TriDot Podcast .236

Racing by the Rules: Insights from Triathlon Officials

‍

Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses yourtraining data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics andartificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results inless time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, andentertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and specialguests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

 

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot podcast! It is simple. The triathlon race coursehas rules for us to follow, and thus it needs folks in place to enforce thoserules. The rules are there for safety, and they are there for fairness, and theofficials are there to help make sure we all have a great day out there on therace course. Today on the podcast, we'll learn all about race officiating fromtwo USA Triathlon race officials. Our first guest is Mark Turner, who serves asthe Commissioner of Officials for USA Triathlon. The second is TriDotAmbassador Tim Farwig, who is part of the USA Triathlon Officials leadershipteam. Both of these gentlemen are experienced race officials, and of coursethey are triathletes themselves. Mark, Tim, thanks so much for joining us onthe TriDot podcast!

 

Mark Turner: Hey, thanks for having us. Appreciate you.

 

Tim Farwig: Thank you Andrew, for inviting us to be a part of this today.

 

Andrew:Now she isn't on the podcast today, but I do want to give a shout out to TinaStewart. Tina is a TriDot Ambassador. She is the lead triathlon coach for TeamPlaymakers based in Michigan State, and she is a USAT race official herself. Soshout-out to Tina wherever you are listening today. And Tim, I also wanted togive you a public thank-you very quickly. You are a long-time listener of thepodcast, and you sent me a custom Captain of the Middle of the Pack T-shirt.And little did you know that shortly after you sent it to me, I would lose allof my TriDot shirts in a luggage fiasco with Hawaiian Airlines. And that shirt,Tim, was the only shirt I had for a while with a TriDot logo on it, so I woreit through a lot of training sessions, and even on race day at CLASH Daytona afew years ago. So Tim, thanks so much for that shirt, it came in handy.

 

Tim:Well, I appreciate the shout-out. We were in the middle of making some shirtsand I thought, “You know, it'd be kind of fun to make something for Andrew.”Not expecting him to wear it, especially seeing him come down the pit lane atDaytona wearing it, but I'm a firm member of that rank-and-file of the middleof the pack, so I thought it was definitely something you needed.

 

Andrew:I sure did. I am Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captainof the Middle of the Pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup question,settle in for our main set conversation talking about race officiating, andthen wind things down with our cooldown. Lots of good stuff, let's get to it!

 

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

 

Andrew:  There are so, so many triathlon eventsworldwide that they can be located in all sorts of places. Some are in smalltowns, some are in big cities. Some are along the coast, some are nearmountains, some are out in the desert. The variety of triathlon race sites isendless, and that brings us to our warmup question today. What race location isyour favorite to visit? Now I'm not basing this on the race itself, the racesite, the race course, anything like that. I'm talking about the town or thecity hosting the race. So Tim, Mark, what is your favorite location you've everbeen to? I know in your positions as race officials, you've had the chance totravel to far more races than the average triathlete, so I'm excited to seewhat you both have to say. Tim, what is this answer for you?

 

Tim:Well again, we get a lot of opportunities to go to a lot of interesting andgreat places, but I'm a Midwestern-born-and-raised kid, and quite honestly,this might surprise some people, but Milwaukee is quite honestly my favoriteplace to go. It's been the host of Nationals the last few years, so not onlyhave I raced it, but last year was probably one of the biggest undertakingsUSAT had in Milwaukee, and it was just the perfect place for all the events wehad. So by far that's my favorite place.

 

Andrew:Oh, very interesting. I remember when USA Triathlon put Age Group Nationalsthere I was kind of like, “Really, Milwaukee?” And then all of a sudden thefirst event happened, and I started seeing athletes post pictures on Instagram,I started seeing video clips from USAT and I was like, “Oh my gosh, isMilwaukee beautiful? Is Milwaukee gorgeous?” Like right there on thewaterfront, it looks like a super-great event. So very, very interesting foryou to pick that. Mark, what is this answer for you? Is it also Milwaukee?

 

Mark:Well, I do love Milwaukee. But as you could imagine, as we've already mentionedfirst, we go to a lot of places. I've been to a lot of race sites. Each one hasits own kind of uniqueness. And once again, while I really favor Milwaukee, I'malso looking forward to us going to Omaha this year. The other thing that Iwould say is, if I'm really picking my favorite, favorite race site, it wouldbe Sylvan Beach. A little sprint triathlon, it's about ten minutes from myhouse.

 

Andrew:I've heard of it, yeah.

 

Mark:So you can start to understand why that would be a favorite for somebody whotravels a lot.

 

Andrew:You can't beat that, Mark. You can't beat the race location just walking out ofyour house and walking to T1, right? That's the dream for all of us, really. Myanswer here, honestly I would have to say Greece or New Zealand. I've racedinternationally in Greece and New Zealand. I feel it's kind of cheating though,because anytime you travel internationally, it's just extra-cool. So of courseI'm going to pick those places because those trips were extra-cool, but I lovethose race sites. We're going to post this question to our audience. Make sureyou're a part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group. Every Monday when the new show comes out, Ipose the warmup question to you, our audience. So find the post asking you,where in the world is your favorite race city, your favorite host city for arace? Can't wait to see what you have to say.

