Should Macca have finished the race?

He's the defending world champ at Kona, he made a professional decision that not one of us have ever had to contemplate (or likely ever will)

While I respected Beke's statement last year that "pulling out would have been an insult to all the AGer's out there," I personally don't consider it an insult if a pro drops out during a bad day.   And, for the record, he did drop out at IMAZ (I think)

I don't think a pro has to finish a race if it becomes clear to them that they are out of the running.  That's a game time decision they have to make.  Nothing to prove at that point, and suffering through a marathon and potentially injuring yourself and harming future revenue opportunities is a decision a pro has to make.  He has races (or at least one left) this season.

Obvisouly CW made the opposite decision to take a pee break while trying to fix her flat, turned out to be the right one for her

All my long winded way of saying I can't say yes or no for him, in that situation.

I'm swayed towards the "yes". I KNOW that he's a pro, and his income is racing and such, and I'll NEVER be in his shoes.  However, I've always raced with the the mentality that if I can put one foot in front of the other, or somehow find a way to move forward, then I will reach the finish line, reguardless of the time. 

For me at least, if I quit just ONE TIME, it opens the door to do it again, and I'm just not sure I could close that door if I open it even once.  But then again, my next race doesn't put food on the table either.

Did Stadler finish in 2006 after getting his 2 flats?  Just curious.      

I kind of wish he would have and I would have respected that a lot bet I understand why any pro wouldn't.

I don't care.

By not running he will recover better. Clearly I'm not a pro but knowing they make their money from finishing well. Make the game time decision that he wasn't going to finish in the money so why beat up his body makes sense.

I do like/admire those pros who do finish just to finish but understand when they don't.

I say no (not that it really matters much), I just don't see the point for him to keep going on.  Here is why

1) He will not win the race at that point.  THis is his profession, it is 100% different for him than for us.

2) He (and we) knows that he can finish an Ironman, so nothing to prove there.

3)  He doesn't disrespect other athletes by not finishing.  In fact by him not being out there means more food and liquid for everyone else.   I think he has a great respect for the sport.  It isn't like he is running by age groupers spitting on them. 

4)  Him just finishing doesnt' make anyone else's finish more or less meaningful.  I doubt the guy or gal that finished in 16 hours really cares if Macca finished or not.  THey are pumped that they finished. 

Good point - look for Macca to pop up in a race sometime soon where he will clean up and collect some nice winnings.  It won't make up fopr not winning Kona, but he's a pro and has to maintain his profile and earn the $$.

As much as he loves the sport it is still a business transaction for a pro.

Silverman?

God I hope its IM WA!!  would be so awesome for him to race in Busso!  Theres a tidy prize pool for anyone who breaks the world record there.

I'd be so excited to be racing on the same course.  perfect timing on Dec 7th

As noted above, he's returning to Silverman - altho he's doing the hallf, so maybe it's an IM WA training day!

The last I heard he had an internal cable break preventing him from shifting between the big and small ring. If this is accurate why didn't he just manually put it into the big ring and ride the rest of the way like that?

Chrissy could have stopped for a 20 minute repair and still won

I'm thinking the $50000 on offer for a record IM time might be a good incentive for IM WA.