Comments
Jessica Merritt --> The race director who “witnessed” this half in to his handle of liquor that night.... I’m sure that’s very reliable
Meghan Gebke --> Requiring an athlete to run an extra 10 miles to make up for allegedly skipping a mile (possibly and likely accidental) and then going back on your word and DQing the athlete anyways after the fact? Sounds pretty questionable.
Joey Lichter --> Here are the facts according to Alyx's strava profile 1) she logged a 27.2 mile swim (+3.2 of what she needed) 2) she logged a 1063.8 miles of the bike (which is -57 miles of what she needed) and 3) she logged a 254.7 mile run (which is -7.3 miles of what she needed). So her strava data suggests she did not complete everything. If she is planning to use Strava data to prove she finished, I dont see how this will support her...... She also had quite a few comments. Some of the ones that struck me as interesting given the conversation on here "Beer Miles" (funny how others who weren't even at the event are calling out race staff for supposed drinking but shy to mention anything about the athlete who mentioned in their race comments that they indeed were drinking) "Lost a few miles forgot to restart" "ready to run and get the hell out of the usa. Company is hennig [a 1x10 competitor] and my sassy sense of assholery bullshit here at this race".... The race director's post makes it clear that this individual was seen crossing the timing mat by the dining area/bunkhouses, taking a break and then crossing the timing mat again. This is in violation of the race rules. This is actually one of the most common cheating mechanisms at a multi day event (look up Kelly Agnew for an example just last year). ALL OF US ATHLETES WERE WARNED NOT TO DO THIS. The athlete acknowledged the mistake and was wanting to do more laps to try and make up for the mistake. However at this point she has acknowledged guilt to not logging a lap correctly. This is the reason for the disqualification. (To be clear, I was a competitor at this race in the 1x5 and I dropped on day 2 and stuck around to assist athletes and race organizers). To the many folks who are on here that support Alyx, it is very likely she made a mistake and had no bad intentions. None of us other than Alyx will know. But before you go bashing decaman and the race directors, you have to appreciate that for a 2 week long endurance event with the weather conditions that were had, this was a tough race to put on and the race directors did the best they could.