 

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

 

Andrew:  Before we get too deep into the show today, Iwant to give a shout-out to our good friends at UCAN. Here at TriDot, we arehuge believers using UCAN to fuel our training and racing. In the crowded fieldof nutrition companies, what separates UCAN from the pack is the science behindLIVSTEADY, the key ingredient in UCAN products. While most energy powders arefilled with sugar or stimulants that cause a spike and crash, UCAN energypowders, powered by LIVSTEADY, deliver a steady release of complex carbs togive you stable blood sugar and provide long-lasting energy. I personally fuelmy workouts with the orange-flavored Edge gel and the unflavored UCAN energypowder. Between their energy mix, energy bars, almond butter and more, there isdefinitely a LIVSTEADY product that you will love. So head to their website, ucan.co, and use the code TRIDOT to save 20% on yourentire order. Now that code used to be 10%, but the fine folks at UCAN haveupped it to 20% for TriDot Nation. So once again, that's ucan.co, promo code TRIDOT.

 

Allright, very excited to have Mark and Tim tell us everything they can about theexperience. What it's like for them to be a race official, how they got intothat position in the first place, and for us as triathletes to learn how tohave a great race out there, how to have a safe race, how to have aninfraction-free race, most importantly. Lots of good stuff to dive into withour USA Triathlon race officials. And guys, we're going to spend a good 30minutes or so here in the trenches with the two of you learning about thesethings. But first I want to give you each a chance to talk as triathletes. Youboth train and race yourselves. Tim, we were just talking before we startedrecording, you have Half-IRONMAN Gulf Coast coming up, 70.3 Gulf Coast in PanamaCity Beach, Florida in just a few months. From all of your racing – not theofficiating, just your racing – what is your favorite race day to talk about?Mark? What is this for you?

 

Mark:Oh, for me, I would definitely say it was my first triathlon. It took placeover in Louisiana in a dedicated lake. You know, the mental image one has of adedicated lake in southern Louisiana is not necessarily appealing at firstglance. However, this was a private lake, and the owner poured buck-truckloadsof limestone into it every year, because it was built intentionally for hischildren to waterski. So it was a fairly nice man-made lake. I was veryanxious. I wanted to make sure I got into the race, it was limited to 300people. And it was going to take place in early-March, late-February, and itcan be a little cool in the country, even in the South. So I was like hovering,I signed up for the race immediately and I got in, got the notification. Packetpickup was on race morning, and when I arrived I found out that it was going tobe a time-trial start, and they had arranged the time-trial start based on whosigned up first versus who signed up last. So I found out that I was number oneat my first triathlon.

 

Andrew:That’s amazing!

 

Mark:I was lined up on the beach and people were jumping in and jumping out becausethe water was very cold.

 

Andrew:And this is your first triathlon ever, right? And you're the first one in thewater.

 

Mark:The first one in the water.  And I'm alsoacutely aware at this point that I'm getting ready to have 299 people swim overtop of me. So I was trying to see how far I could go before I started reallygetting slammed with, because it was definitely a wetsuit swim. My face wentinto the water, and didn't go back in the water until I finished thepoint-to-point 600 meter swim to the other side. The bike went prettyeventfully, but I was running in FiveFingers shoes in those days, and by thetime I got off the swim and the bike my feet were numb, so I didn't discoveruntil the end of the race that I had two toes in several of the pockets of myFiveFingers.  But they were numb, so Icouldn't tell. And I placed second place in the beginner category.

 

Andrew:Okay, cool!

 

Mark:It was. I was hooked from there.

 

Andrew:That is a memorable start to a triathlon journey, that's for sure. I've neverheard of a newbie first-timer having to enter the water first in a race, that'samazing. Tim, what is your favorite race-day experience to talk about?

 

Tim:Well, I definitely have a favorite race experience, but I would be remiss if Idon't revisit IRONMAN Florida last year with the TriDot Ambassador Camp.Because there were only a few of us that actually raced and were at the camp,but I have never felt so much support from the Ambassadors who came out andvolunteered and were everywhere on that. I mean, Jeff Booher was on the wayinto T1, I mean how many times do you get to see something like that? Or DanCaskie, captain of the T1, and Jeff Raines. It was just an unbelievableexperience, capped off with – and I know people have heard the story of theAmbassadors racing up and down the run course in golf carts, blasting music andlights and encouraging people. But honestly, my most favorite experience ormemorable experience was my first full IRONMAN at Chattanooga. It was justbasically myself and a friend, a training partner. We had no support crew,nobody else. And I wasn't smart enough to realize that my wife was asking a lotof leading questions a month and a half out that made no sense to me, but Iwasn't paying attention. And they ended up surprising me the night before anddrove all the way down to Chattanooga to be there to support me. Then theyactually volunteered at the finish line and the time they felt I was going tofinish, and they were there to medal me when I came across. That's by far mymost memorable experience in racing to date.

 

Andrew:So cool, yeah. So special to have your race end that way, for sure. So fromyour race stories, Mark, we heard how you got into racing in the first place.Now I'm curious to know – there's hundreds of thousands of triathletesworldwide, not many of them make the transition to becoming a triathlonofficial. So how did you even get interested in that position in the firstplace to become a triathlon official? Mark, what was that journey for you?

 

Mark:Well, so it's really rooted in being an official and in sport. Obviouslythere’s some hardwiring, in that when I participate in an activity, I want toknow what the rules are and try to follow them. So my journey to becoming atriathlon official actually started back in the 90’s when I became a golfofficial. So my wife and I were both golf officials for a number of years, andwe took a break from that. Then we went from that to doing some other things inlife, and that's when I started pursuing the multisport journey on my own. Andas I progressed from running to multisport, I was under the rules. You know,you couldn't have somebody handing you bottles of water and things like that onthe course. So I lost my sherpa –

 

Andrew:Your sherpa just had less to do at that point, that's all.

