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

Free wrote:

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

Entry was free wasn't it?[/quote]

It was but he should retire anyway.

Both runners also have FB accounts? Video statements, etc. I believe over 400 comments on the official FB race account were also posted within an hour of the DQ, mostly negative.

The only thing I learned is that we would be better off if rojo lost interest in ultras as we don't want his type around us.

I slept on this and I still find it as ridiculous as I did last night. Looking for any excuse to stop the race after both those guys gave everything they had. Laz should never do another virtual race again. He can't handle it.

jesseriley wrote:

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.

Do you have a link to these statements that you could share?

That’s one thing that’s being put out there, is that Laz was only honorary RD.

I’m struggling to keep up with it all via personal phone calls & emails.

pffffffffft wrote:

they would be, slav monkeys have countless trolls

Nice try, Laz.

wow this whole thread is a slav promotion slum. perennial victims. congrats to mike, the rightful, deserving winner

my name isn't laz, natasha

Radek states that it wasn’t clear why Wardian wasn’t DQ’d already, since his Strava was started 9 minutes late on the lap he quit & then returned.

My low-tech setup is being supplemented by friends relaying statements via texting.

Did Radek ever explain himself?

Why is the requirement even to start the lap at the beginning of the hour? That only leads to stupid situations like this.

The requirement should be to finish the lap within the hour. Who cares if they start right at the beginning of the hour or ten minutes after, as long as they finish the lap.

If person A wants to wait until there are 20 minutes into the hour to start and then sprint to the finish, go for it.

The challenge would be the same, but it would be way more black and white. Cross the finish line before the end of the hour. You can’t start until the next hour begins. Dead simple. You can’t make it even more obvious by stating race directors clock is the official clock, and if you finish with seconds to go, you risk getting dqed because of the lag.

*can make it

The "rule" states:

At the bell you will start your treadmill and run 6.706km/4.167miles.

It does not say on the dot, or within .01, or within 1 second, or within 30 seconds. Dude was on the treadmill, ready to go, clearly, intent was there. The treadmill was on. I'd say he was within the rules. Say the dog, or child was on it. Say the power had gone out. Say there was a lag in broadband not updating the page he was watching.

This is sort of like if a guy made a race that had a line-up warning involving blowing into a conch shell, and then lit up a cigarette instead of using a starters pistol, or saying "go," come to think of it. Basically insane.

Oh, and I have nothing against Wardian, but he started early several times when I was watching. What do the "rules" say about that?

jesseriley wrote:

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.

The consensus? Really? If so, then that just goes to show once again just how insane most people are. The organizers clearly were not looking for an excuse to pull the plug. The RD was literally (and I mean literally in the true definition of the word, not the modern perversion of it) crying while announcing the DQ. He clearly, obviously did not want to do it, but he felt that he had to enforce the rules as he saw it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is crazy.

It was an emotional moment, and one thing I think we can all agree on is that they made the decision too quickly. They should have taken more time to figure out what happened before ruling. But I think they were sleep-deprived and egged on by Laz's declaration that it was over followed by his exit. Most importantly, I think they were pressured by the psychological effect of having the infraction witnessed by thousands of live viewers.

There's a psychological effect illustrated by the example of drinking a bottle of alcohol in a paper bag. The fig-leaf of having the paper bag obscure the contents allows everyone involved--including authority figures--to have plausible deniability and choose to exercise discretion if they want to. People feel more obligated to enforce something if they know that others have seen that they have seen the infraction. If only one person observers the infraction, then they are much, much more likely to feel free to let it slide.

So because this infraction was observed live by thousands of people, the RDs felt an enormously greater amount of pressure to strictly enforce the rule than they would have felt if no one else but them had seen it. If this wasn't being streamed live, I bet the RDs wouldn't have DQed him. I think that's why the RD was crying. He didn't want to DQ Radek, but he felt forced to because too many people had witnessed the infraction and he didn't want anyone to accuse him of not enforcing the rules.

Why not wait until the end of the race to call the DQ instead of ending the guy's run at the point of the infraction? Then you could still DQ the guy if you wanted to, but there would also be an opportunity for protest and review.

Touche

birdbeard wrote:

Did Radek ever explain himself?

He responded to the Personal Peak post saying he was DQ'd

his posts were:

"My tablet was delayed and I wait for the start. Btw. If I looked for strava.com for confirmation Mike’s run. He not start evevy loop directly in start hour. It is ok???"

"Maybe, but this two next are not exactly in start hour. I was every start hour on treadmill. I dont made nothing agains rules. How I know, that Mike start in real time, when he switch off stream?"

he also had screen shots of Mikes strava that started after the hour