Finishing First, But Placing Second
- Share
- Tweet
- Pin
- Share
Padra Meyer of Des Plaines, IL was the first female to cross the finish line in Saturday’s Door County Triathlon sprint distance event. She even broke the tape, but she didn’t win the race.
When you’re organizing a race in which 1,000 competitors are starting with a swim leg, it’s impossible to start them all at once, so Race Director Sean Ryan starts the athletes in waves. Most athletes are organized by age group, but top-level competitors are asked to identify themselves to start in the “elite wave,” the first ones to enter the water. Since times are kept with a timing chip that gets activated when the athlete passes through the starting gate and stopped when they cross the finish line, participants in later waves still get accurate times. That way, race officials are assured that the first person crossing the finish line is the winner. Unless, of course, an elite athlete doesn’t start with the elite wave.
That’s what happened Saturday, when Heidi Kraut won the sprint course but “finished” after the first woman across the line.
“I think it’s the first time that has ever happened at one of my races,” Ryan said. “One of the reasons we have the elite wave is so we can be sure who the winner is when they cross.”
He said some competitors tell him they prefer to start with their age group because they draw energy from working their way up through the crowd. If you start at the top, there’s few, if any, people to chase and you’re essentially running against yourself. By the time awards were handed out, the order was corrected and Kraut’s time of 1:18:59 topped Meyer’s 1:20:26.6, giving her a belatedly recognized victory.