Help me understand if this is "legal" while racing...

Thank you, David

To the poster who wanted to know what times I run: it's not pertinent to the argument but I can assure you it's much quicker that 22-23, even for the really old guy that I am.

Speaking of arguments, for all you naysayers, let's go to a second level thinking scenario-let's say you are a decent hobby jogger who runs for their local club "A" team in your state championship road 5K. An opposing team guy you are running with decides to cut a 90 degree corner and he gains 3 seconds on you, He does it again on a similar corner and gains another 3 seconds. You lose to him, let's say by 4 seconds, and therefore your team loses the team title by 2-3 seconds. Do you file a protest? I'll bet you that once you tell your team members what happened that they would insist a protest be filed. Now, you are all just hobby joggers, right? Who cares, right? It's only a team championship on the line, right? Bragging rights, right? Who cares? Just a few hundred dollars for first but who cares, right?

After reading all the posts, it's evident to me that it is cheating, just like all the other examples I cited. Doesn't matter if it's a pro race (can you imagine if one of the pros cut the Carlsbad 5000 before that last road divider on the main drag at about 2. 25 miles???), or a local Saturday race.

Of course it matters who did it and how fast they are. You know that based on your question regarding the Carlsbad 5000. The family walking in last place in the Saturday race doesn't matter. The winner of the Carlsbad 5000 does matter. I wouldn't DQ the family but I would DQ the elite runner. Ask an elite runner if they care about an average runner cutting the corner. Even they don;t consider those people racers. 90% of the people entered in a race are not really entered in a race in their mind. They are paying an entry fee to be able to participate in an event. They like talking to the other entrants and getting a shirt and free food. They just don't think of it as a race. Some of the largest races have hindreds of participants who show up early to walk so that they don;t miss the food at the end.

As Katz notes above, it goes to the integrity of the event. It's annoying when you see people cutting the course, and just gives an icky feeling to all when they see people doing this -- I suspect even the true Hobby Jogger likes the "officialness" of a formal 5K, and that's undercut when people cut, when the course is short, etc. I personally would never even consider raising an official protest or even saying something to the cutter of corners absent both clear malicious intent and some impact on the winner, but let's at least agree it's wrong.

wow21 wrote:

As Katz notes above, it goes to the integrity of the event. It's annoying when you see people cutting the course, and just gives an icky feeling to all when they see people doing this -- I suspect even the true Hobby Jogger likes the "officialness" of a formal 5K, and that's undercut when people cut, when the course is short, etc.

This.

How can any of us take it seriously if a friend, clubmate or anyone else breaks 3:00, 2:40 or 2:20, or gets an OTQ, if we don't know the course was (A) properly measured and (B) actually run??

Just be thankful that the elites don't have their coaches out on the course handing them water bottles!!