I writing what I saw at the Florida Half but I’m pretty sure that happens in all areas…
There are plenity of people drafting on the bike, doing only one loop in the run… There are guy that actually walk the first loop of the go out saying that they finish. Used to be that there was a floor mat that you ensure that you did the two loops…
If this problems don’t get fixed, triathlon might be in jepardy…
There are cheaters in every sport.
Part of the Auburn course was on my training loop this weekend and within about 3 minutes of overlap on the course I witness quite a bit of drafting. I could have handed out 5 or 6 drafting penalties without question. Instead they gave a guy I know a penalty for passing a car on the left - still a penalty for safety reasons, but not as severe as drafting IMO.
I know people that can run 10 min/mile for a HM, and in the Disney race they appear with a run split of 1:34 (7:15min/mile) in a 90 deegres weather day. This is unfair… They need to do something to stop this.
This race was a qualifier for Kona… People may win o loose a spot for something like this…
Drafting of position in the bike portion is not as bad as this…
that is totally pitiful… honest mistakes are one thing… but purposely missing laps like that or purposely drafting…that is sad.
“There are guy that actually walk the first loop of the go out saying that they finish.”
I brought this up a while agao about the IMWI swim and any other swim that does not have the entrants exit the water and go over a map.
I’m sure people do skip loops, if the chance is afforded them.
However as another poster mentioned, people cheat in all sports. Particularly at the BOP and MOP, what difference does it make? Anybody out of the top 5-10% or so has no chance at any placement and thus are in competition with themselves only. Certainly it woudl give me pause to find out that someone in front of me cheated, but as long as I felt good about my race does it matter?
OTOH if I found out that someone cheated and took my spot to Kona or placement in a race…I’d be a bit PO’d.
Just one blessing of being back here in muck and the mire. I don’t have to worry about such things.
Again however I see no reason why RD’s woudl not take steps to eliminate cheating, assuming reasonable efforts and cost. An additional mat, race marshals, rerouting the swim out of the water, if possible, seems like the smart way to go.
~Matt
I don’t have a problem with it. If that is the experience they want to own, so be it.
Judgementally, that speaks volumes of their character, but it doesn’t compromise my performance. I’m not out there to win. I am a “toward the front of the middle of the pack” in a small local race but a MOP’er in a big race. I am out there to enjoy it.
If a person wants to draft or cut the course it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the sport or my experience.
Oddly enough perhaps, I feel sorry for them. If that is the best they can do, then I pity them.
I would say that if you know for a fact that one of these individuals cheated and did take a spot from someonelse then you should report it to the RD. If they cheated and didn’t take anything from anyone else, other than position 250 from 251, I’d say let it go.
I know of a similar situation where an individual swam a 56’ish for a 1/2 IM then swam a 1:02’ish for a full a few months later. The problem is you have no idea what really happened. This individual was far from getting a medal so it didn’t really matter. If they did get a Kona slot I think this should have been pointed out to the RD. If they cheated they cheated themselves. If they didn’t then more power to them for such amazing improvements.
~Matt
I wonder if they will ever use a telemetry based timing solution? There are modems out there that are the size of a pack of gum now. Perhaps in 5 years the champion chip will be a two-way satellite modem so your friends can watch you and your bio feedback in real time. Those data with a geofence could catch both drafters and course jumpers.
I agree with Tom.
Triathlon is about personal victory, not just about beating other people. If they can live with the fact that they cheated and got away with it then I feel bad for them. They’re obviously missing something in their lives…
I do feel sympathetic for those who may have lost a Kona spot to one of these cheaters though… thats truly a shame.
I understand why people cheat to win or to place high enough to earn money. Don’t approve of it, but understand it. Any sport where there is the perception that its winners are winning because they are cheating has a lot of problems. I don’t think that triathlon has the perception problem although I don’t know whether the professionals are cheating through use of PEDs or otherwise.
There is a lot of difference between cheating and pushing the rules to the limit to get yourself the best possible advantage. For example, getting as much draft as possible on the bike while passing someone as opposed to just staying in the draft for a long time.
