In the past, my healthy obsession with cheaters has led me to some very defensive and dishonest folks. There was one whose "lawyer" sent me a threatening letter explaining the subtleties of liable laws. Only there was no such lawyer. Then there was another whose "friends" defended her (and insulted me) via multiple nasty emails from multiple fake addresses, all from the same IP address. Even yesterday's bus riding cheater got all indignant and said he was "upset and angry that someone wants to cast these aspersions."
That brings us to a young man who was called out on Slowtwitch for his rather inelegant course cutting at Ironman last weekend. Rather than denying, threatening with lawsuits, claiming to have been abducted by aliens who magically transported him to the finish line, or some other excuse, he manned up and admitted his transgression. (See post #105 in the Slowtwtich thread for his mea culpa.) Sure he only came clean after he was called out, but at least he didn't use the Deny, Deny, Deny defense. Don't get me wrong, I'm not nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize or excusing what he did, but he's a 22-year old who screwed up and then told his friends, family and about a zillion tri-geeks on a popular message board what he did.
Fun With Math - Marathon Edition
Then there's the tale of woe from one newbie runner who actually ran the whole thing but forgot her bib and was removed by the bandit catchers. Considering that they let well over 1,000 bandits sneak by, I'd suggest that the race organizers employ better bandit catchers next time around. I know one hypervigilant coach from NYC who'd be happy to do it in exchange for the free flight to San Francisco.
Posted at 11:48 AM in Cheaters, Coach's Comments | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)