I was waiting for my wave to start in this morning’s TriRock Austin Sprint race and I had just said hello to the great Macca, who was “racing” with the 30-34 year old male age groupers. I trust that he won. I mention this nugget about Macca because the 35-39 year old age groupers and I were paying more attention than normal to the wave ahead of us when all of a sudden we noticed a dude wearing the most brightly colored yellow swim paddles you have ever seen in your life walking down the dock ready to hop in the water. It’s Austin, so they may have been LiveStrong branded hand paddles, but I can’t say for sure. They were that bright. Regardless, everyone around me saw this guy and we wondered aloud why the 3 race officials didn’t stop him. Were they blind? Did they not care? Do I care?
Moments later, I asked one of the staff members if he saw the dude with paddles. He replied, “yeah, that’s messed up.” Then I asked a second official if he saw him and he replied, “yeah, that’s messed up.” I then asked if he would be disqualified and the guy said, “yeah, they’ll probably get him at the swim finish.”
As I swam under the First Street Bridge, I passed this particular yellow handed athlete. How could I miss him, the paddles were nearly blinding!
Thoughts:
Fantastic example of Diffusion of Responsibility. http://en.wikipedia.org/...on_of_responsibility None of the 3 swim start officials confronted the individual. At least 2 of 3 saw the paddles.
The athlete made no effort to conceal his paddles, leading me to assume that he might have been ignorant about the rules. Why not confront, confiscate and allow him to proceed sans DQ.
Macca is 40 years old. He should be DQd for racing in the wrong division.
Macca dove from the dock into the water against the race officials repeated warning. He should be DQd for that too, and possibly suspended for the remainder of 2013.
He couldn’t have been friendlier to all the fans asking for pics. Glad to have him in ATX.
Now, let’s crucify Competitor and the TriRock Series for their incompetence!!! Let’s crucify the accused athlete as well!!!
Did the olympic and had Macca pass me on our last mile. At the time I did not realize it was him and knowing he was the leader, just told him “great work” he looked back and said thanks and told me i was looking good and to keep it up
My impression was he was being extremely nice - still not realizing it was him. Afterwards at the autograph session he was all smiles, overly polite - needlessly appologizing for his handwriting, and taking pics with anyone who asked. At one point he told a guy asking that he would be offended if the guy didn’t ask for a photo (jokingly). If he was uptight early, maybe you caught him in a pre-race mode or something. This was my firt time to meet him, and i was plesantly suprised how nice he was. As for the penalties, well that between him and the RD…
As for the paddles, lets hope they ended up sticking in the hydrilla
So, how much time was there between waves? Based on your swim time, and if the bridge is maybe the halfway point, we could probably get an idea of how much time you made up on him, double that, and get a rough estimate of his overall swim time.
Did the olympic and had Macca pass me on our last mile. At the time I did not realize it was him and knowing he was the leader, just told him “great work” he looked back and said thanks and told me i was looking good and to keep it up
My impression was he was being extremely nice - still not realizing it was him. Afterwards at the autograph session he was all smiles, overly polite - needlessly appologizing for his handwriting, and taking pics with anyone who asked. At one point he told a guy asking that he would be offended if the guy didn’t ask for a photo (jokingly). If he was uptight early, maybe you caught him in a pre-race mode or something. This was my firt time to meet him, and i was plesantly suprised how nice he was. As for the penalties, well that between him and the RD…
As for the paddles, lets hope they ended up sticking in the hydrilla
I said: **5. He couldn’t have been friendlier **to all the fans asking for pics. Glad to have him in ATX.
I am not sure about the sprint event, but the olympic had 3min intervals.
The swim course was changed due to crazy hydrilla/trash problem on the proposed swim course. It went 100m west then turned and went east for 700m before returning to the swim start/exit. It’s quite shocking that people in the accused wave did not say anything, but it seemed that the first time triathlete to experienced one was a ratio of 30:1 so maybe many of them did not know if it was allowed or not and just went ‘meh’
I said: **5. He couldn’t have been friendlier **to all the fans asking for pics. Glad to have him in ATX.
That means that he was friendly, not uptight.
Sigh…
While watching a few friends race, I also followed Macca, and saw him several times on the run, pat who he was passing on the back, slow down and smile saying what I would assume some encouraging words. Coming down Riverside to the finish he was passing a girl that was running pretty slow and he slowed to run w/ her…was awesome to see. He chatted w/ 3 of us by the aide tent…just leaning up against a trash bin talking as if we were 4 regular guys talking Triathlon. A lot of things are said about Macca, good and bad, but today he was, IMO, a class act.
Several years ago (when he had a personal facebook page) I sent him a message and he replied with something more than “thanks”. I’m sure he has many more important things to do than take the time out to reply to a 23 year old online. Always liked his fire and shit talking. Reminds me of me sometimes.
I said: **5. He couldn’t have been friendlier **to all the fans asking for pics. Glad to have him in ATX.
That means that he was friendly, not uptight.
Sigh…
I tried to post reply earlier, not sure why it did not post…In any event, I simply misread your post (I think that is obvious given the positive remarks I left too)…SIGH.
Macca was awesome. I heard a guy say “nice job mate” as he flew by me on the run. I realized it was Macca when he was 30yds past me. So THAT is was a 5:40/mile pace looks like! Of course, I had absolutely no response from a physical standpoint!
For all of you Macca lovers, you may enjoy reading this opposing view (from the TriRock Series Facebook Page):
TriRock Series
19 hours ago**
Two-time Ironman World Champion Chris “Macca” McCormack takes first in the men’s sprint distance race at TriRock Austin today. He finished with a time of 1:12:22.
John Riley I understand promoting a race with big names but really, why the sprint and not the Olympic in the elite group? You took a rack and number (1) with the pros, yet raced the age group sprint. Don’t get me wrong, I love a real competition. I asked several race officials about moving my kid into the 30-35 age group so he could have the same advantages, but was told he would be disqualified. We sucked it up and he went off in the wave next to last, having to climb over 4 groups ahead in the water and slower cyclists.
17 hours ago · Like
Gretchen Chomas What about the women?!?
17 hours ago via mobile · Like
John Riley My real complaint was he did not stick around for awards. I was disappointed that my son, who is 16 and was second overall, was not able to have his photo taken with him on the podium as he had to move on to better things.
17 hours ago · Like · **2
John Riley My real complaint was he did not stick around for awards. I was disappointed that my son, who is 16 and was second overall, was not able to have his photo taken with him on the podium as he had to move on to better things.
17 hours ago · Like · **2
I did say he had a flight out to California (racing Malibu next weekend), can’t remember the time, but do remember thinking “wow, race, back to hotel, shower, get to airport?..not a lot of time”…so, not saying he couldn’t have stayed for the awards, but just some added content.
I’m trying to figure out why this guy thought his kid deserved special treatment. Sounds like he’s fast, but Helicopter Daddy needs to chill and teach Junior to play by the rules.
