On Sunday I did my first triathlon of the year. I turned 50 in January and I’ve been looking forward to racing in my new age group all winter.
I signed up online a few days before the race. The race went very smoothly and I had a pretty good race. I couldn’t stay for the awards because I needed to drive 3 hours to get back home.
Sunday night I looked online to check the results and found out that I was listed as 3rd place finisher in the 45-49 age group.
My finishing time would have been the fastest of males over 50 and I guess I would have been what they call “grand master”. Sounds a little pompus to me but that’s neither here nor there.
At any rate I don’t care about getting an award or anything but I would like to see the results corrected in case I decide to care about the year end rankings. Not sure right now how I feel about the ranking system.
I e-mailed the RD on Monday and haven’t heard back from him.
First I’m wondering how this mess up could have happened. I would have thought that if you sign up electronically that couldn’t happen. Don’t know…
Secondly, how long would you wait for the RD to answer your e-mail? I don’t want to be a jerk about this and I don’t want anything other than the results corrected. I realize the RD is a busy man but I’d like to have the results corrected before they are submitted to USAT.
Any advice?
I don’t think it will matter for year-end rankings. When you age-up during the racing season, I think they use your age at the end of the year as your age category for the rankings. Your results will simply look like you aged-up to 50-54 during the racing season.
I looked it up on the USAT site. Here is the description for age category for the 2004 rankings. The wording is a bit strange, but you get the idea… You will be ranked based on a Dec. 31, 2004 birthday. For example, if you turned 40 in November of 2004, you will be ranked in the 40-44 age group.
…and if I’m not mistaken, your ranking points are simply the result of a formula comparing your overall time to the winner’s.
yes Larry of course it was a mini.
Did you do the one in Bryan?
I really liked that race and will do it agian next year in a heart beat. The start was pretty rough for the 30-39 Males. The starter needed a megaphone.
Sounds like I wasted a perfectly good 50th birthday party if I’m still gonna be considered 49.
Here’s what I found. I was going crazy thinking I was 49 for two years in a row…
(a) All age group athletes must participate and compete in the age group division corresponding to the athlete°s actual age on the date of the event.
Give the RD a few more days then email again. The RD is still cleaning up crap from the event!
It’s actually the racers job to ensure they are in the right category before and AFTER the race. We do our best w/ the info we are given but 1) we are human and 2) sometimes it’s the timing chip company that has done the error.
But all races are different so check their website for additonal info and then the RD.
At the race I RD, it’s the timing chip people that will change the results and racers are asked to check their times once they are posted at the race.
Be nice when asking the RD to change results. You can’t imagine the requests we get 
We will thank you for it!