Where’s the Penalty Tent?

After 1.5K of ocean swimming, 40K of cycling and 9.7K of running with 74 of my best amigos, the title of this post is what I yelled at the six ITU delegates standing on the side of the road in Mooloolaba. You see, I take things very literally, and if you call something the “penalty tent” I will generally look for a tent-like structure. No such thing existed and after I ran a few meters past what I am now calling the “general vicinity of penalty enforcement” one ITU official ran up to me and began to count down my 15 seconds. It sucks to sit there and watch so many guys run by, but I got a good rest and sprinted past a few of them again, only to realize that 300 meters is a long way to hold a full-on sprint, so a few passed me back again and I ended in 45th place. NOT what I was looking for in Mooloolaba. I got bumped up to 44th because Gavin Noble didn’t serve his penalty and got a DQ. So it could be worse.

So what was my penalty? “You didn’t put your cap and goggles in the box and we have a picture to prove it!” she said. I took a picture, too:


My final conclusion on my penalty is that “in the box” is a dumb rule.

Gwen Jorgensen, Barrett Brandon and me with Mooloolaba beach in the background. Steve Sexton on camera duties.


Wearing my timing chip on my left leg just to be different. Photo credit: Wayne Nevrilk