 

Mark:Yeah, exactly. So we met a rules official over in Louisiana, and he begantalking to my wife about becoming a rules official, and she did. I beganpursuing certification as a coach in endurance sports, and she wasrecertifying, and I decided I could go ahead and certify. Now it must beclearly understood that when my wife said that she was going to become a rulesofficial, I was very firm in saying that unlike when I played golf and thenstarted working as a golf official – which reduces the amount of time you haveto play golf –

 

Andrew:Naturally, yeah.

 

Mark:– I was adamant that I would not become a triathlon official at all. Andapparently you can see how well that worked.

 

Andrew:That worked out very well for you, yeah.

 

Mark:It didn't work well. But for me, race morning when you're an official is aspecial time. Some of it's selfish, because selfishly I know I'm enjoying thewhole vibe of the morning and everything, and I'm not going to race.

 

Andrew:Oh it's the best, yeah! It's the best to be there.

 

Mark:I've got the music, I've got talk interaction with the athletes, everythingelse.

 

Andrew:The endorphins, the snacks, the coffee, everything. Yeah.

 

Mark:And then the community, and that's what really draws me in. The community inthe multisport world is so mutually supportive, encouraging to new people, andthat has been the thing that really has built my love for the sport. And myinterest in being able to do it as a rules official, first in the field and inmy current role, is to help move our sport forward and keep it growing.

 

Andrew:Yeah. So Tim, for you, I think you as well were an official in some othersports before becoming a triathlon official. What was that transition like foryou?

 

Tim:Yeah, back in 2020 I knew that I had only a couple of years left on theofficiating career that you mentioned before. I was going to retire from it,and I was just getting back into triathlon again, and went to the small littlething called CLASH in 2020, which I know Andrew you're very familiar with.

 

Andrew:Been there, a few times.

 

Tim:Yeah, and that was like the first big event that came back with COVID. And Iremember walking into transition, and there's a gentleman standing there with ablack and white striped shirt on and credentials, and I'm like, “Wait a minute,there are officials in triathlon?” Because I’d never seen officials at ourlocal events, which is all I had really raced. So I thought, kind of like Mark,I can't race every weekend, but I love that vibe. I love the morning of a race.There's just something to it, and I just wanted more of that. Some of thatadrenaline, and some of what I knew I was going to be missing after retiringcoming off the field. So I basically at that point said, “All right, let'sstart looking into this.” And here I am today, so it went pretty quick from thetime I found out we even had officials.

 

Andrew:Guys, I think when athletes think of the race officials, I think they mostoften picture the crew out on the motorcycles, policing the bike course, makingsure we're not drafting. And I know there's a lot more to being an officialthan that. So just describe for us what all goes on into officiating a raceweekend. What are all the tasks and the positions being taken on by theofficiating crew?

 

Mark:Well, I would say it varies greatly depending on the size of the race, right?Because if it's the small local race that has an official, often that is simplyone individual serving as head referee, and trying to fill as many of theplaces as possible. So for example if I just use a small local race here, wherethere's going to be one head referee, the head referee is going to get thereearly in the morning, go through transition looking for bar-end plugs beingmissing, talking to athletes, asking if they have any questions. Then moving ondown to the swim start, where hopefully they'll have an opportunity to give usthe brief. It doesn't take very long, it’s about five minutes just outliningwhat are the expectations, what will the official be looking for. As soon asthe swim starts, I won't let a referee work by themselves. We'll move over tothe motorcycle, have a brief with the motorcycle about their safety, what we'relooking for, how we're going to work together, how we're going to ride themotorcycle, when we're likely to come off the course. Because in many of thesesmall races, it's a sprint or as long as an Olympic. So then, once you're doneon the bike course, you move to a bike, where people are coming in off thebike, to help officiate things like the helmet being still buckled before theathlete walks their bike. And that's just kind of a walk-through, all the wayto the end until the first athletes are starting across the finish line. Youwould have wanted to liaise with the timer in the morning before the race totalk about finish times, so that you can assure that there was nocourse-cutting based on the timing data. That's how it works when you're flyingsolo.

 

Andrew:That's a lot. Yeah, that's a big day.

 

Mark:So if you’re not flying solo, and let's say you're working with a crew of fouror six, and if it's a very large national race, the assignments that take careof all of those different things are spread out through a lot more people,because you also have a much bigger field. So if you have a field of 2,000versus 200, you're going to have a larger number of officials. For example,that 2,000 – depending on the race itself or the number of races that stack upover the weekend – you might have as many as 20-plus officials, all withdistinct assignments. So for example, having people who stay in transition,because transition is simply going to function long. Having officials at thedismount line, not necessarily depending on the level of the race for rigorousenforcement, but at least to help the athletes understand what our expectationsare with the mount/dismount line. Having more people out on the run to monitorfor issues on the run, and then also having a bigger crew work in the bikeportion, so that you have back-to-back days, like for example at a multi-sportfestival, you don't really want to have the same four or five people every dayout on the motorcycle all day long, because you're doing back-to-back races. Soit's a balance then at that point. Each one of those things that the individualofficial, the head ref who’s working solo have to do, when you get to a biggerrace, it's just spread out.

 

Andrew:Wow. It makes sense why, Tim, at your smaller local races, you didn't evennotice that there was officiating happening. It took you going to a biggerevent, to have more crew working, for you to even see that. So Tim, you're notin this post anymore, but for a little while you helped coordinate whichofficials would be at which races for the southern region of the country, forUSA Triathlon. Can you talk to us a little bit about how officials get selectedfor certain races? Is it just you sign up for races you want to go to, or isthere some sort of assigning process?

