As I was approaching the apex the racer behind me (Let’s call him “Reality Cheater”) cut the corner and ran through the grass and passed me. There were about 30 people witnessing this. I looked behind me and saw no other racers so I made the decision to follow this person. I solely did it to not lose further time on this person and not to overtake for position. If someone had been behind me I would have continued into the proper apex and gone around the cone.
What’s the difference in behavior between you and Reality Cheater here? Neither of you did the entire course, if I understand your description correctly.
Long time listener, first time caller. I’ve been lurking for a little while and I like forum so I thought I would post my most recent triathlon related inner thought to get the forum’s opinion.
I was in a sprint tri this past weekend at Lake Lanier, Ga. The race was the first of the year for me and I was treating it as a warm up to see where my fitness is so far this year. I enjoyed the race, although it was poorly managed/produced. I mention this lack of management as it leads to my question; What are your thoughts on participants cheating and would you say something to race directors?
This race had about 1,000 participants with about 750 of those in the “My First Tri” group and the other 250 in one wave of people who have at least done a triathlon before. I ended up finishing 10th overall, but I was disappointed that a few of the athletes in my group chose to cheat. I am not using the term loosely, I saw it with my own eyes and it was someone overtaking me.
Here’s the situation-off the bike I remained in 7th place, the same spot I was out of the water. About 100 yds into the run there was a 180 degree turn with cones that were spaced out too far. One could make the argument that it was difficult to tell where the actually apex of the turn was, but you would have to be really daft. As I was approaching the apex the racer behind me (Let’s call him “Reality Cheater”) cut the corner and ran through the grass and passed me. There were about 30 people witnessing this. I looked behind me and saw no other racers so I made the decision to follow this person. I solely did it to not lose further time on this person and not to overtake for position. If someone had been behind me I would have continued into the proper apex and gone around the cone.
I caught up to Reality Cheater and passed him. As we were approaching the mid-point turn there was a 30 yd sweeping curve fully outlined with cones and you were to stay on the outer right of the cones. There must have been a cone every yard to indicate where you were supposed to be. There was one racer in front of me who was staying to the right and I continued behind him. Reality Cheater cut to the inside of the cones and ran straight through the curve and in the process passed me again and caught up to the racer that was in front of me. As he was passing me he says “this course is so poorly marked”…as I’m running around the 30-40 cones. After exiting the turn and the cones I pushed again and caught up to Reality Cheater. At this point I had pushed myself twice to catch up to this guy and I could feel my pace starting to fall off. With about 200yds to go I realized I could not catch RC and he ended up beating me by 15 seconds or so.
This race had very few volunteers so there was not a single person in the midpoint turn to witness the cheating. I’m sure tons of people cheated as some of the results indicated someone in the top 5 had a 20 minute bike split for a 12 mile bike portion. So my question to you guys is; what would you do in this case? I just walked away knowing that I did what I could and I didn’t cheat to improve my position. I’m not sour on the race, just curious what others would do or have done.
Thanks
You lost me at the point where you admitted cheating by cutting the course. Does it suck that people cheat, yep? Does it make it better when you do it as well, no. Willing to bet the RD does not care. Besides what is an RD going to do, DQ someone based on you telling him that the guy cheated, oh and so did you just not as bad?
Not to be a jerk, but you still cheated.
If this was a warmup for you to see where your fitness was, why get upset?
I use to be silent about this stuff, but now that I’m trying to be more competetive, I am pretty vocal to the person or people. But in your case, you followed the cheater and cut the course. You might not think it has any negative effect, but it does in 2 ways - 1) the other athletes in the other waves behind you might be slighted by a few seconds for the overall placing for your act, 2) if you did it this time and justified it, what will stop you from possibley doing it again with “justification”?
Again, not to start a flame war, but you still should have run the full course, regardless of what other athletes do.
Hard to say. Nothing, that I know of, says you have to run on the right side of the road. During the run portion of a race, I run straight lines between curves in the road. It’s the shortest distance between point A and B. Just because there are cones in the middle of the road does not mean you have to stay to the ‘right’ of the road.
Now cutting across grass if you’re suppose to run on the road, that might be a different issue.
What would I do? Mention to the RD that he/she should be a bit more clear if he intends people to always run to the right of the cones, etc. Just like in the swim, unless directly stated, you only have to swim around the turn buoys. The other ones are simply guide buoys. But yet, for some reason, people feel they have to go around them.
I’m not upset about it, just curious. I do realize it was still cheating and that I was trying to justify my actions by looking behind me to see if any other racers were back there. If someone had complained about me cutting the corner behind another race I would have admitted to doing it.
I cut apexes also where appropriate, but if there are cones marking one edge of the course, thats the course and going inside the cones is cheating. period.
We the readers are still not clear what interaction you are expecting out of this post. You cut the course and cheated. If you had the guts to admit it on ST, you should call the RD and disqualify yourself.
I’d rather have a DQ and a clear conscience than a 10th place overall after cutting the course.
I was asking about cheating and what you guys would do if you saw someone cheating. Your responses are what I was looking for. I didn’t say I didn’t cheat and I have a clear conscience that I did not take away a position from someone else.
There are no degrees of cheating, it’s an all or nothing phenomena. So, what I suggest is that if you are willing to cut the course, you should go all out and start the PEDs, shorten the swim where possible, cut the bike course and consider the cones as a suggestion of the course rather than as a hard and fast rule. Seriously, why cheat in a half-assed fashion for only 10th place. You’ll give real cheaters a bad name.