So you are saying that you can dodge anything someone does on a bike course? Lets say you are going uphill in one lane and someone comes flying down hill in the opposite and lane, then suddenly crosses the center line straight into you. I do not think I could dodge that. I think everyone agrees that people can do stupid things that make contact unavoidable. The question is if the contact in this case is unavoidable, that is not clear.

A similar situation happened to me during a 24 hour relay race in Nevada. At around 2am, I was on the shoulder of the road about to catch another runner, and his support vehicle drove right up next to me. The van door opened and a volunteer jumped out to give the other runner water. The volunteer went right in front of me and not thinking clearly I moved towards the other runner and rolled my ankle getting out of her path. I finished fine, but should have never been put in that position, and possibly pushing or grabbing would have prevented my ankle from rolling.

The fact is, she put him in that position, and avoiding her could have caused him injury. His actions may or may not be excessive; its not something I would do. However, to vilify a person you put in harms way is wrong. I really want to see the video until I deem this guy guilty on trial by internet. Nothing more than a verbal lashing was necessary.

I see the stroller... can you please point out the mass participants in the picture, because I'm not seeing any..I just see two people and a lot of space on both sides....the street doesn't look particularly wide either...but I wasn't there as most of us posting, as well as the person who drew the graphic...just speculation.....http://1.bp.blogspot.com/...0/Toughman+punch.jpg

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

What a completely ridiculous situation. I've been following the hilarity of the Letsrun thread from the start...

Both parties are big babies.

A) For those of you who have seen the picture and still think he actually punched her...have you ever actually seen someone throw a punch? It's obvious his hand is open and he pushed her out of the way.

B) Someone in a prior post said something about how they saw the video (this is the first I've heard of anyone actually seeing the video) and he could have easily moved around her because he had 10 feet to make a decision. 10 feet? Sometimes simple math can be our friend. This guy ran at an average pace of 7:30/mile and was sprinting to the finish. Let's say in his sprint to the finish, he bumped up his pace to 7:00/mile (he was probably going faster than that at the time, but I'll stick with this figure). At a 7:00/mile he's travelling 8.6 mph, which is the equivalent to 12.6 feet per second. So in about less than a second, this guy is supposed to make a split decision on which way to move, take a dive himself as someone else suggested, or put up his hands to brace himself...That is NOT a lot of time to make a decision. If you look at the results, he finished 12th overall, 11 seconds behind the 11th place individual. Depending on how far from the finish line he was, all he had on his mind was probably trying to overtake the guy ahead of him.

C) Even with the above, no excuse to not say anything and see if she's okay. It's just the right thing to do...

D) This quote from her response to the situation is really irritating:

"I wasn't even looking for an apology but it would have been nice to receive one, Here is my apology: Blair (or "anonymous"), I am sorry I backpeddled into your lane as I kissed my family and got back into the race. I do these races for very different reasons than you do, and according the USAT, I am with the majority. I asked the USAT not to mandate what they will - and then they actually asked me why I had to be "so nice" and "so forgiving". I clearly moved on but this sadly won't go away. At the end of the day, one little word would have solved this problem."

I understand this guy may have come across a little douchey thinking he was winning olympic gold, but to me people on the other side of the spectrum are just as bad. Wave to your family as you run by...that's awesome, go for it. But stopping in the middle of a race course to interact with spectators is absurd. Pose for pictures AFTER the race...let them get pictures of you actually running during the race, not stopping to pick up your watch.

If I were the guy, I would've apologized for running into her and made sure she was okay. That being said, If I ever put myself into a situation in which a racer had to push me out of the way to get around me, I'd apologize to them as well. No excuse for that...

Neither one of them deserves to be banned...they just need to grow up.

"You can prevaricate all you want to. His arm is out, his hand is open, and she has been hit. This is wrong."

I'm pretty sure from looking at the picture that before the swim start he saw this woman and immediately took a disliking to her. He saw her again during an out/back portion of the bike leg, and the anger continued to build. At the end of the run leg, he saw her blowing kisses to her family and realized that this was his opportunity, at which point, consumed by rage, he made a beeline towards her and punched her in the back of the head.

At least, this is the way many in this thread are viewing the incident, and for all I know, it did happen that way...just not sure how people have such a strong opinion about the facts based on one still photo.

Maybe I am not being clear. The picture does not show any of the course more than three feet in front of the man, agreed? So if there are people in the running towards the left of the frame, but are more than three feet in front of the man, they would not be in the picture. So neither of know what is out of frame of the picture.

On the blog from the OP he referred to the guy as an elite athlete. And he ran a 1:39?

Now, if she is fibbing about being punched or pushed that's something different. But to blur the lines of "elite" when the guy ran a 1:39 that is just inexcusable. And I for one am pissed at the OP for such a bold faced lie

(note:this was written on my phone so I don't have the option of putting this some of this in pink. You should be able to figure out what needs to be in pink and what doesn't)

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

Did you miss this line?

Quote:

Worse case, you crash

Reading comprehension is an important skill. I acknowledged it's certainly possible, although that doesn't seem like the case here. I'm taking 2nd hand commentary from witness & video (that's now pulled). But I think we are rushing to judgement that it was unavoidable.

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Thoughts on being an Urban Triathlete

Agreed. Makes sense.

