Dear Aly, Travis, Chris, Brogg, Joe, Aaron, and the hundreds of other fine race directors around the world,
Allow me to begin my letter with a brief review on how we arrived at the current situation.
In 1675 the Italian scientist Tito Livio Burattini introduced the word “metre” to the world as a proposed universal measure, to bring unity to a chaotic system of weights and measures. By 1791, France had adopted the meter as 1 millionth of ¼ of the earth’s diameter, and thus the metric system was born.
Fast-forward to 1989, and the creation of the International Triathlon Union. Based on the popular distance introduced by the U.S. Triathlon Series in the 1980s, the ITU standardizes the new Olympic distance triathlon as a 1.5 kilometer swim, 40 kilometer bike, and 10 kilometer run, and the Sprint distance as one half the Olympic.
It is tempting to argue about how “fair” this distribution of the 3 sports is. Runners and swimmers often complain that the Olympic triathlon distance is simply a steeplechase centered around the bike. To them I reply that baseball (a sport of running, throwing, and hitting) is unfairly biased toward throwing. Baseball hitters have very little opportunity to make it to first base, and in fact only do so about 20% of the time. Even if they do make it to first base, the odds of getting back home are slim due to the distance between bases. Were we to make baseball “fair” for runners and hitters, we would shorten the distances between bases, move the pitching mound back another 30 feet, and extend the outfield by another 200 feet to give hitters and runners a more even chance to score, thus bringing up an average MLB ERA from a miserly 2.0 to a 10.0. Why don’t we make baseball more fair? Because that’s the way baseball was invented! To propose that the distances in baseball or triathlon are “unfair”, “unbalanced”, and should be adjusted is an insult to the sacred institution of the respective sports. That’s just the way they were created, and if you don’t like the distances, invent your own triathlon distance and see how you fare.
Why this odd preamble regarding meters and baseball? To establish that a) a unified and consistent measurement of triathlon course distance is possible and expected and b) to pre-empt the argument that the modification of any of the 3 disciplines distances is somehow a justified protest to “balance” the sport, and c) to condemn any sort of multi-sport vigilantism in course layout. Now that I’ve established some history, and why the Olympic and Sprint distance swim are and MUST remain a 1.5 and 0.75 kilometer swim, let me share my bewilderment why it rarely is.
Race directors, I understand the need to adjust the bike and run distances for an event. Traffic, construction, intersections…it’s all about safety. You only have so much safe road to work with sometimes. I never have heartburn when the bike is cut by a couple of miles to keep me safe. Can’t fit a full 5k run into a loop in a residential area? No problem. That’s the cost of putting on a race.
But the swim, for crying out loud, is another story. Water has no intersections, potholes, or railroad tracks. You can put those buoys anywhere you want. There’s no reason for a swim not be within 2% of 1,500 meters (a 100 foot margin of error). In fact, the ITU allows a 5% variance on the bike and run portion of an ITU sanctioned course, but shows no mercy for swim distance variation. Why not? Like me, they don’t see why the swim distance can’t be precise. A body of water is a race director’s blank canvas, where they are free to create. The swim is the first impression of your race for an athlete, and represents how seriously you take your responsibility as race director and attention to detail.
Granted, I haven’t taken my meter wheel or GPS and measured your swim course, but it doesn’t take a genius to look at some of the swim splits and discern that they are way, way off. For example, at a recent local Sprint event, the median time for the top 10 swimmers in a 350-person event was 14:22. Really? The 10 best swimmers out of 350, the top 3% of the field, averaged a 1:55 per 100 meters? OK, I’ll give you 1 minute from the water to the T1 timing mat for a median time of 13:22. That’s still a pathetic 1:47 per 100 meters for the top 3% swimmers over 750 meters. I don’t think so.
Or consider another local event, where the median time for the top 3% on an advertised 800-meter course was a 16:40. I’ll even give you a 3-minute buffer from the water to T1 for a ridiculous time of 13:40 for the top swimmers, or a 1:42 per 100 meters. And there are another half dozen local events just like this with obviously incorrect swim distances.
Sometimes I wonder if the race directors have been doing this for so long, they think they can eyeball the swim course, which results in “buoy creep”. I swear they get further away every year. The only thing “unfair” about the swim distance in an Olympic or Sprint event is when an athlete has trained for 750 meters and gets 1,000.
I tell my kids that the difference between whining and constructive complaining is that whining comes without suggestions for improvement. So, to avoid whining, allow me to offer some solutions to the potential reasons for an inaccurate swim distance course:
It’s not possible to measure that precisely.
Sure it is! Modern technology has provided us with laser measurement devices for just a few hundred dollars and accurate up to 200 meters. Just plant yourself in between buoy A and B, 125 meters from you to A, 125 meters from you to B = 250 meters between buoy A and B! Piece of cake.
