Thomas Gerlach wrote:
When I was amatuer, and I know this was at a USAT race not an Ironman, but I won Rev 3 Cedar Point in the amatuer field. The second place guy came up to me well past any sort of time limit and was like, "you better check the board". I went to check and I had 12 minutes of penalties I think. I was dumbfound and went to the results company and they were able to narrow they were outside assistance penalties. I said that is nearly impossible, for one I am here alone, two I never received any assistance, never took anything from any strangers etc. USAT refs were already on planes, trains, and automobiles and this was a cash money amatuer race, like $5,000 USD on the line for 1st in the series. Well I pleaded with them and they started to do some digging, turns out they pulled the official penalty list out of the trash and sure enough they fat-fingered the number into the system. The penalties were marked for a different athlete, off by one digit somewhere, and they made the correction on the spot.
I know this sort of situation is a little different, but legitimate clerical errors clearly can exist. Best of luck, would try to track down the leader of the penalty tent as my only suggestion.
Thanks for the suggestions. I've sent an email, which at this point is about all I can do.
In the end it's not really a huge deal. I know that I did an ironman in something like 11:40 today including a very surprising five minute drafting penalty around mile 40. If that result isn't listed on a website, so be it.
------------------------------------------------------------
Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.