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

The contents of this thread give plenty of evidence to the case that he is guilty because he's a man, regardless of your stance on that. I agree that second in AG doesn't warrant physical violence. However, I know enough to not trust eyewitness accounts and mob mentality. So until there's actual evidence, this is bullshit, and a woman going to great lengths to make public something she claims to not want attention paid to.

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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.

"The contents of this thread give plenty of evidence to the case that he is guilty because he's a man, regardless of your stance on that."

This is evidence of your emotional reaction to the story. It has as much credence to the truth of what happened as a woman reacting fearfully when she sees a man seemingly hitting a woman for no reason, which is to say "not much."

"woman going to great lengths to make public something she claims to not want attention paid to."

From my understanding, the woman did not write the initial blog post about this. Her male friend did. Her blog post is here - http://blog.appleseedsplay.com/...n-experience-by.html. Also, her friend and others said that people that didn't even know her saw the incident, took pictures and videos, and sent them to USAT. Yeh, she's annoying, but it's not like she's paying for full length advertisements on the New York times about this.

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My triathlon training blog

and this is why we read more about people getting hit on a training ride more than cyclists used to - people have tunnel vision.
When I am riding, I want to get home in one piece.

Maybe its because I played football and soccer as a kid or lacrosse in college, but my head is always on a swivel. Maybe my time spent mountain biking makes me aware of what is immediately in front of me and I am always ready to react. It really is not hard to avoid contact and maintain momentum.

From the look on the guy's face, he wanted to clobber her. What a tough SOB he is.

Sure, it's all in my head. None of the responses here have anything to do with the sexes of the people involved. Nope.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I don't see anything presented that warrants a witch-hunt. Without video, my opinion is not changing. I'm out of this thread unless that video is made available.

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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.

I'm guessing you were directing your post at the rest of the posters. I'm pretty sure you and I were in agreement. 10mph is pretty effin slow, that was a wide road, and she was walking. Barring some kind of highly improbable circumstances any kind of collision should have been really easy to avoid.

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I tweet!

Correct. I just piled on to yours.

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Thoughts on being an Urban Triathlete

Say you are running to the finish, doing 6 minute miles or 14.67 feet per second. (I'm being generous but that pace is not inconceivable in the final mile)

Say there is a woman, inexplicably standing in the middle of an active race course, getting her picture taken.

As you approach the stationary object (woman) you decide to give the stationary object about two feet of space (because really, are you going to give her 10 feet of space?) as you pass by it. If you look at the photo it appears that he was simply running the yellow line and it looks like she may have been standing in a location that prevented him from running the tangent. Any one of us who races has passed or been passed by thousands of people with two feet of clearance.

To her family on the sidelines it might appear that he was running straight toward her when the truth is that he would have missed her easily if not for her actions.

As you are about five (10?)feet from said stationary object, the object, without looking, inexplicably steps in to your path. At the previously discussed 14.67 feet per second you have less than a third (2/3 if the distace was 10 feet) of a second to avoid steamrollering the woman being discussed. You perform a miraculous evasive maneuver and barely graze the woman with your hand. She jumps and freaks out because she certainly was surprised by your presence since she was so in-to doing her own thing that she never,ever thought about anyone but herself on the race course. A photo is taken at the precise moment of your evasive maneuver and her duck-and-cover in surprise.

You keep running because the fault was all hers and really, you barely touched her. (note her post-race photo. She doesn't look like someone who was traumatically knocked to the ground). You may even congratulate yourself for your agility at speed.

Imagine your surprise at finding out that you were DQd because of an event that was someone else's fault? Especially in a race where you busted it to get on the podium.

I suspect that you wouldn't be writing apologetic letters at that point.


Of course, everything above is supposition but the facts support the above conclusions just as much as they support the conclusion that he went out of the way to hit her. And really, how much sense does that make? Who is going to run in to anyone on purpose when they are doing everything in their power to get on the podium? I really hate the one-sided trial by Internet that the original blogger started. And let's face it, if the video that they reportedly have supported their side of things, don't you think it would be out there?

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

Exactly.

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SF

You didn't witness anything, and b/c your wife was not paying attention and running all over the place, she was hit by someone coming towards her at a fast pace.

I kind of think that the pic looks a lot more "violent" than what prob really happened. I've run hard before towards the end of a race. If someone jumped in front of me, I'm sure one or two pics wouldn't capture what really happened. For all we know, he could have just been putting his hand up to block/prevent a collision.

Lynch mobs on ST, I tell ya, are the worst...

X2. Maybe you just witnessed your wife, who crys at the drop of a hat, almost ruin a guys race. We just don't know. But, it is kind of telling that the husband was unimpressed enough that he didn't take action.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

Seven pages of damn comments, and not a single reference to Matt Long? No shit?

(Disclaimer: I quit reading thread after 2nd page).

I agree; innocent until proven guilty. Someone please find the video.

Did anyone see Andy Potts body check the volunteer in T1 at Kona 2012? Is that much different than this?

This incident looks a lot like what happens on MUPs all the time. A lot of individuals are out there thinking they have sole and exclusive use of the path/road.

That works fine until two people who share that same belief meet up.

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I am not sure the man needed to stop or should have stopped. There were a lot of people who could have helped the woman - including her family. All the man is going to do by stopping is get involved in a fight.

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Best to think of these events as training days not races. Certainly not something life or death.

If I hit someone, training day or not, I'd stop to help, unless it was just an easy and accidental hit, in which case I'd still turn around (while running), mouth "sorry!" and then keep going.