 

Tim:Well, every assignment coordinator might do it a little bit differently. Butfor the most part, a lot of times it's availability. But just to tag on alittle bit to what Mark said, a lot of the work by the officials, especiallythe head referee, starts well before race morning. And that goes all the wayback to receiving the assignment as the head official or head referee. Sobasically the way it would work is we'd have our list of sanctioned races thatrequested officials, we would put that list out and see who is available. Youhave to take into account the expense – how far do they have to travel, arethere hotels provided? And then it's experience, that's what it boils down to.And once that race is assigned, it is the job of that head referee then tostart coordinating with the race director, which quite honestly is one of themost important relationships prior to race morning. Because you're working withthem, giving them the support they need, and it's a two-way street. You bothneed each other, so that's a very vital part of the whole process for the racemorning and the race day to go very well.

 

Andrew:I'm curious from both of you, what is your favorite race-day assignment you'veever had? Like what is just the coolest place you’ve found yourself in thissport, based on an assignment you had as an official? Mark, what is it for you?

 

Mark:There’s a bunch of them. I've worked age-group races, I’ve worked proraces.  The pro race that really comes tomind for me is one that took place in the Woodlands, where one of the prosthat’s faster had caught up to the two young pros who were leading on the finalout on the Hardy Toll Road. And when we turned around and made the turn, thatathlete passed the other two, because at that point they had a tailwind, andthat athlete was going about 40 miles an hour. So we didn't even try, we stayedwith the two to make sure they didn't work together to catch him. That athleteended up having mechanical issues further up, but was able to fix thatmechanical and ran back into contention in the race. So it was pretty excitingto kind of follow along. That always is a pretty strong memory on thatparticular race.

 

Andrew:Tim, is your favorite assignment the Speedway at CLASH Daytona, or doessomething else trump that one?

 

Tim:Well, I think something trumps it. You're correct, going around the Speedway onthe back of a moto is pretty cool for the first ten laps. The next 40 to 50,you've seen it all. But it is a special experience, and I've logged a lot ofmiles there and Miami homestead as well. But my experience is pro-related aswell, and it's actually when PTO raced in Irving. And I was on the moto forboth the male race and the female race, and my assignment was slightlydifferent, which required me possibly at some point having to interact withathletes at the very back of the race, in case they were going to be lappedout. But honestly, in all the pro races that I've had the opportunity to work,the athleticism and what these athletes can do and the way they can pushthemselves and to be right there watching it, it's just an amazing experience.I mean, in most cases, if you're standing on the sidelines, you just get to seethem whiz by and they're gone. And here we're going, and it's always fun to meto kind of peek over the moto driver’s shoulder and go, “Oh, my gosh, we'regoing that fast? This is unbelievable!” So Irving, and Milwaukee as well lastyear I had the same assignment. Again, just to be around athletes like that inthis sport is pretty incredible.

 

Andrew:A pretty crucial question for our athletes listening – we don't want to be theathlete who gets done with our race and then checks the timing system and findsout that we have a two-minute violation for something somewhere along the way.So the next couple of questions are geared towards helping us avoid that fate.And I want to start with this, Mark. What are the most common infractions thattriathletes commit on the race course?

 

Mark:Well I guess let me preface this by pointing out that we no longer add penaltytime with USA Triathlon. We've gone to the global standard of notifying theathlete on the course. Now we might need to still have a discussion with them.I even hesitate to say that drafting is the most common. It's probably the onewe look at the most, because that's where the most unfair competitive advantagecan be gained. If I'm really looking at, on the bike course, what do athletesdo that they shouldn't be doing the most? Remember I’m referencing age-groupathletes here. Age-group athletes ride left when there's room to ride rightvery regularly.

 

Andrew:Yes they do.

 

Mark:And they do it because of a mistaken idea. Their goal is to not look likethey're drafting, and the thing that we always talk with the age-group athletesevery time we get a chance is that you're not a professional, you are allowedto slipstream. And not only are you allowed to slipstream, we want you to ifyou’re an age-group athlete. In other words, what we're saying is we want youto stay right, go all the way up, and make the pass in the allotted amount oftime. And age-group athletes have a tendency to move left well before they getto whatever the bike lengths of clear space that are required based on thedistance of the bike course. But the tendency is to move left well before theyshould, and then they risk a couple of things. They risk being notified thatthey're out of position, and we will warn and amend when possible. So in otherwords, Tim would drive up next to the athlete – and when we say next, we meanabreast, we don't really move right next, safety is number one – and say,“Athlete 167, please move right unless you're actively passing.” And in 99% ofthe cases, that athlete will go, “Oh!” and move and not do it again the rest ofthe day. And that allows us to proactively approach the bike course in such away that we can reduce the likelihood that packs will form. It doesn't mean itprevents it, but it does drastically reduce it. The other option, obviously ifyou're riding left when there's room to ride, right, you could end up forcing ablock. So if an athlete is forced into a – in our case, when we're requiringthat you pass left and ride right – if they're forced into a right-hand turn,they're not guilty of an illegal pass, you're guilty of a block, and youreceive notification of a penalty. That's why we want, early on in the race fora bike course, we want to establish what our expectations are from the back ofthe motorcycle with the athletes. But I would say that really is, in myexperience, the most common. There are uncommon penalties. Probably the mostmemorable uncommon penalty was a few years back. I got notified that there wasan issue in transition. It was an athlete’s first race, had never done atriathlon, so they came prepared to celebrate with a bottle of champagne, asix-pack of beer, which they broke in transition, scattering glass everywhere,which required us to move a bunch of the athletes, in the dark, on concrete.Which is why if you bring glass into transition and it's identified, whetheryou break it or not, unless corrected, the penalty is disqualification. And youcan't correct it once you break it.