The wind blows the buoys overnight, it’s not my fault.
Place them in the morning, or get heavier anchors. The 2008 St. George Triathlon was so windy, hundreds of swimmers were pulled out of the water due to swell, but those buoys didn’t move a foot. See reference to whining above.
Uh, I don’t place buoys, the volunteers do.
Please. You’re their race director, not their ecclesiastical leader. You can make it happen.
Who are you again?
Oh, I’m very important. You had better take heed.
I’ve got more important things to worry about at a race. I’m not able/willing to go to the trouble to get them accurate.
I appreciate your honesty. However, please don’t advertise your event as an Olympic or Sprint event. Advertise it as “a unique triathlon experience with a surprise swim distance somewhere within 500 meters of a standard swim distance.” If you advertise the distance as 750 meters, it better be pretty close to 750 meters.
I take my measurements very seriously, but the swim times still look long.
Ah, yes. Probably the #1 reason for a longer than necessary swim, and the easiest to correct. I do see race directors take the time to really create an accurate 750-meter loop, only then to place the first buoy 200 meters from shore. Remember that your swim distance needs to account for the distance from the shore to the first/last buoy. If you place the first/last buoy 50 meters from shore, and the athletes do one 750-meter loop, they have really swam 800 meters to get to shore. As a result, your loop must be only ~700 meters, with another 50 meters to shore to equal 750 total meters.
Is swimming my weakest sport? Yes. Do I complain about drastically shortened indoor pool events? No. Is this a pathetic attempt at an aging triathlete to try and gain some competitive advantage for next season? Perhaps. Would I still be complaining about this if swimming were my strongest? After some deep soul-searching, I can honestly say “yes”, because I’m a purist at heart, and I want the sport to be consistent across the world.
Of all the local races, this is my one and only complaint to the race directors. I’m spoiled that I can race 15-20 high-quality events in my backyard every year, and all of them are some of the best in the world. I regret that I didn’t first write a 700-word article singing your praises. But, make this one change, race directors, and like the Italian scientist Tito Livio Burattini, you’ll make a huge step toward the unification of a process badly in need of repair.
David–I agree 100%. I did several of the same races you did this year and questioned the distance on most of them. I did the Stansbury Olympic and had at personal best for the “1500 meter” swim of nearly 6 minutes better than before. I know wetsuits are supposed to help a little, but doubt they make that big of a difference. I wonder how hard it would be for someone with a Garmin to get in a canoe or on a jetski and follow the course around the bouys to verify accuracy once the course is set. If it’s short or long, move the bouys. Even if every bike is exactly 20 or 40K and every run 5 or 10K it’s hard to compare one to another because courses and conditions can vary so much. But water is flat (except for Spudman I guess). If the distances are relatively exact, at least we could compare that portion of the race a little more realistically with how we did in other races.
I Concur! Except I want the full bike distance on all events… and shorten the run and swim…wait lets cancel the swim and run and just bike from now on…yeah thats the ticket.
Then again, if there is a little ambiguity in the actual swim distance, that gives me some psychological cover. If I am out of the water 3 minutes after I’m supposed to be, I’ll just claim that the course is long by a couple hundred meters.
I loved this one. I also loved the facts to support your argument. Well written Dave. Some of these guys cant figure out why their race hasn’t succeeded as well as they would like but this is just one of the reasons. I hate paying WTC prices but I will say that they know how to really put on a race. They are even good at measuring! You would think that they would be off since they are measuring much longer distances…. but not the case. They are first class because they get it right.
Sean
a $200 dollar laser range finder reduces the error to a few feet… please also do something about those 30k “olympic” bike courses…
IN PRAISE OF THE LONG SWIM COURSE: Dear Mr. Race Director, please ignore David’s complaining. I normally come out of the swim with the leaders (in age group) only to get demolished on the bike (curse these twigs I’m obliged to use as legs!) to then attempt to make up ground on the run.
Here’s a $20, go ahead and push that buoy out there another 100! Ditch that Garmin! Laser shcmazer!
Yours,
BJK
p.s. and if you EVER decide to cancel the swim and make the event a Duathlon again, I’m just going home… I don’t train for 15k…
Unlike many of you I have a good swimming background. I agree it would be good for a race director to have an accurate method of measuring the swimming distance. If I attend a race year after year then I can measure my progress. Water temperature, currents, and waves are some inherent variables that are part of an open water swim. If the race course measurement is accurate then this removes one variable from the equation. I would like more races with lots of waves and currents then less of you would pass me on the run.
