IM Florida was my first IM. While I enjoyed it, I thought a lot of people cheated during the swim. I thought you were supposed to swim to the outside of the swim buoys. Also, I saw a lot of people skip the first buoy on the second lap. Does anyone have any pictures of this? Was this cheating?
Here come the Finman references…
Did you happen to notice dead fish, floating in pairs, by chance?
I didn’t see people skipping the turn bouy at all. I did see folks swimming on the inside of the bouy line leading out to the turns.
That said, I did see a guy with a snorkel and another guy with hand glove-paddle thingies. Both of those items were expressly forbidden during the race meeting on Thursday night.
The funniest thing during the pre-race meeting was when the swim director said that fins were illegal!
I was there supporting my wife and the RD announced that it was ok to swim either side of the buoys on the way to the turns as long as they went round the turn buoys- I did see one swimmer with fins but he was a paratriathlete and was given permission.
Rough swim out there I thought.
You can swim inside the buoys as long as you come back out and make the turn buoys…not sure if that is what you are talking about, but if you drift into the buoys it is not a penalty, it is only a penalty if you miss a turn buoy
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Was not at the race this year. But in previous years a good number of swimmers re-enter the water and did not swim around the first buoy and swam well to the inside of that buoy and used a buoy further out as thier turn buoy. This in effect shortened the course. In 2008 they tried to use the Ford Sponsor swim buoy as a guide to direct people to the correct turn buoy when re-entering the water but it was ignored.
Did anyone see if this was common this year as well?
Thanks,
RF
Don’t know if he had any kind of exemption, but I saw one guy with a snorkel going out for the second loop.
Immediately before the swim start, it was announced that it was OKAY to swim inside the yellow buoys; however, you were required to swim outside the RED turn buoys. No one around me swam inside the turn buoys.
That said, I found it pretty annoying how many people came to a complete stop at the turn buoys when approaching the choppier water.
I thought USAT rules allows the use of snorkels. Can a RD circumvent USAT rules and still have the race USAT certified?
On the return trip into the water as far back as 2001, everyone was going straight into the water and not going around that first buoy just off the sand. At least when i made the turn literally everyone was. I don’t recall ti ever being said exactly how to handle it.
If that is against the rules and it is still happening, then they haven’t done much to make sure the rule is followed.
RD did announce it was okay to go either side of yellow buoys, must go outside of orange turn bouys. I saw some people cut the inside of orange turn bouys on both laps.
If people cut the first yellow buoy at start of 2nd lap, that was legal and a smart move.
IM Florida was my first IM. While I enjoyed it, I thought a lot of people cheated during the swim. I thought you were supposed to swim to the outside of the swim buoys. Also, I saw a lot of people skip the first buoy on the second lap. Does anyone have any pictures of this? Was this cheating?
you can swim inside except the turn bouys always been the rule but you have to go outside any turn bouy. The angle bouys second loop your supposed to swim the line not inside but majority did.
I finished first loop planned on running down the beach(but the crowds were down in the water) then swim straight swam the angle looked up there were like 3 of us there doing that.
WHAT they need to do is make a roped off corridor after first loop on the beach make every one run this then get in water then you don’t have that problem with the angled bouy’s
It’s actually not that much of a distance difference when all is said and done but you’d think they’d enforce it better.
I thought USAT rules allows the use of snorkels. Can a RD circumvent USAT rules and still have the race USAT certified?
It’s not circumventing as long as the RD submits the rule changes to USAT, gets them approved, and then announces the changes to all of the athletes. US IM races are still USAT certified.
Some of the IM differences:
- snorkels are not allowed
- men must wear shirts on the bike and run
- you can crawl on the run if you want (just in case, toss a pair of kneepads in your special needs bag?)
I thought USAT rules allows the use of snorkels. Can a RD circumvent USAT rules and still have the race USAT certified?
IMFL is a WTC race. Does not use USAT rules/sanctioning.
Evidently starting this year, they adopted the USAT rules with some modifications. Did not know that. Oops.
John
Not exactly “circumvent” but rather request exceptions to the rules in the sanctioning application. Some current examples are the use of penalty tent for age-groupers in US Ironman races, and “ride left/pass right” at Chicago. Both are exceptions to the standard USAT rules that have been requested by the race director and approved by USAT in the sanction agreement.
No idea if WTC is asking for an exception to prohibit snorkels, but if they don’t ask for the exception then they are allowed. Webbed gloves not permitted under standard USAT rules.
Mike
The only time I did IMFL was in 2003. I had the same question then. On the second loop I made sure to go around the large buoy just offshore, thinking cutting inside would be a DQ. I was among a small group doing this while tons of others swam directly at the far turn buoy skipping this first one. As it turns out I was wrong to go around the close buoy and only needed to make the far final turn buoy. However, it cost me about a minute and to this day remains my slowest (non Kona) IM swim split. It is rather confusing when you are in the race and should be made much more clear on RACE MORNING, and DURING THE RACE, not at some poorly attended and miscommunicated pre race briefing.
I happen to know someone who skipped the entire second swim lap at IMFL. She got caught a year or so later when someone examined the swim splits in a little more detail. Banned from Ironman forever, IIRC.
Unless the Pythagorean Theorem has changed or cheating means swimming farther than you must, then no, it’s not cheating.
From USAT rulebook. Presumably WTC received written approval for the modifications including snorkels and crawling during the run.
** 1.4 Rules Exceptions and Additions. **For any particular event, a race director may request from USA Triathlon a specific exception or addition to these Rules. Any such request should be made with the consideration of the participant’s safety as the highest priority. All requests for Rule changes must be made in writing. All exceptions or additions to these Rules must be expressly approved in writing by the Executive Director of USA Triathlon and
must be announced to all participants prior to the event.
I had a perfect bird’s eye view of the swim from the 11th floor balcony of the Boardwalk Condo. I saw a LOT of people cutting the course at the second outer turn buoy. I do not know if the kayakers pushed them back, but it didn’t appear like it.