That was it? Well, that settles it for me. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he could not avoid her. He CLEARLY could have.

Final verdict: Douche.

Looks like this is it ladies and gentlemen.

That video definitely doesn't do her any favors. She staggering around crossing the full lane. It's unclear where they belong (evidenced by the guy at the end running on the right) and he was getting squeezed between her and the other guy. Heck, when i'm racing I check intersections to make sure they are clear. I would never stagger around backwards like her

He was hauling ass and it happened quickly

---

__________________________________________________
Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ

didn't look like what I would call a punch, more like a stiff arm. but he clearly could have avoided her.

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Hm... pretty silly of the woman to walk backward in the approach to the finish, but the Competitive Rules (3.3b) do require participants to "act in a manner that is not offensive in any way to fellow participants, spectators, officials, volunteers and is considered reasonable and acceptable to the community." CR 3.3c states to "treat all participants, officials, volunteers and spectators with fairness, respect and courtesy." I think the shove kinda goes into the realm of unsportsmanlike conduct (3.4b), even if the lady might have been obstructing his path to the finish (3.4c).

At the least she could have been assessed a variable time penalty and him a disqualification.

---

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
USAT Competitive Rules Official, Cat 2
USAT National Technical Official/ITU National Technical Official, Level 1
USAT South Region Rules Ambassador

That was it? Well, that settles it for me. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he could not avoid her. He CLEARLY could have.


Final verdict: Douche.


Yes and he made no attempt to make sure she was okay or apologize but there will still be the same people here defending him because he was going after a PR !!!!!!!

Your post is clearly not getting the attention it deserves. Even in the graininess, even if the woman is backing up without paying attention, it's hard to justify his behavior.

(Aside: I still don't understand how the RD states that he's running on the wrong side of the road.)

---

---

---

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

She was taking up the entire right lane and started backing up towards the middle. He stiff armed her. They were both wrong.

What it comes down to is how you perceive their actions. What was worse? Overreacting at the heat of the moment and stiff arming someone or being negligent and not respecting other competitors?

Now I am torn, I had him being a class A A-hole. but from the looks of the video, the woman was standing far to his right, so he hugged the double yellow. Then she backed up and he was running fast and probably had little left at that point. Maybe at that point if he had tried to change course and go to the right of her it would have been a head-on collision, and this glancing blow was a better option. I have since demoted him to a call B A-hole as he did not stop afterwards, nor show remorse.

I would say he reaches out towards her, does not seem like a punch, more like an arm out to try to avoid her backing into him and taking them both out. Should he have stepped aside, probably? But in which direction, someone moving backward not looking is pretty unpredictable, I would go with hold your line and hope for the best...

Definetly stiff arming a woman is the worse of the two.

---

__________________________________________________
Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ

From watching the video, it does not appear that anyone understands what side of the road to run on, everyone appears to be running in their right lane, which is the opposite of what you want the course to actually be.

I know that being a race director is a thankless job and god knows I know I am not putting in all the work, but maybe cones in the center to help people understand that they are separate lanes would clear this up.

So my assumption from watching the video leads me to believe he was on the right side of the road based on the other runner toward the end of the video. Though that runner might have just hugged his kids and family and grabbed a watch as well but they were on the other side. So the "attacker" must of seen her from a distance and judged he could sneak past her through the middle of the road. All of a sudden she started backing up toward where he was running and he did not have time to adjust back to the right side as he was sprinting in. Still no excuse for his despicable behavior as he should of realized the mistake of hitting someone. Though for the love of God when you are near the finish line you need to be aware and she was absolutely clueless. Bad on both parties but worse on him.

I am not sure if I understand the lanes. Is the lane on the right going out, and the left is coming back in? That makes quite a bit of difference as to the negligence aspect on the part of the woman, and as to whether Blair was in the correct lane for the finish.

If the left lane comes in and the right lane goes out, she was in the wrong lane and impeding the other participants. If this is the case, my perception based on the video is that he was coming fast and put out is arm to keep her from backing into his path. He couldn't go right at that point since she was there and he was committed to hugging the yellow lines. If he crossed the line he could have had a head on with an oncoming runner.

The video make them both look bad. Her for being clueless and interfering, and him for being aggressive towards another competitor. I can almost justify his arm out as a protective mechanism, but think he was likely aggravated and put a little extra into it.

If the left lane goes out and right comes in, he was in the wrong lane, but shortly after the incident, both she and another runner take off in the right line (the wrong lane) adding to the confusion.

I would be curious to hear Blair's side of things.

I'll start this one with a little story:

When I was in Grade 3, my brother, who was in Grade 1, got beat up by another kid. I was absent in some other part of the schoolyard when this went down. When my dad heard about this (after asking about bruises), I was ordered to settle the score.

The other kid had never met me, and did not see it coming. My brother pointed him out to me from across the schoolyard. I was a little scared of him myself, so when his back was turned, I ran at him full tilt and punched him in the side/back of the head. I weighed about 65 lb at the time, and I'm pretty sure my instantaneous speed was far slower than what we saw here.

Let me tell you, that kid, who had no idea I was coming, went down like a ton of bricks. There wasn't even any question of him remaining standing.

Which brings us to that video: there is no way that was a punch.

I'm going to go one further and say it wasn't even a slap or a straight-arm. Either of those with intent would've knocked her to the ground at the rate he was moving. All he did was fend off at speed.

When I read the race director's report, I figured that was it - the guy was a jerk, end of story. I really expected the video to back up the race director's story, but it's done just the opposite. It didn't even look like he was on the wrong side of the road to me, based on the direction the next runner after the woman went.

My opinion on the matter has done a 180. I don't think the guy should've been DQ'd.

Totally ridiculous for the RD to see that video and DQ one and not both. What the hell was this woman thinking?!

It appears the far lane in the video is for those going to the right and the near lane is for those going to the left, but everyone is doing the opposite. In the video you see at least two people (one in the distance at the begininning and another that comes by after the hit) running to the left in the far lane, the guy is trying to stay in the near lane, and even the woman is appearing to walk backwards into the far lane, so it appears that everyone is using the incorrect lane according the race director.

You were right.

There are 3 runners running to the left in the far lane. 2 are way down the path. Then there is one at the end. I suspect there were some course management issues.

The gentleman who was involved in the incident seems to be behaving like a motorist. He sees an obstacle in his lane and he tries to not leave the lane but still avoid the obstacle. This is often the cause of car passing close to bicyclists.

It seems like the gentleman had room to get by but the woman kept moving limiting his space - he was pinched between her and the yellow line. It appears that he had no ill intent.

"All he did was fend off at speed."

Totally agree.

So the fault is 1/4 rd for not controlling the race, 1/4 the guy for not avoiding the situation, and 1/2 be woman for being a self-rightous attention seeker staggering around

He could be grimacing in pain and not from putting "extra" into it. i once high fived a buddy running pass me (of course i was beating him this is ST.") and it hurt like hell. If it was me i would have definetly known i cause someone harm and stopped or came back after to make sure they were okay as there were plenty of people to attend to her on the sidelines.

---

__________________________________________________
Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