“If I ever tried to interfere on her decisions by telling her that she can or can’t do anything it’d be a sure recipe for divorce.”
Well, I guess you know more about that than me, since I have been married 25 years without a divorce. If I see my wife doing something (or planning to do something) that will physically or mentally be detrimental to her, it is my DUTY as her husband to intercede (and she as well for me). Could I/would I physically stop her if I had to? Depends on the situation. If there was a clear and present danger of death, maiming, or disfigurement, yes I would. But, I have never had to. When I express my concern about something, and she as well with me, we usually stop, consider each others feelings, and modify or change our positions. Yes, this causes some fights (vociferous “negotiations,” if you will) in the short run, but in the long run, we both know we do it because we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives with each other. An example–when we were dating, my wife smoked. When we started to get serious, I let it be known that I did not like her smoking because I loved her and did not want to see her health affected by smoking. It got very heated–to the point I stopped seeing her until she quit. Well, she quit and has been thanking me for not “allowing” her to smoke ever since.
After doing Tri’s she was diagnosed with cancer,she always wanted to do IM as was already signed up and training for at time of diagnosis, She took a break during Chemo to give it a try,she did not want to quit…This is all speculative and what I wrote is made up…But I will not judge without any facts…I have a freind who has helped His wife train for 3 IM and she has DNF all three times(terrible asthma). She is going for number 4. I believe He would do anything to help her accomplish her goals.And for us who know her,we would too.
Bottom line…We just do not know the facts on these two.
Vulgar? Interesting analysis there sig. Am I any more off base than clm telling Demmerly over, and over, and over, and over ad nauseum, that he needs professional help (“serious” in her words) to get over his ex? And it is awfully presumptious of you to awesome that I am a male. By the way it is spelled chauvinistic most commonly.
Based on the fact that they had completed a number of triathlons in S.A. previously and done well - the likelihood is that she had some sort of illness or injury that made him worry. He may have tried to talk her out of racing. Been told to worry about his own F%^%$%g race and then found that he could continue on from T1 with out waiting to make sure she was okay. Again all speculation. Maybe she normally beats him out of the water and he noticed that her bike was still there and became worried?
The point remains. Why should we really care?
clm, I am increasingly becoming annoyed by your constant negativity towards the performance of others. I don’t like your elitist attitude. I am a FOP swimmer and BOP finisher. You don’t hear me constantly bitching about the slow swimmers that start at the front of the pack and don’t know the proper etiquette for swimming in a pack. I know that many of these people are complaining about my being in front of them on the bike and having to pass me. Instead I understand that this is part of being in a growing sport and enjoy my own race and personal sense of accomplishment. Have I done and Ironman - no. I switched careers last year - I am now the low guy on the totem pole working far too many hours with a new baby at home and an hour commute each way. There is no way I could do an ironman in the next few years. I am happy racing with Cerveloguy in the Subaru and Multisport sprint and olympic series here in Ontario.
Thanks for the spelling lesson. Next you have to give me a typing lesson. And, yes, Tom does need professional help to get over his ex but Cathy did not ever say Tom didn’t do well in his races because he was without a woman.
Nuff said because Cathy does not need me to defend her as she is more than capable herself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be DQ’d or penalized. They should be, from their background, they know the rules, they broke them, they should be penalized for it.
My point was that they don’t deserve to get ripped apart on some internet message board because of it. Espicially from a group of people that don’t know the situtation.
OK TT, please get your attributions correct. The facts: I only said that they were cheating. Technically, yes that is true. Whether the penalty is DQ or time penalty, I don’t know. You’d have to ask Eric or another official about that. They have their own reasons for doing so and like someone else said, they are experienced enough that they should know the rules.
I never said anything about being embarrassed to have the photo circulated. That was gleve (I think).
I did bring up the fact that the last person in an age group at prior IM NZ has received a Kona slot and HYPOTHETICALLY, if this woman had finished the race and that same scenario happened again, well, would this be fair to everyone else in the AG who had no outside assistance if she happened to get the slot? (IMO, not it would not be fair and I would hope she would turn the slot down.) Again, that was just an example to show that even if you (and that would be the general “you”) think that it’s no big deal that this happens in the BOP, but my hypothetical example shows that well, it can harm others in the AG.
Aside from personally not taking this kind of assistance, I believe that’s all I said about the photo.
As for whether a few people like me or not, that’s for them to deal with. Makes no difference to me or not. Though Pstar seems to follow me around. Not sure why her fixation with me.
As for Tom D.–I know that he and I would get along like gang busters and all, well most, of my comments to him are with tongue in cheek. I hope to drink a brew with him someday.