 

Andrew:I've never even heard of that. I've never considered it. I've never read it ina rule book guide or an athlete guide. I'm sure it's in there somewhere, butI've never considered bringing glass to be a problem. But yeah, I could seewhy. So the obvious thing here for athletes to avoid any of these kinds ofpenalties or mistakes is to read the athlete guide, right? And I think for themost part we notice a lot of rules that are universal, like drafting. You can'tdraft, you have to have your helmet buckle before you leave transition,dismount lines. There's a lot of things that every single race you do, thereare rules that are consistent. But there's also some nuances where certainraces will have certain things that are different. I remember, for example, thefirst time when I did 70.3 Greece. It was an IRONMAN event in Greece, and thatwas the first time I had done a race that had some no-passing zones. That wasthe first time, reading the athlete guide I was like, “Oh!” That was a newconcept for me, that there's going to be zones on the course where I can't passother athletes. That particular athlete guide also pointed out that, “There aresome very steep inclines on this course. Honestly, during the uphills, you'regoing to kind of form into groups. We're not really worried about drafting onthose uphills. We're worried about drafting the rest of the race, but on theuphills, don't stress yourselves out over it.” So those were some helpfulthings that I found out reading that athlete guide that I would not have foundout otherwise. So the athlete guide is there for a reason. I'm encouragingpeople to read it, you're going to find out what the rules are. But beyond thatparticular tip, reading the athlete guide, what other tips do you guys have fortriathletes to complete a clean race? What would you say, Tim?

 

Tim:Well, I think IRONMAN is very good about this, but they have several briefingsbefore a race, 70.3 and fulls. I don't care if you've raced them for 25 years,you need to attend an athlete briefing. Because like you said, you might findnuances that are just for that race. You mentioned Greece. There are at leasttwo races here in the States that there's a speed limit on downhills. So hadyou not read the athlete guide, had you not attended the briefing, and youraced Pennsylvania last year, there was an 18 mph speed limit on adownhill that easily you could have been at 35, 40 mph. And had you donethat, you were automatically disqualified, because they had a tracking systemon the mountain to know if you were going faster than you're supposed to. So Ithink attending an athlete briefing – IRONMAN's very good about that, the USATNational events, if there's not an in-person one, there's always going to beone attached to the website that you can listen to and watch at your ownpleasure. But I think that's the biggest thing. We're not sitting here sayingyou need to download the USAT rule book and memorize it. Use the tools thatthey're giving to you to just know more about the race.

 

Mark:What I would say is ask your questions even before the race begins. But theonly way that you can know what questions to ask for clarification is if youhave attended a rules briefing, whether it's virtual or in person, and read theathlete guide for that race. If you don't attend a briefing, you're likely tomiss any last-minute changes that might be required. For example, the PoliceDepartment does have a lot to say about the bike course, so if there's been alast-minute change due to something that you would not be aware of unless youattended the briefing, or reviewed the virtual briefing, or looked at theemails that are being sent down in communications, or whatever the interfacethat race is using to give you the most up-to-date information, then you'relikely to fall into the into peril.

 

Andrew:Yeah, great tip.

 

Tim:And I'll piggyback on to Mark real quick there. Ask your questions to officialsand race directors. Don't ask the question to your teammate who's racked rightnext to you. Because again, sometimes the people that have been racing thelongest are unfortunately the ones who don't know anything about the rules.

 

Andrew: Sotrue!

 

Tim:Or they're still racing by rules from 20 years ago.

 

Mark:Yeah, the worst official in our program has a name, and that official is named“social media”. They very rarely get things correct, which is why we encourageeveryone that, if you're looking for rules information, go to the one-stopshop, our multisport rules page on the USAT website. There you will find themost up-to-date rules information. If you're doing Google, and you're out thereon the web searching, it's hard to tell what you will find that has beenpublished in the past by non-USAT personnel.

 

Andrew:That's a great point.

 

Mark:It’s all well-intentioned, but you can still find a lot of incorrectinformation. We do the best job that we can, when we find these things, to tryto scrub. But we're not in control of the myriad of entities that are trying tolend a “helping hand” to provide you with the latest rules, information,synopsis. And you end up reading the incorrect things and you end up followingrules that are either very old, or are just not correct.

 

Andrew:No matter who you are listening today, whatever race you have coming up, readthe rule book. Take advantage of the resources that Tim and Mark are talkingabout. Now when someone does receive a penalty – and Mark, you mentioned thatUSAT actually updated this to where you're kind of alerted in the moment thatyou've received the penalty –

 