But, I really don’t understand why people that are not going to win anything would cheat. If you cheat by skipping a lap to “finish” a race, any race, then you have defeating the purpose of being out there. I think that most people that are in a race to finish it (and I include in this category people that are racing as hard as they can even if they don’t have a prayer of winning anything or placing) are going to finish the race because that is the whole reason why they got up that morning. So, I don’t think that the problem of MOPers and BOPers cheating by skipping laps is much of a problem.
You said it, Tom.
That is the BLESSED thing about this sport…it is an individual sport and that means we make our own experiences…Most of us avoid drafting if at all possible. Sometimes, yes, it is unavoidable on super-conjested courses, as it sounds like Disney was. I’ll slow down or speed up at the earliest opportunity to correct the situation. I’m guessing most of you do the same…
For those that draft intentionally…they don’t bother me for the most part…I’m not going to have to look in the mirror and see any of those folks…
The ONLY caveat to my lack of concern is when I finish out of Kona slots to a bunch of drafters…but in the end…there will always be another day…and today wasn’t mine…no matter how the result occurred…
I’d probably analogize this to golf, in this way.
If you take a few mulligans, then brag how you broke, say 80, then you are, well, lying. But you aren’t really hurting anyone but yourself.
If you take a mulligan and it allows you to win what you otherwise wouldn’t have, then you are cheating others.
I think both instances reveal a character defect, but only the latter affects others.
So what’s new ?
People cheat and most of the times they get caught. We have to live with it.
“But, I really don’t understand why people that are not going to win anything would cheat.”
Pride? Just like fish stories. Seems almost everyone is faster before and after the race than they are during it.
To a point I think we all cheat a little. Most people I know round their times down. If you ran 11:29:59, you went 11:29 not 11:30. Others take it a step further by taking full advantage of the rules, but staying a hair inside. Others goa hair outside the rules, yet others even further.
Eventually like with most things you end up witha bell curvish thingy. Most people stay well within the rules unless they just screw up while fewer and fewer go to the fringes. I’ve heard stories of a local indivudal that would cut the course on large marathon races on a regular basis. Yet could never get a comprable 10K or 5K pace.
Some people cheat to look good and will do so at anything.
~Matt
It does suck when you are in the hunt for a podium spot and end up fifth or fourth behind a cheater. Especially when this cheater has the gall to stand up, take the medal and the prize and then act like a prick when the RD busts them after the fact.
OK, so there’s no Kona slot on the line but when you bust your ass to be competitive, don’t dope, race on a budget, and give your best come race day, all the rationalizations in the world can only take a little of the sting out of it.
Endurance events, due to the distances and crowds, are notoriously hard to keep clean from determined cheats and I see it in each of the disciplines; how’s a “life guard” gonna get a number off a wetsuit clad course cutter; on the bike, draft all you want or better still, cut off an out and back, all you have to do is look around or act “confused”, ditto for the run.
Anyway, I try to be big about it, (and Zen, and Christian, and forgiving, and pity the fools) but man, does it burn. Makes me want to go back to being a solid MOPer again 
and some are really dumb doing it…a guy got busted in Nice in 97 or 98…he did the ride and a friend of his did the run…but his buddy was black…not him and his picture was in the french trimag…one on the bike, one on the run…same bib numbers…that was a good one…
or david (?) simpson at Roth 99…who posted a 4h20 bike split with a sub 3h run with a good 20lbs to lose…
Doping, cutting the run, doing an IM as a relay and all other kinds of cheating–believe me Francois is the man in the know.
I don’t know why he knows so much about it, but he does.
LOL that guy of Nice '97 is really a piece of work…
And anyone can cheat even the Pros… just look at Spencer recently and isn’t the first time either!
We have to live with it.<<
Just why do we have to live with it? A good clubbing on the kneecaps sounds good to me.
I could have easily cut the run at many different places on Saturday, but no way in hell would I ever think of doing such a thing. I’d rather get pulled for not making the time cuts than not do all the course.
clm
We have to live with it cause they (the cheaters) won’t just disapear… there will always be cheaters, no one can stop them! Even if he or she gets caught one time, he will do it again… it’s just the way it is, there’s no way to control that.
But as long as they get DQ’ed at the finish line, I’m good with that.