Abandonment in IM?

Technically speaking it's abandonment and a penalty. The only place you are legally allowed to throw something away is at an aid station.

So if your SO happens to be near an aid station and picks up the 'trash' you leave...then no harm no foul.

Thanks for posting.  I was on the IMFL run course but not next to an aid station.  I was 20 feet or so from a dumpster a lot of racers used for their cups/gu packets etc.  Is it illegal to use an actual trash can/dumpster?  Does it have to be an aid station?  I just think about carrying that cup of chicken broth for a mile or longer.

Actually, that's not what rule 3.4.h says.  You're not allowed to leave equipment or personal gear anywhere on the race course. No exception for aid stations.

That being said, unless you're competing for a podium spot, or are unlucky enough to dump something right in front of an official, you're probably not going to get penalized.  If you do, it's only a variable time penalty.

Mark

I think many people break little rules (also called cheating) all the time, happens in all sports.  The thing with the non contenders is that it hardly matters to anyone else.  Everyone has their own line.  If the urgency to discard some object was great and I didn't want to lose said object I would not hesitate to give that to a buddy outside of an aid station.  If the urgency was less great I would suck it up and follow the rules.   At the same time, if I see people getting nutritional aid from a personal support person I do kinda feel that the person is running a bit of a different race than I am.

Part of the challenge, I think, is finishing the race within the bounds of the rules of the race, silly as they may be.  (Of course some people may feel that part of the challenge is breaking as many rules as you can and not getting caught so you can finish as fast as you can. )If that means carrying an empty cup for a mile well that is part of it.  And with that cup of chicken broth, can you throw it on the ground if you don't want it, I mean the broth not the cup, and if you can throw the broth why not the cup?  What if I know throwing the broth is abandonment so I drink it knowing I am just going to spew it?  Sorry if this is getting silly.

Personally I would look at receiving outside assistance as a bigger sin than abandoning gear on the course, as it provides more of a potential to gain an unfair advantage.  One big intent of the abandonment rule is to help insure that triathlon is being a "good neighbor" and not littering trash over the entire race course.

Personally, I tend to be black or white when it comes to the rules and try my best to follow them.  The thing that surprises and/or disappoints me are the number of people who don't actually know the rules, but then will spend hours arguing about them.

Mark  

What if you're throwing it away at an official aid station trash can? It's against the rules to dump my throwaway t-shirt at the aid station trash can (how is that different than dumping/throwing away my gel wrapper?)? That is not how I understand the rule. 

A little off the subject, but I will throw it in.

During Ironman AZ this past Nov. I saw a guy who had a cooler stashed away on the bike course. He was sitting there with his wife drinking a coke. 

I found this in a USAT officials Manual on Enforcement:

3.4h Abandoned Equipment.

Requires that no aid station was in sight.

“#432, female on black trek, tossed a water bottle in the road on Hwy344. Two miles from aid station.”

http://www.bayareamultisport.com/pdf/030210_usat_officials_manual.pdf

So if that is generally accurate then trash cans should be ok.  Handing off to a family member is more suspect, but worst case should be a variable time penalty.

While I agree that the chances of getting a penalty are less when you are a 'back of the packer', it does not relieve the burden of the rule. If person A has their SO jog with them the last mile and wins the race it's no less breaking the rules than person B finishing last and their SO jogs with them.

So it's a personal line.  I use to date a USAT official and we would play the scenario game all the time.  She said she'd give them a penalty just like anyone else.  Maybe more likely to give a BOP a penalty because they had assistance for a longer period of time. 

Same here. During the second loop of the IMLP run I handed my boyfriend my Garmin and HR Strap after it died. Nobody cared, but then again I was a 16-hour finisher.

I guess I have a comment on this issue and some of the posts.

I see your point and agree with most of it, and you can do what you want.  But FOR ME...  It doesn't matter if "they don't care" if you are slow or not going for a podium spot.  Or it only matters if you get caught or do it in front of an official.  It's a RULE so I try not to break it.  It doesn't matter if they don't care, or I can get away with it.  I care and I would know...

I just carefully plan my race clothes.  I either have disposable gloves or something I can throw in the trash, or know I can stash it in my special needs bag if needed.  I usually dress to be cold at the start, knowing I will warm up later.

I don't care if other people want to drop off stuff, honestly.  I don't judge.  But I don't in the spirit of the sport and the rules.

Well played.

^^^^ winner winner chicken dinner.

Wrong. No winner, no dinner.

I would be more likely to penalize someone receiving something (say, personal nutrition from a coach or family member) than someone tossing his shades to a family member. One is unfair advantage, the other not so much.

To generalize in either case would not be correct, though. Officials are taught to use judgment.

This is an interesting discussion that never gets old.

Maybe it's semantics, but I don't qualify all rules violations as cheating.  IMO, cheating is intentionally breaking the rules to gain a competitive advantage.  On the other hand inadvertently breaking a rule with no advantage gained isn't cheating.  It just happens, and you need to deal with it.

It's the difference between intentionally sucking onto someone's wheel during the bike, and getting caught up in a group of riders at a bottleneck.

I do believe that Lance used those exact words to justify his doping.  He wasn't gaining a competitive advantage because everyone else was doping.  Slightly apples to oranges, but you know what I mean.