Coolest or weakest thing ever? Quarantine Backyard Ultra ends with controversial DQ after 250+ miles

I disagree with this one. Getting up from the chair and getting onto the treadmill should constitute "starting." The point of the rule is to prevent excessive rest stretches. Clearly, if the guy has risen and is standing on his treadmill, he has transitioned from the rest phase to the movement phase. In a real race, how many inches across the line does one have to go? Wardian could have moved a few inches past the line and then stopped to fiddle with his watch for a minute and been fine, right? Didn't Radek do the equivalent of that? This was a weak call by the race director.

Middle Ground wrote:

The point of the rule is to prevent excessive rest stretches.

This is exactly right. When I woke up this morning and saw the news, I assumed that the Czech just accidentally nodded off and failed to get up and move to the treadmill. But when I saw the video of what he was doing from 2 minutes before the hour to 2 minutes after the hour, it's just unbelievable someone would view that as a potential DQ.

It's amazing how many people who help run this sport have no idea how to run a sport. This RD should run for president of USATF or IAAF after this show of incompetence.

As usual, Laz makes sure the race is about him rather than the competitors.

Middle Ground wrote:

I disagree with this one. Getting up from the chair and getting onto the treadmill should constitute "starting." The point of the rule is to prevent excessive rest stretches. Clearly, if the guy has risen and is standing on his treadmill, he has transitioned from the rest phase to the movement phase. In a real race, how many inches across the line does one have to go? Wardian could have moved a few inches past the line and then stopped to fiddle with his watch for a minute and been fine, right? Didn't Radek do the equivalent of that? This was a weak call by the race director.

I agree with this, but also Laz made a good point as well, it's easy when your writing the rules to think black and white, but this is clearly a grey situation. I would see being on the treadmill as having started. Obviously the RD saw it as not having started. We know the spirit of the rule but it was interpreted literally I guess.

One thing is for certain, figuring out how to handle the time accurately for everyone should be a "thing" next time (and I'm sure this will happen again, it's a fun idea)

Andy Dufresne wrote:

As usual, Laz makes sure the race is about him rather than the competitors.

Thanks Andy

I feel the same way.

I think it’s a little weak to disqualify a guy in hour 63 of a race that was hastily put together and is clearly vulnerable to a multitude of technology-induced errors. Anyone who has done a Zoom call can tell you that the video and audio sometimes lag, it’s just how it goes. That said, how long should they wait before DQing, if not two minutes? Ten? Fifteen?

Hopefully Radek will garner a bit of sponsorship from this performance; maybe enough to pay for a trip to the U.S. for the real event. It would be great to see him out on the course.

28 years ago, every $5 watch had a synchronization feature and an hour chime, designed to reset the watch to the chime of the exact hour, broadcast on TV occasionally. We used it to synchronize our watches to the race time, so that if you stopped the chronometer by mistake you could still easily calculate elapsed time via the time of day (the chime is also useful). Many multi-day ultra runners must know this.

windyashell wrote:

3) Radek has a point about at least two of Mike's laps starting at 01. I trust Derek will be on the case. I guess strava ticks over at 30s to the next minute. well, thats a dq.

I'm seeing a numbering of people saying this, but you all seem to be unaware that that some point relatively early in the race the RD's clock was one minute behind. So all of the the laps after that point when the clock was messed up started one minute after the hour.

I think the argument you should go for is that if the RDs can't even avoid technical difficulties with their official clock then more grace should have been given to the competitors' technical difficulties. The argument that Mike was also starting late sometimes simply isn't true. Mike was starting with the official bell, and the official bell was going off 1 minute after the hour.

Yes, Radek should be a hot commodity. And our race lasted two months, so we did have some time to develop a close, personal relationship with our watches.

PS. If you haven't seen what happened go to the 4:54:00 mark here. You'll see him get on the treadmill, drink a little start to fiddle with something and then get DQd. You can keep watching to see the rest unfold as well. Nothing really happens after they DQ him to when Wardian finishes 31 minutes into the hour.

https://www.facebook.com/personalpeakendurance/videos/204153144371066/?t=12

windyashell wrote:

Radek went into the critical night early, when Mike was still playing in the sunlight with his friends. Radek had broken the back of it - Mike was about to enter the extra hell.

Oh, gimme a break. They'd been running the exact same amount of time. (Not to mention that running on the treadmill gave Radek a huge advantage.)

It's unsportsmanlike to DQ him in that scenario considering the nature of the race in terms of distance and time, number of competitors, etc.

Race organizers should be ashamed and reevaluate their model.

Maybe it’s like baseball when it’s 100 degrees on Saturday afternoon in July. Everything’s a strike and let’s get this over with.

Bro, hand in your runners card if you're really trying to compare baseball to running. Baseball is a lazy mans sport.

The whole event is so silly and gimmicky to begin with that DQing a guy over something minor has the same feel as a parent who angrily wipes the pieces off of the Candyland board and packs up the game because his toddler moved his piece an extra space.

Ultra running is gimmicky on its own. When you turn it into a virtual race with weird lap rules, you're basically creating silly reality TV rather than attempting a serious athletic competition. There's nothing wrong with this, but just acknowledge that it's all silly fun and act accordingly instead of being overly serious about something that is inherently not serious at all.

I’ve received additional reports, mostly via twitter accounts (because organizers have deleted everything they could control).

Both runners have released statements. The consensus is the organizers looked for any excuse to pull the plug.

as a running fan who hasnt paid much attention to ultras and got to indulge here im disappointed mike couldnt keep going. they had me. i was watching and getting excited. really deflates the whole thing futher.

HeyHeyHey wrote:

It's unsportsmanlike to DQ him in that scenario considering the nature of the race in terms of distance and time, number of competitors, etc.

Race organizers should be ashamed and reevaluate their model.

With all these entry fees, Dave Proctor can finally retire from the sport.