I’d love to stay and chat, but I have a plane to catch.
i sort of have no hard core opinion on this one but a few points to consider:
the rules apply to everyone in the race, not just the pros or the hawaii qualifiers. you sign up for a race, hopefully, knowing the rules and you should abide by them. i have a friend who raced eagleman and wore headphones on the run, got a 6 min penalty, i think. i asked him if he knew that he wasnt supposed to wear them…his response ‘yes, but i dont care’…then he went on to complain about the penalty. i think its important to show respect for the race as an event and to the other competitors…
i dont know what their background is but it seems you should be prepared to handle the rigors of an IM. Train appropriately. if you need a push on a hill and still have a marathon to run, id guess you arent prepared…
i think its damn cool that the guy would sacrifice his own race to help his wife…everbody is so darn competitive that we forget were all out there together…my wife wants to swim the english channel next year and has been doing monthly long swims, two weeks ago i swam 18,000yds with her, why? not cause i need to but cause shes supported my addiction for years, why not give a little back.
its fine and natural that different people will have different opinions about receiving help or willfully cheating on the race course. it is a shame that expression of these different opinions degenerates into unsavory personal attacks. but i think it should be clear to all sides that the original post in this thread was ill-advised and out of place with the spirit of this forum. i can only hope that wb sees now the error of his/her ways. these are real people are talking about. even if you strongly disagree with what they appear to be doing, posting their picture and calling them pathetic IMO is simply out of line. WB, if you feel that strongly about the sort of practice that appears to be occuring in the picture then I would suggest a post along the lines of:
Hi guys, what do you think about such and such a situation. I saw a picture of this happening in IMNZ and think that it is indicative of a pathetic lack of sportsmanship/fairplay…
FWIW i’m in the cut-them-some-slack-who-cares camp, but this whole thread has really bummed me out.
Cathy, FWIW I was not disagreeing with you on the cheating idea. The only thing I suggested was that they probably were not penalized b/c the officials/umpires/whatever realized they were going to stop (DNF) anyway … or were made to stop.
The other comments were to someone else. It’s probably not my role, but I didn’t want to see this couple get trashed.
This is where I’m confused - it’s not outside assistance if they’re both IN the race. Granted, it is definitely extra help. Is this a penalty or cause for DQ, tri-officials?
I tend to agree with John the Savage. To me, Ironman is about a personal journey. You know if you did it fair and square or if you cut some corners. Can you live with yourself when you cross the finish line and hold your head up with pride and call yourself an Ironman. To me, this is the crux of the arguement and it is very personal.
So the guy on EPO follows all other rules but cheats on the drug intake. He covered the distance, but is he an Ironman.
Another guy runs by his hotel at mile 22 and gets a coke from his kid, this woman gets a push from her husband, another guy swims on the wrong side of the swim buoy (I have done this in LP a few times when I was getting pummelled), but swims the FULL distance, another guy is joined by his 60 year old mother who runs beside him at 9 min miles for ~1000m to encourage him (how cool is that and yes, it was me) . Can any of these people live with themselves at the end of the day and call themselves Ironmen/women. Some can, some cannot. In the end, this lady did not finish, so it did not matter much did it ? Getting paced by your 60 year old mom though is the best. Eventually I told her leave cause I was scared of getting DQ’d. We even shared a few hugs and tears on course. I’m still in Ironman in my own eyes !
This is what it is all about. Can you live with yourself when the day is done !
I agree 100% Paul. It sad but their will be some who always beleive its their job to “uphold the standards” of IM. Was there not just a thread where some stated that it was doping to take ibprofun? All to often it takes pushing someone else down so we can feel taller.
My god you people are a bunch of self righteous bastards. Why take yourself so seriously? If you need something like winning your age group in a triathlon to have any feeling of self worth, then it’s time for a readjustment. Gain some perspective. If, for some reason one of these people ended up earning a $2 piece of plastic trophey and you were forced into no-award-land, I still don’t think you’d have any right to complain. These people aren’t on drugs (or so we assume), and even if they were, the reason I race is to enjoy the feeling of getting the most of my body and my training, regardless of whether I’m second or one thousand and fifty second.
You are in the clear! Generally it’s not “illegal” to swim on the wrong side of the buoy except at turns/corners. If you watch coverage of some pro races, they will sometimes split and take two different lines on opposite sides of the buoys…
That’s why the picture is inconclusive. If he was just patting her on the back as he passed in the one moment in time, no penalty. If he stays “in the drafting zone”, where he currently is, for more than 15 seconds, he gets a penalty. Three, or whatever IMNZ has in place, and a DQ.
if homey indeed pushed her around the course, then the stud. i had enough trouble getting only myself through the bike course, much less pushing another person…