David, thanks for the article and I agree — I wish race directors could be more accurate on all the swim/bike/run distances. Somehow I dropped 15 minutes on my Olympic time from Daybreak to Stansbury… was it just me or was the bike sorta short at Stansbury? Anyway, I know its just dreaming but I really wish it were easier to compare race times from one race to the next (or at least know their distances were right-on). For us middle-of-the-pack guys its tough to know if we’re really improving, or if the distances were a little short, or if our ranking improved because the PowerTri crew had other commitments on a particular Saturday
My favorite part was about how important you are
! Your opinion and input is certainly important to US Trisports. Thanks for this post and all you do for the sport, David. We will whole-heatedly take all this into consideration when planning our courses in 2011. We know you have a choice when you race, and it is our goal to create superb races that offer the best triathlon experience for your buck!
Best,
Aly
Race Director
US Trisports Race Management
I love David Warden. I can’t say this enough. This was hilarious and very accurate. One of the things I have really enjoyed about racing most of the 70.3 circuit this year is that all the courses have been measured very accurately which is comforting going into a race. Being a poor swimmer myself (even worse than David) I HATE a long swim. Heath on the other hand always measures the swim courses long;)
Waaaa Dave! The great Dave Waaaaaaaa-rden complaining… what else is new? Ha!
Sounds like an awful lot of complaining to me. In my opinion if you’d work as hard on being a better swimmer, as you did on writing this letter and criticising race directors, you’d be using your time much more wisely.
Bottom line… We all do the same swim course at the race.
If you only trained for 750M and the course happend to be about 850M (or even 1000M), and you blew up (or had a bad swim) – then I’d seriously question your commitment to training. Triathlon is not about making everything easy. Its about pushing yourself (not the race director) to be the best you can, against the course you’re presented with.
When it’s 100 degrees outside, do you email God and complain about the heat? Come on… really??? No you suck it up and push through it or Quit.
The race directors have a hard enough job to put together and organize awesome events. They don’t need sticklers like you criticising every imperfect detail that you don’t agree with 100%.
Suck it up. Train hard. And race… Nothing earned without hard work and dedication is ever worth having.
Trevor… ouch, harsh. Agreed, we all race the same distance. But, if I want to be the best I can I want to have my tank empty at the end; pacing is a big part of that. If the distances vary by 10 or 20% it’s tough to pace. Good argument I suppose for running the course prior to the race. Trevor, if you’re a race director, I’d love to do any race that has the tag line, “Suck it up. Train hard. And race.” — love it. Better trademark that line before I steal it
Brutus, thank you for your thought-provoking, sophisticated, and anonymous post. It still hurt my feelings.
Trevor, I disagree, but good points. I do regret not first writing an article singing the praises of race directors. Without them, I’d be out of a job. They do excellent work.
David
P.S. Trevor, can you send me God’s e-mail? I actually do have a few complaints.
Sorry to dissappoint but I’m not a race director, just an athlete sticking up for them… I appreciate those guys (and gals) tremendously and would not ever want to do their job. You can use the slogan though…
RE: Pacing… There are so many variables that can change your pacing strategy. From heat/cold, dry/wet roads, large waves/swells, water temp, wet suit legal or not, # of competitors in field, mass start vs. wave start, level of competition, why get so wrapped up in whether the swim is 50M long? Adapt, adjust, and if you’re really that concerned (to your earlier point) then do the race course ahead of time.
My post was a bit brutal, but I’m just fed up with (Tri)athletes blaming everyone and everthing else except themselves when they don’t have a great race or achieve a personal best(race directors, distances, weather, “well if they would have had Gatorade instead of Heed I’d have finished better”, whatever…). Where has personal accountibility gone? (not just in triathlon but athletics and society in general)
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard someone complain after a race about how the swim was long…
Guess I’m just one of those guys who’d rather see people work harder and complain less. Seems to me that most people complain about all of the hard work in front of them, rather than tackling the challenge. OR find excuses for their lackluster performance rather than admit that they “just didn’t have it today”. Its a testimony to their charactor.
If not having an exact swim distance is that important to you (Mr. “I’m so powerful and important” David Warden, find another sport. Though, you’d probably complain about and blame the umpires, referees, officals, grass, dome, ice, chair, court, whatever….
I’m out…
Trevor,
Get off of your high horse. While I don’t care about complainers either, and I hate those that blame everyone else, Dave’s point is very valid. I don’t think he is at all condescending as you imply. In fact we can look at his times in races and I would invite you to post yours….I don’ think that’s going to happen. Even if it did, his point is still valid. He is pointing out something that is very controllable and valid. Some people are competitive and small amounts of extra distance in the swim averaged over the real distance of the swim do make a difference. I am not saying grill race directors (who we all appreciate) but should they get a pass for everything in the name of “No complainer allowed”? What about sanctioned races with spots that qualify for other races? If the distance is longer and they did not make the cut to qualify, should that matter? You missed the entire point of the post if all you can do is complain about complainers.
