the third place finisher "take" first place... Of course, the third place finisher, being overwhelmed by everyone else's "class" declined the award... etc... and no awards were given out that day.

Pretending someone else won a race isn't classy, it's childish.

Yep, who each can look at events and decide what they mean.

So, do AGers really win?

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

In motorcycle roadracing, paid pros will sometimes race at a "local" race to get more familiar with the track. Said pros will often pull off the track on the last lap to allow the club racers to reap the rewards. It is a little different in this environment in that the club racers are usually racing for contingency payouts, but the idea is the same. I don't see the stakes being as high here, as AG awards aren't usually more than a plastic trophy.

I can understand while a pro or elite AG might do a local race because he/she was in town, etc., but to reference back to the original posting - an acknowledged "elite" skipped the provided elite wave. That seems odd, but if said person is not a registered "pro" they might just see themselves as an AG athlete. The USAT Nationals are full of hella-fast AG'ers who find themselves racing for 75th place overall at Nationals after having cleaned up their AG at local events; that's how you get the invite after all. The view of what represents the "elite" changes when you move from the pond to the ocean....

There are high school kids that can lay down the speeds/times in the original post, especially in sprint distance. Here's a link to the results of the 2013 USAT Sprint Nationals: http://www.pigmantri.com/...lts13/usatage13f.pdf

The ages on that first page range from 16 (2nd overall!) to 46 (19th overall). I doubt either of those individuals see themselves as "Elite", in that they're not getting paid to hawk Rudy sunglasses on the pages of Triathlete mag. It might just be perspective?

I looked at your link and thought you were going to show us the results from Pigman Sprint and Long Course races... the unofficial Sprint and long Course Iowa World Championships. Proportional to the total # participants, it's lb for lb a more competitive field that any IM branded event you'll find most years, since many of the regional pros show up. But it does have an elite wave.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Ok I'll bite. I'm not making any money on the sport, but I've won a few decent-sized races. Point #3 above is pretty accurate. Basically, I'm going to race wherever whenever I want, just because I enjoy racing, and the same is true for a lot of my friends (who also happen to be in a similar position). It's not my job, but it is my primary pastime outside of work. I love racing huge events--the bigger the better--it's a nice treat to get to travel somewhere cool and do a huge event that takes over the city for the weekend. It's fun to a be a part of something like that. At the same time, these events are expensive and require tons of forethought. Enter: local tri. I can't even count the number of times I've decided to do a race the night before, or the morning of. The convenience of last-minute registration, short travel time, and minimal expense is too good to pass up. There are probably 10+ triathlons within a 1 hour drive of my house each year, and 10 more within a 1 hour drive. Spending so much time in triathlon, I've gotten to know a ton of people in the sport--athletes and race directors alike. I enjoy spending time with them, and racing is yet another way to do just that.

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I tweet!

I was talking about Triathlon.

Nice. The social aspect. Never thought about that as well.

For the first time in the history of the internet, I think a forum has changed somebody's mind (mine) on something. It seems it's not automatically a "look at me" entry when a person who crushes a small-time field enters a tri. I stand corrected.

The fact that you even thought that says more about you than the people doing the winning at these races you speak of.

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"One Line Robert"

I know, right? I guess not everyone is as competitive as me.

It's a free country. This person did nothing wrong. He is allowed to leave when he is done.