3.4

d. Unauthorized Assistance. No participant shall accept from any person (other than a race official) physical assistance in any form, including food, drink, equipment, support, pacing, a replacement bicycle or bicycle parts, unless an express exception has been granted and approved, in writing, by USA Triathlon. The receipt of information regarding the progress, split times, or location of other competitors on the race course shall not be considered the acceptance of unauthorized assistance. Any violation of this Section shall result in a variable time penalty.

By pacer do you mean running with another participant or an outsider/non-participant? You obviously have your answer if you are talking about outsider. As for using another runner to pace... there is nothing wrong with that.

Rule 3.4 is not an outside assistance rule. It’s an unauthorized assistance rule (except from an official) for anyone, in or out of the race.

Including persons in gorilla suits.

I get this, but pacing is not clearly defined.

If a wife jogs for 20 years next to her husband giving him some encouragement is this pacing? Obviously if you have the local high school track team taking turns running g you then that is pacing

The rule just is not clear, nor does it have a clear time penalty

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Yellowfin Endurance Coaching and Bike Fits
USAT Level 1, USAC Level 3

I get this, but pacing is not clearly defined. //

Is it not clear what pacing means to you? Seems like a simple word and concept, I think most everyone knows what pacing is who does this sport and its context within the confines of triathlon...

Does it matter?
Another example of a slowtwitch triathlete getting too caught up in the minutia - you (should) have better things to worry about in your life.

(p.s. the answer is that it isn't clearly defined just to irritate people like you ;-) and is applied with discretion in a race)

Is this relatively new? If not, why didn't Chrissie Wellington get penalized for taking a CO2 from another racer when she won Kona a while back?

unless an express exception has been granted and approved,//

I believe you might have missed this part. The person that gave her a cartridge did not sacrifice her race and did it in the vein of sportsmanship. Now if she gave a wheel and her race was then finished or severely delayed, then it would have been a DQ. They leave that line there for just such circumstances, and of course that person was a legal competitor too, not some following coach or family member..