I almost guarantee you that there will be threads on here complaining about the drafting at Ironman Hawaii after the race. There is after every year and many other big Ironman races. There is a small group of people working very hard to officiate all this. It’s a challenging job.I worked as a draft marshall at Ironman Hawaii for two years. It’s a very hard job. In my final Ironman Hawaii race week blog, I talk about my experiences doing that.
I was at a smallish local tri (odd distance longer than oly, shorter than HIM) recently and was passed on the bike by a four man “pace line”. Their speed was only slightly faster than mine so I was able to watch them for a few minutes. Guy pulls for 15-30 seconds, falls off (“gets passed”), pulls back in line at the rear and so on.
Drafting official pulls up along side them and they start to break up. Guy second in line passes lead guy right away. Now there is a gap between (new) second guy and the third guy. Fourth guy is still nicely tucked behind third.
Official flashes something or makes a signal of some sort. I’m thinking “yeah, got 'em”. Turns out they only guy who got a penalty was the last guy in the line.
I guess that’s all they saw, or could “prove”, so I’m not too bent about it. Those guys stopped drafting (as far as I know) and I soon passed them, never to see them again. So mission accomplished, in a way.
It seemed obvious to me what was going on and I’d like to see a DQ for all those guys because it was intentional. But I can’t know what the officials saw and it’s not always easy to judge separation distances from behind.
That being said, I have “drafted” in an IM race. This was unintentional. It’s 4 hrs. in and my brain is kind of off in neverland. Next thing I know I’m sucking wheel and may have bee doing it for more than the legal amount of time. I passed as soon as I realized what was happening. If an official had seen it and penalized me I’d be fine with that. Should I have given myself a penalty? In retrospect, maybe I should have. Should I be DQed for that? No, it wasn’t intentional. How does an official tell the difference? I do not know.
Hmm, more specifically – the first pro that misses the break-even payout.
I don’t think there’s an easy job out there. Draft marshalling would be tough, as would manning an aid station. Do the volunteers literally work all day, or do they rotate/swap out? I couldn’t imagine manning an aid station on the run course for ~10hrs…
As someone pointed out I think the job that would take the biggest toll on the person performing it would be telling someone they didn’t make the cutoff. I don’t know that I could handle that…
Spectating. Worse then any job you can work at an IM.
Spectating is seldom fun. Hardest job on race day goes to the mother of 3 that has to wrangle her kids around a crowded, sweaty town and entertain them for hours on end while her spouse is out basking in the glow of his own self importance.
I’d definitely place draft marshall on the list of “least desirable” jobs.
I almost guarantee you that there will be threads on here complaining about the drafting at Ironman Hawaii after the race. There is after every year and many other big Ironman races. There is a small group of people working very hard to officiate all this. It’s a challenging job.I worked as a draft marshall at Ironman Hawaii for two years. It’s a very hard job. In my final Ironman Hawaii race week blog, I talk about my experiences doing that.
What are your feelings regarding the drafting and the draft marshalling that you have seen at Ironman Hawaii or at other races that you have raced at?
Hi Steve…would you say this job is harder than draft marshalling a local tri? Is it just because the stakes are higher? On a much smaller scale the relative diff between a local soccer game and the FIFA finals? I’m just guessing with the stakes higher the marshall may not want to DQ or penalize anyone, rather just keep the “game” fair by giving warnings etc.
Perhaps very similar to a ref in championship soccer or hockey game…fans get annoyed when the game’s outcome is affected too much by refs and refs are therefore inclined to let the players play and let some infractions go.
As someone pointed out I think the job that would take the biggest toll on the person performing it would be telling someone they didn’t make the cutoff. I don’t know that I could handle that…
That job often falls to the chief timer and I know Marc Roy from Sportstats has had to do this many times. Most recently telling Sister Madonna, that she could not go on and taking her timing chip from her after missing the bike cut-off by about a minute at IMC this year!
Hardest job on race day goes to the mother of 3 that has to wrangle her kids around a crowded, sweaty town and entertain them for hours on end while her spouse is out basking in the glow of his own self importance.
I almost guarantee you that there will be threads on here complaining about the drafting at Ironman Hawaii after the race. There is after every year and many other big Ironman races. There is a small group of people working very hard to officiate all this. It’s a challenging job.I worked as a draft marshall at Ironman Hawaii for two years. It’s a very hard job. In my final Ironman Hawaii race week blog, I talk about my experiences doing that.
What are your feelings regarding the drafting and the draft marshalling that you have seen at Ironman Hawaii or at other races that you have raced at?
Hi Steve…would you say this job is harder than draft marshalling a local tri? Is it just because the stakes are higher? On a much smaller scale the relative diff between a local soccer game and the FIFA finals? I’m just guessing with the stakes higher the marshall may not want to DQ or penalize anyone, rather just keep the “game” fair by giving warnings etc.
Perhaps very similar to a ref in championship soccer or hockey game…fans get annoyed when the game’s outcome is affected too much by refs and refs are therefore inclined to let the players play and let some infractions go.
I think the toughness of the job goes hand-in-hand with the fact that only a very small percentage of the violations are caught. In football, I’d say 2/3 or more of the obvious penalties are caught. Hockey and soccer it may be 50%, and in triathlon it’s probably less than 5%. Accordingly, those caught are much more indignant than in other sports because the athlete with the penalty has seen tons of other penalties that day that were not caught.
Steve, I hardly know where to begin. The thought of you, out there on the back of that motorcycle, writing down numbers. It just brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. How did you DO that?! 6+ hour days, no pay, and no “Thank You” cards from any of those drafters you dinged. It’s heartbreaking. And you went back for a second year of it? You, sir, are a true BAMF!
There’s always drafting in Kona. The Conga line can be really hard to get through if you’re stuck at the end of one. Partly due to the drafting rules and partly due to the size of the race. I think the officials do a good job of cutting slack on people who leapfrog their way through and might slightly encroach on the distance during a pass.