I am not a complainer but would point out a couple of items.
First: Two years back a local race had a swim that was off by no less than 25%! We are not talking about a few feet here or there. I am sure that Dave is talking about those that are not even close. Now that may sound trivial to you “Mr. I don’t complain about anything’ but if it were that way on the IM portion of the bike that would make it an extra 28 miles! Everyone would still have to do the additional 28 miles right? Now I know you are most likely not going to complain about. However, some may find it not in a complaining way a problem because they want to compare their previous time or show what they are averaging per mile at what ever the discipline may be. There are even those that are good enough (and coach at reputable places like training bible.com that depend on posted times or average t-pace to show they know what they are talking about. ) Technical people do this. Dave is technical. Some people (BOP’ers) just go out and do what they do and some don’t care that they swam 800 or 1200 meters. It is just a part of the race. Moreover, if it’s not important to you, that doesn’t make it a moot point.
Second: Don’t forget the next time you go to the bank and withdraw a hundred dollars, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t get exactly a hundred. You need to sit back and be a ‘happy non complainer’ who continues to bank there. Even though it is their job, and it it easy to control (giving back the right amount) you can just find another bank (sport) or you could just continue to bank there and maybe ask what do I need to do to get the correct change.
Yes, you are out. Out of touch with reality.
Trevor I don’t think you know Dave well enough to make those accusations. I know personally that he took his first penalty this year that cost him a podium spot without complaint. He wrote about it somewhere on this blog, totally took public ownership about it and said the referee was right. The ref even commented on the blog how refreshing it was the way Dave handled it. In another race the athlete that beat him accidentally cut the run course, realized his mistake and added an extra loop to equal 3.1 miles. This is still a DQ penalty, even if you run the right distance you have to do it on the prescribed course, and Dave could have had him DQ’d and taken the 1st place overall, but he thought that the guy would have beat him anyway, and he didn’t want to win on a technicality. In another race the top 4 athletes all cut the bike course due to a marking error on the course, Dave came in second place overall, but when he found out he cut the course he insisted that he be DQ’d, while the other 3 decided it was not a big deal took the 3 podium spots. He said it was his responsibility to know the correct course, even if it is marked wrong. Those are 3 examples from just this year alone. I think this shows accountability and character.
All I read from the post was if a race director is going to advertise a race as a official sprint or olympic distance, they should do all they can safely to honor that commitment and distances. He’s just asking them to do what they advertise.
Sean, Darren, thanks for coming to my aid, but I’m cool with Trevor’s comments. The ones directed at me sting, but I’ll internalize them and see if there is some truth there.
If the comments escalate anymore from here, I’ll have to remove them going forward. Please attack the argument, not the individual.
David
David – Let me first start off by apologizing. I was having a bad day (with non-stop complainers at my job) and took it out on you. While I don’t agree with your position, it was unfair of me to take “cheap-shots” at you. It sounds like you are certainly a man of integrity and character (even though I can’t seem to swallow point #2 from Sean??? How’s banking anything like doing a Tri?), thus my initial impression of you coming off as a complainer is likely inaccurate.
My “off the cuff” defensive position is based upon me being simply worn out on triathletes blasting race directors for every little detail that the athlete doesn’t agree with. I read and write to the post race reports after most of my races and and often flabergasted at the whining and complaining (as though the athletes could do it better). I’ve never put on a race, but I can definiately appreciate all of the things those guys and gals do. I don’t for a second think it to be easy; and I felt as though I should defend the race directors because without them, we’d be unable to enjoy the sport we all love so much.
Again, my apologies to you David for my “cheap shots”. After thinking about some of my comments, and seeing your remarks (taking the high road) they were certainly an unfair characterization of you.
I propose a presidential peace offering or Obama beer offering of sorts….Maybe rootbeer or the hopps, barley, and wheat variety.. Its all on me….You guys can email me at swarren@adobe.com……Make a date and we can all sit back and giggle over a few….
Sean
Trevor, that took guts. Apology not necessary, but appreciated and accepted.
Let me follow your lead and apologize to the RDs for not being more specific in the article about how much I appreciate what they do. I took for granted that they knew that. This is literally the only complaint I’ve ever voiced, but I recognize if you multiply 1 complaint by 1.5 million triathletes, it adds up. I’m a classic Type A who demands precision and accuracy where possible, and get excited when I see that philosophy collide with reality. I stand by the article, but regret not listing the 999 things RDs to right each race. I hope the fact that I’ll continue to pour a ton of PowerTri’s money in as a sponsor of their events will validate how I feel about what they do.
Sean, thanks for your reconciliatory post.
I just turn around at the first buoy, cut the distance in half, and I am good. My swim times have never been better.