Mark:Yep. Well, let's be clear, it's not necessarily the moment, right? It's alwaysgoing to be when and if safe to do so. Now you're more likely to be in themoment if there's something that's happened during the swim, and that would behandled in T1. On the bike course, you're always going to make the firstassessment of if it is safe to get in position to notify the athlete. That'swhy a lot of times athletes in an on-course notification system will say,“Well, I wasn't doing that when you notified me.” “No, because we couldn't getto you at that moment basically.” So you may not find out until a little bitdown the road that your behavior was observed, recorded, and you were inviolation of the competition rules. And then you're notified using a blue oryellow card system, which is an international system. And it requires theathlete to stop, whether it's on the bike course and it's a penalty area. Weemphasize “penalty area” and not just “penalty tent”, because some of thesmaller races may not have the infrastructure to provide a tent, but they canprovide an area. You can put two orange cones up and put it on there “penaltyarea”.  There are many ways that you canenforce at the local level that are different from what we would think of inlike an Ironman race or a national-level race for USA Triathlon. But you'rerequired to stop. If you don't stop, then the penalty is disqualification.We're not going to add penalty time. That's usually one of the kinds of thingsthat happens in the post-reality of “I didn’t stop,” and they're being informedthat they're disqualified. And they’re all, “Can you just add the penaltytime?”  Well, the on-course notificationsystem doesn't work, it loses its integrity. The whole point of it is that whenyou cross the finish line, that's your finish time. And you're not surprised,an hour or two hours later, to find out that your presumed finish time hasactually been increased based on the length of the course, because it was avariable-time penalty. So it's still a variable-time penalty, but you serve iton the course. Or you may serve a stop-start penalty. There's a myriad of waysin that system that you can enforce the competition rules, where the penaltymeets the actual infraction. In other words, in our old system, what rule youviolated didn't matter. You could get a drafting penalty for your firstpenalty, and abandoned equipment where you dropped a wrapper on the bikecourse, and you would still get a magnitude of penalty time added to your time.Whereas in the system that's international that we now have adopted, draftingis the most penalty time depending on the length of the race. Everything elseis going to be much less because the infraction, the amount of unfaircompetitive advantage gained is so much less.

 

Andrew:That makes sense, yeah. If you drop a wrapper – it's a rule that you shouldn'tbreak, we want to be tidy on the race course – but you're not gaining an unfairadvantage. Whereas drafting, that totally makes sense. I know this is probablya question you guys get from triathletes all the time when they find out you'rea rules official, but I'm curious – from all of your time on the race course,interacting with athletes, policing the course, what is just the wildest thingyou've seen someone do, or the wildest thing you've seen happen, the wildestinteraction you've had with a triathlete? Whatever it is, what is somethingthat stands out like, “Man, that was a very unusual moment.” Tim, what's thisanswer for you?

 

Tim:Well, I don't know if this is the same one Mark would be thinking of, becausehe and I had this experience together. I won't give too many details, butneedless to say, we had an athlete in a full IRONMAN race commit – I think weended up counting nine major infractions, including having a boombox taped tohis bike, riding in transition WITH the boombox. We caught wind of it aroundthe time he was on the bike course, or close to the end of the bike course.Mark had the duty, as head referee that day, of basically encountering thisathlete as he came out of T2 – shirtless, another major infraction – so it wasby far the most interesting thing I've ever seen in a race as far as that isconcerned.

 

Andrew:I just hear an athlete having their best life out there, right? Just enjoyingthe day, living it up to the max, right?

 

Mark:Yeah, so I had asked him to go up to the top of the hill, where they wouldbegin coming down for the run out, and I was waiting at the bottom. I standabout 5 foot 10.  I’m not really 100%sure, but the gentleman probably was – what would you say Tim, 6'5”, 6'6”?

 

Tim:Oh, and not only that, but just as wide, and muscular.

 

Andrew:And shirtless!

 

Mark:Yeah, so the entire time I could see Tim at the top of the hill going, “Big.Big.” So the athlete got down at the bottom of the hill and I began talking tohim, and the whole time I was like –

 

Andrew: Howdid he respond to the news that he had so many infractions?

 

Mark:Well, as in most cases, the denial. And never tell an athlete that they aredisqualified, you say, “You're subject to disqualification. You may continuethe race and you have options at the end.” But I did let him know that it washighly likely that it would be a disqualification because of the numberfailures to follow the instructions of the officials and race managementthroughout the day.

 

Andrew:Okay, all right. Well, he had the time on course that he wanted to have. He maynot have gotten an official finish time because of it, but good for him. Therehas been news, I wanted to ask this why I had you guys on. There's been newsover the past year or so of just some different technology that they can helprace officiating. The most notable that I think people have heard of isRaceRanger, which was just deployed at CLASH Miami for the pro race. What doyou guys think of this? Are officials generally excited by new tech like thisthat could help officiating? Or are you skeptical that it can do an effectivejob?

 

Mark:Yeah, I would think that that would be highly variable based on the personalityof the official. From my perspective, anything that helps is good. I would sayfrom my perspective it's too early, with some of this technology, to even takea skeptical approach, or even head over heels. Let's see how this plays out.The one thing I would emphasize is no matter what technology we end upemploying in our sport, as innovations continue to increase, the individualjudgment of the official on course is irreplaceable. Because there are so manyfactors that go into determining whether someone is attempting to gain anunfair competitive advantage. It's rooted in behavior. I'm not saying thatwe're out there mind-reading or anything, but we do have a certain level ofexperience and know what we're looking for, know how we're trying to officiate.And like I say, any tool that is developed and perfected that can helpofficials do their job in the most equitable and fair way, I think we shouldencourage those innovations. Certainly as a national federation, and certainlyas officials within a program. Now there are some folks that might be moreskeptical, but that's a personal decision.

 

Andrew:Yeah, Tim, how do you feel about that?

