first, a shoutout to my homies in DC. what started in a park with a fountain in the middle has blossomed and grown... and made the 10 o'clock news. i just hope AZ isn't still riding his hot Vanilla for polo anymore...
last night, i was back at the track, officiatin'. i started this whole thing in an attempt to earn back the cost of the mechanic's and official's license i now hold- the hefty cost of a trip to colorado. well, i'm honestly not crazy about it. it's stressful, it's tiring, and it takes away all the shouting/socializing that i love to do. but once i started it was clear they needed more bodies, so now i'm roped in.
i realized, though, that since I'm working two races this weekend, I can't join the crew going to the Subaru Cup. i'm missing racing I could do in order to sit on the sidelines and have people shout at me because they think they took 3rd on the lap 20 sprint. when did this happen? it's too late to change it now but hot damn, i'd rather be riding trail.
last night during a miss n' out we called someone who happened to be a friend of mine and happened to think he wasn't the last over the line. naturally, he came to argue it. it really sucks when this happens. we don't make calls alone, and we don't make them for spite. if you think you're not last, or you're first, or whatever, maybe you don't realize that you cross the line in the middle of a pack of three, and the other two were accelerating while you slowed down, so the trailing edge of your rear wheel was indeed the last to cross the line, but you didn't realize it because your body was a good foot past the line at that point. it's just really frustrating... and is it worth arguing?
this morning, after getting home from the track later than 11 last night, with just 6 hours of sleep, I set out for a planned 7. it became 10. as I was running, I realized, first, that I was at LSD pace and could go really far when going that slow, and second, I hadn't run double-digits since the marathon. should have carried water, though. Molly and I were both doggin' it. Finished the 10 with a pokey 11:09 average, which isn't bad for no water, no dinner last night, and 6 hours of sleep.
Ridden and Reviewed Kona Libre CR
8 months ago
6 replies:
That track officiatin' sounds sucky Julie. Sorry you got roped into it.
Your run this AM sounds awesome. Good job!
Do you see any conflict of interest officiating races in which your teammates compete? I do.
since you weren't there last night, i'll tell you that there were zero half acre riders out. not that it matters. if calls are made based on some kind of bias, that's a big problem. but it's not going to happen. this isn't a fashion show and it's clear who crosses the line when.
No, I wasn't there, so I'll take your word for it. But there will definitely be HA riders in races you officiate. I didn't want to push your buttons, and I do appreciate your taking the time to help the community and give your time as an official. But any time an official is on a team that's also racing, there is a strong possibility of bias. Is it common at other tracks, and other types of racing, for an official to be judging her own teammates? What does the USAC have to say about it?
if you think there's ANYONE in cycling without some kind of relationship or past association with a team/rider/coach/etc you're kidding yourself. where would officials come from? the sky? no, all officials are people with relationships to the sport. you just don't know them well enough to know what that relationship is. if having a relationship like that disqualified officials, there would be none. and then how would races happen?
USAC has a rulebook which all officials know and enforce. The rules are the same whether it's your mom or a stranger. And your suggestion that there's some kind of "conflict of interest" is insulting but pretty amusing. There's always some excuse.
That's a good point. Everyone in cycling has some association to some team or racer, whether they're actively on the team or not. And I did not mean to imply that you, Julie, were necessarily biased against other teams' racers and towards HA. But I did want to discuss the potential conflict of interest that I saw, and still see, in officials judging races in which their teammates compete. But I also know that I'm being a provocative jerk about this, and I haven't heard of you exhibiting bias and I don't expect you to.
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