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Articles Doug Theis on 21 Nov 2010 07:47 am

Cheating in the Great Outdoors

After the Urban Sprint Race this year, I was fortunate enough to sit in on one of the 2011 planning sessions with the race directors of the Indianapolis-based adventure races. Many topics were discussed, including cheating during an adventure race.

During the Planet Adventure Urban Sprint Race this year, an all-male team was splitting up to take advantage of the opening urban trek section. The team would send a fast member to the control, and the slower members would “cut the corner” and head off to the next control in the mean time. The rules of the race stated that team members must stay within 50 feet of each other at all times. The accused team ended up taking home winning trophies, but were later DNF’ed based on the evidence.

Is what they did cheating? I admitted a similar offense at Holcomb Gardens in the same race. Nancy ran about 100 yards to the statue while Jeff and I stayed near the bikes. I think both the first team and TRG cheated, strictly speaking. It’s then up to the race director what penalty should be assessed.

I do believe, however, that 50 feet is too small a distance. 50 yards is a more reasonable expectation, and it allows for the natural occurences of separation, especially on the bike.

Comments?

Comments (1)

One Response to “Cheating in the Great Outdoors”

  1. on 21 Nov 2010 at 8:58 am 1.James said …

    Whether 50 feet, 50 meters, or 100 meters, the intent is generally designed to maintain the spirit of the team based race. In general, I would not see a problem as long as teams stay together and don’t significantly advantage themselves by splitting up. In the case that you describe, TRG would be just fine because their split didn’t really advantage the team at 100 yards. On the other hand, the other team that was allowing a very slow member to lag way behind, while faster members went ahead to get the controls, would be a problem.

    Enforcement is the main problem since teams take a variety of routes and there are rarely volunteers available simply to monitor the rules. Directors have to rely on information coming from other teams as to what they observed and then ultimately on the honesty (or dishonesty) of the team in question.

    It’s a good question… I’m curious as to other thoughts racers have on this subject.