I’m putting up a iron-distance competition for my club and friends (The IronDuck). Up to now I have thought that: The swimming, as long as it is within +/- 100 m its ok. The bike leg: as long as it is within +/- 1,5 km it is ok. The marathon, should be a marathon no +/-. But now I am thinking, it should be “the distance” nothing more, nothing less
What do you think? And - have you raced Iron distance races that was not the exact distance? And if so, what did you think about that?
If it isn’t to much effort to add the extra then just add it, especialy if it is just a little thing like you mention. Or you could not tell them, and afterwards appologise for not measuring correctly. Eitherway I can’t imagine 1600 m is that big a deal.
Just tell the racers what the actual distance is.
I think people would be less upset about being just short of a ‘true’ IM distance as long as they know what to expect. I know people are a lot more upset when they are expecting one distance and end up racing another.
Todder
Does exact legnth matter?? Depends on who you are asking… a man or a woman…
I don’t think exact distance matters. As long as you know how long it is and advertise that distance.
What I don’t like is races that are short or long but you don’t know by how much. It makes it very hard to track improvement. In a triathlon earlier this year I did a “500m” swim in 4:52. My swim has improved since then but last week I swam “400m” in 7:38. Granted, I used a wetsuit for the first swim and went w/o a wetsuit for the second 