Short distances and an opened dam during the swim at the National Championships, insurance not covering injuries or making it hard to get reimbursed, blatant cheating, pacing and drafting at every race across the country, cancelled swims at the slightest chop and magical waters that are always 77 or cooler, and now not one but TWO professional athletes taken out by poor race design and management, and more indirectly poor education of age groupers resulting from failure to enforce rules or have strict standards.
To top it off, I STILL haven’t gotten my USAT card that I purchased begrudgingly a month ago.
It is very disconcerting that an organization that has been around for so long and the experience with handling these kind of situations could be so fucked up. Either no one is complaining to the right department, or they don’t care. I say it’s the latter.
thank you, but beside the point, and not why I posted. I’d be happy to spend $10 every race so that Ken Lehner doesn’t get charged $1500 for an IV and Andy Potts could go to Kona this year.
race distances, the dam opening, course design - they are not USAT responsiblity, they are the RD’s responsibility.
Still I agree, lower wet suit temps and a mandate to make distances accurate.
while i would agree with much on this thread so far, this one is very tricky to do in any sizable irregularly-shaped bodies of water bigger than a pool, even with gps …
blatant cheating, pacing and drafting at EVERY race across the country
You must really get around to be able to report that as a fact.
cancelled swims at the slightest chop and magical waters that are always 77 or cooler,
Where are these races? My two tris this year were 1) non-wetsuit thanks to warm water (bad directions also increased swim from 1500 to 1800) 2) another too-long swim in some pretty good waves. We need a lot more races with shortened or cancelled swims. Secretly, 9 out of 10 triathletes really hate swimming and sigh in relief when the swim is cancelled or shortened.
Two really negative posts in the space of just a few minutes. Not having a good day?
My biggest complaint lies with the membership as well. I only had $8 cash on me at the sign in of Kansas 70.3 so instead of paying the $10 cash I was required to buy the annual membership for $40 via credit card. You’re able to charge me $40 but not the $10 single race day pass? Seems somewhat corrupt to me.
That was June 13th and I still haven’t received my membership.
BTW, you just used two of the 40 or more classic fallacies techniques to winning an argument from this book I’m reading. Good job. I don’t get around and you did a long swim (which reinforces my point) so you must be right. Bravo.
I posted because I’m disgusted with USAT, who are an embarrassment and are in my mind ultimately responsible.
well, it sounds like you got a great new business idea. i would love to hear how you would do this "perfectly." what will be your proposed measurement margin of error? plus/minus .0000001 mm ? then, another thing you may want to consider: while roads and trails are stationary, at least over the course of a race, water, unfortunately, is nearly never stationary. adds another little wild card …
Not saying all points here are or aren’t valid, that’s your call. But USAT is always looking for folks to get involved for positions in the elections. Some of these positions have influence on the very things you speak of. Why not run for one of the positions in the governing body and clean up some of these issues? There are lots of good ideas by folks out there, be heard & pay something back to the sport (aside from paying the race directors your entry fee). Just a suggestion, that you can make a difference if you want.
Being that I am a “professional measurer” lol. I think I could handle it. I do it for a living, thats all. Not really trying to argue with you, just sayin. I’ve measured across mountains, lakes, deserts, rivers, Praries, forests, whatever there is, for hundreds of miles. I think I could handle a little baby triathlon course. Problem is, a race director would never be willing to pay me to do it. I volunteer my time occasianally to set up crew courses, in both lakes and rivers for schools etc. But I don’t have a lot of time to volunteer. I think my margin of error would probably be more like 2cm plus 3 ppm.
while i totally appreciate your ability to measure with great precision across a body of water, measuring the effective swimming distance of a swim course that starts at a shallow irregular beach and is marked with anchored but floating buoys within a natural body of water is another matter entirely. i’ve raced enough varied courses to appreciate that not everything is as it seems in this arena. and i would think that someone of your “measuring expertise” would appreciate this. but perhaps not.