 

Tim:Yeah, we actually had the opportunity to use that in Milwaukee last year forthe PTO, and I believe it was used at T100 this year. I agree with Mark, it'san added tool in our toolbox, as an official out on the bike coursespecifically. And once you know what those colors are indicating, you use thatas a tool. I know the officials, when we were out there that day, we thought,“That looks awfully close, that's telling us they're within range, or they'reout of range. They're right where they're supposed to be.” And I think it's agreat tool for the athletes themselves, because they're looking at it just asmuch as the official is, and using that as their basis. So I've not beenskeptical, and I can see it as a valuable tool.

 

Andrew:Now I did want to ask about this – both of you guys have said things about how,when you're an official at a race and watching what the athletes are doing, asa triathlete, you can't help but get pulled in by what you're seeing on course.You can't help but root for the athletes, hope they have a great day out there.You guys voiced just how much you love being a part of race day without beingthe one racing yourself. So just talk to me about how you view the athletesfrom your position as an official, and what you feel with the athletes in somesort of athlete/official relationship throughout the day. Tim, what is this foryou? How do you feel about it?

 

Tim:Well, I think being an active triathlete right now, I understand that anxietyin transition race morning. You know, we train officials what to say and whatnot to say to those athletes, but I truly understand what they're goingthrough. And that's helpful. I'm there to advocate for them, for a safe andfair race, just as much as all the other officials. But sometimes, as somebodywho does race, I know what that person at the back of the pack is goingthrough. I can understand the intent, or what really is not the intent at theback of the pack. So I think that just helps my judgment to be a betterofficial, just understanding what the athletes are going through on a race day.

 

Mark:I would say two things. One, this is how I close every briefing, whether it's aprofessional athlete or an age-group briefing, and that is I remind them thatwe're on their side. When we're out there, we're working for them. We're notpolicemen, we're there to make sure that the race is fair. One of the things Iemphasize, both to athletes and to officials – because officials are humanbeings too, and they recognize that there are ramifications once a penalty isissued, that it is going to impact that athlete’s race. However, what we try toemphasize is that when you issue a penalty that you have given thought to, youfeel confident in making the call, you're not just penalizing the athlete whois in violation, but you're protecting the other athlete.

 

Andrew:For anybody listening today who has found this conversation very interesting –maybe they have some extra room in their life to be more involved in the sport– and maybe they're interested in becoming an official, how do they getstarted, and what does that process look like?

 

Mark:It's pretty streamlined now. We have two pages on our website at USA Triathlon.One is our rules page, which at the bottom of it will point you to theofficiating page where we have information about becoming an official, and yourdocuments for the officials. We have those front-facing because we want toprovide transparency to our constituents. Then at the bottom of that page itwill say, “If you're interested in becoming an official,” and you send an emailto rulesandofficials@usatriathlon.org. That email will be forwarded to the DeputyCommissioner and her assistant. They'll set up a time to do an interview,they'll walk them through the process, and they'll emphasize a couple of keypoints right at the beginning of that conversation. We like to lead with this –we can teach you the competition rules, we can teach you the nuts and bolts ofbeing a triathlon official. What we cannot teach you is good character and goodjudgment. You have to come to the officials program with good character andgood judgment. Your judgment will improve if you stay in the program, becauseit will become experiential. But if you have an axe to grind, if you have anagenda – we use this example very clearly – if you're still angry about thedraft packs at some race in the past that you did, and you've come to theOfficials Program with the solution that none of us who have been working inthis sport as officials have ever really given thought to, which is trying tosolve drafting in our sport, but you're absolutely convinced you know the wayto fix that – you may not last very long in the program, quite frankly. Becauseyour agenda is not to serve the athletes and the multisport communityprimarily, but rather your own personal agenda. You're not going to be a fitfor the USA Triathlon Officials Program, and it's pretty easy to discern that.The vast majority, 99% of the officials in our program, are dedicated to theathletes and the race directors they serve. But our program is made-up of humanbeings, and sometimes some of us are flawed. If you're flawed sufficiently tonot be the right kind of official for our program, we will ask you to findsomething else to do on your weekend besides officiate.

 

Andrew:Tim, what would you say to any athlete who is interested in becoming anofficial?

 

Tim:Well again, if you love race mornings but you can't race every weekend, itgives you an opportunity to be involved in a different way. You listed all thedifferent ways you can be involved. It can be low investment, you can just worklocal and regional races. If you have greater aspirations of working largerevents, those opportunities will come through the program. But I wouldn't sayit's a way to give back to the sport, but it's another way to be involved, andit's just a really great opportunity if that's what you're looking for.

 

Andrew:Last question and then we're going to slide into the cooldown. Tim, like wesaid earlier, you have Gulf Coast 70.3 coming up in just a little bit, at thetime we're recording this podcast episode. When you guys have a race coming up,do you take a peek at who the officials are ahead of time, and do you see themgoing by on the motorcycles and watch them in action, or do you just kind oftune in your athlete mode and not even think about it?

 

Tim:You have a rough idea who might be there, depending on what the differentsituation is, where there's a pro element to the race or not. I know a lot ofthe head referees for IRONMAN have put their teams together, so you kind ofknow who's going to be there because you might have been asked to work it. Idon't particularly go out and search for them. I might see them in transitionand say hi to them. I have been passed by so many officials that I know verywell on the moto who don't even recognize me, and I don't try to flag themdown, because I know what they're doing and they have a job to do, and it's notsocial hours. So I might say hi to them in transition, but that's pretty muchthe extent of. It.

 

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

 

Vanessa Ronksley: Well friends, it's cooldown time again, and I'mVanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm! Today's tip issomething I am very excited about, because our featured TriDot coachspecializes in running, and this is an area that I would love to improvemyself. Ken Page is a Boston Marathon finisher who started out as a USA FitRuncoach. He eventually caught the triathlon bug and became certified with IRONMANU. Ken loves working with beginner, intermediate, and middle-of-the-packathletes, and loves helping them reach their goals and the podium. Ken was bornin Grand Rapids, Michigan, and work eventually took him to the Houston areawhere he currently resides. Welcome to the cooldown, Ken!

 

Ken Page:Hello, thank you for having me! I'm excited!

 

Vanessa:Excellent, I am too. I think I know the real reason that you became interestedin triathlon. You saw people running around in spandex, and you fondly rememberanother time in your life when this was your outfit of choice. I think you needto enlighten us a little bit about this time period.

 

Ken:Oh lord, it was early on. When I was growing up playing tennis, I listened to alot of music that most folks didn't listen to, and I got really involved withthe music. I've got a huge record collection, and then had an opportunity,hanging out in bars, to start chit-chatting with some DJ's that would spinrecords for dance clubs. I got a chance to work behind the booth and spinrecords during some of the breaks for the DJ's, and that's where it kind ofevolved. Then I started working in a nightclub myself, and kind of changed mylook a little bit as time went on, really started playing the role in adifferent way. Growing my hair out, wearing different clothes, kind of fittingthe part of a disc jockey and living it in a different way.

 

Vanessa:I love that.  I bet people just lovedyou.

 

Ken:Well, my wife still has an old picture of me with blue spandex pants, redcrayon shoes, hair down past my shoulders. I don't know where that picture is,but it seems to come out periodically.

 

Vanessa:Oh my gosh! I would really like for you to send me that picture, just to makemy day a little bit brighter.

 

Ken:Well, I'll see if she knows where it's at. It's in a box with all the pictures,and it's not a real good quality picture based on the time frame when it wastaken. It’s an old Polaroid.

 

Vanessa:Right, of course. That's incredible. I imagine that while you're training now,you still hit up some of those playlists.

 

Ken:Oh god yeah, I'm heavy into alternative music right now, and I spend a lot oftime on the trainer. And the music that I play certainly gets me through someof those threshold workouts.

 

Vanessa:I'm sure. And speaking of training, why don't you share with us your superfabulous run tip?

 

Ken:I'm kind of sharing the message right now of getting back to the basics ofrunning, and incorporating those run drills that so many athletes tend to skip.They’re just either crunched for time, don't feel the value in doing them, orjust a variety of reasons. So that's something I've been sending out in anemail form, and carrying that conversation with the folks on my dashboard thatI'm working with, along with the running club that I facilitate locally onSunday morning. The run drills are something that I grew up doing on the track,and believe in, to improve running efficiency, and it can also carry over tohow fast that you run. Run drills are a great way to improve your runningefficiency and speed without actually running. It loosens up the muscles for anupcoming workout. Certainly thresholds, you definitely need to get the legswarmed up and loosened up through a variety of drills.

 

Vanessa:Yeah, I think one of the important things about those run drills is to not justgo through the motions of completing them. I think there's a really importantaspect of being intentional with those run drills, and making sure that youhave the proper forms so that you're getting the full benefit of the purpose ofthat run drill. Just as an example, I'm up in Canada now and it's cold out, soI do my run drills inside before I head outside. And I've been walking aroundthis area in my house, and there's a hallway that I have to go through – andwhenever I've done those asymmetric arm swings, I've always just done them likein a regular fashion – but when I go through this one hallway I'm like, “Oh, itactually makes a big difference to be in a hallway,” to actually try not totwist your torso, which is an exaggerated motion of what you're doing whileyou're running. So yeah, it's important to do these run drills and also to beintentional about them. Could you share with us one of the run drills that youthink most people have a problem being intentional with, when they're doingthese run drills for their warmup?

 

Ken:You mentioned doing run drills indoors before you go outside, and a great onethat’s easy to do indoors before you go outside is using a resistance band,putting it around either your knees or your ankles, and doing what I call thecrab walk, which you're going sideways. It engages those proper muscle groups,the larger glute muscles, the muscles that really need to fire off to runproperly. A great way to get those muscles engaged, and you could do themindoors, going down the hallway, any part of the house, because you're goingsideways in what I call the monster walk or crab walk. Do that down one way andback the other, two or three times to where you can really feel those glutesengaging. Great exercise to do before you head out the door, along with somestretching. I know with the weather changes and where you people live, it'scold outside, you certainly don't feel motivated to do anything out when it'sreally cold and you're bundled up. So, doing it indoors before you go outsideis a great way to get those muscles fired up.

 

Vanessa:Yeah, I think I really like that drill that you just mentioned. It's one that Ioften forget to do before I head out, so thank you for reminding me about that.The other thing that I like about that drill is that, because we're running ina forward plane, it's nice to get that lateral movement, to get that lateralwarmup, because we're not engaging those muscles necessarily. We have toactually remind ourselves to engage those muscles when we're running.

 

Ken:Oh, absolutely, yeah. That sagittal plane movement or forward movement. Yeah,you're engaging a different set of muscles. And another thing with theresistance band is just swinging the one leg out and back in, back and forth,and doing both sides. It’s a great workout before a run, or even after a run,because sometimes after a 45- to 60-minute run, things start to change as yourbody fatigues. So reinforcing the proper muscle group again afterwards is alsoa good approach, reminding those glute muscles through the resistance bandagain afterwards. Also, it's a good strength exercise.

 

Outro:Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast withyour triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with uson Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head totridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automaticchoice for triathlon training.

 

‍