Has this been posted anywhere already? USATF banned headphones from all sanctioned races? (Read 1062 times)

i knew individual race events had been banning them lately, but i didn't realize it was an official USATF thing until i caught this article & brian lehrer today: read: ny times article listen: brian lehrer i understand the safety issue, but the competitive edge thing seemed a little odd to me.

When I checked my official results for the Applefest HM, I noticed a link, clicked it and found eight runners listed under the following banner: *********************************************** RUNNERS DISQUALIFIED FOR USING PROHIBITED ITEMS *********************************************** I imagine most were for mp3 players, but nobody can claim ignorance. The information is prominently posted on the race webpage. The reason given is insurance requirements, it is a USATF course. Runners only - "No walkers", and none of the following are allowed. No pets, baby strollers, skates, headsets earbuds, mini-speakers anywhere on or around the body. And just to be clear, that means that IPODS in any form or by any other name are not allowed. This is a safety/insurance issue and has nothing to do with a like or dislike of music. It has to do with the potential future cost of insurance and/or the possible lack of availability of insurance for our race. Runners violating this safety rule will be disqualified

I've written about running with headphones ad nauseum at my site, mostly because it never fails to bring in readers and traffic. Personally, I don't use them for two main reasons. First, I am good at pacing myself and music would mess with that. I enjoy my environment too much to want the distractions. Second, and more importantly, I've been hit by a car before and I have zero interest in getting hit a second time. That's an even more important reason to minimize distractions. Even when sidewalks and trails are available, I'm a very untrusting person when it comes to contests between myself and something that weighs on the order of 2 tons. No matter who is at fault, I lose. Having seen plenty of morons driving near me when running or biking, and having seen plenty of aftermaths of morons driving from my few years in the fire department when I was in high school, I have no interest in taking part in the car that tries to be funny and then does something the driver isn't expecting. A third reason that I don't wear them during races is that I am a USATF sanctioned runner and the governing body of my sport has ruled them illegal. I don't include it as a top 2 reason because that's new this year and I rarely have run with them before anyway, and never raced.

AFAIK, this isn't a new USTAF rule. The headphone rule has been on the books a long time. I think its enforcement that is new, and this is driven by the race organizers (and insurers) not the USATF. I only point this out because the title of the thread is a bit misleading, unless I missed something and the USATF actually did something new.

According to the rules, GPS devices should also be outlawed. Why have they not been? Getting hit by a car is far more dangerous in training than in a race, when roads are typically blocked off; should headphones not be banned on the street but permitted in a race?

Trent, I would say that for the majority of the races that I run, roads are not completely blocked to traffic, and assuming that they are can lead to problems. Not only that, but a road blocked to traffic doesn't mean that there won't be any. A few years ago, an 80 year old man ignored a police officer and pulled into a bike race, killing three of the cyclists. The biggest problem with headphones isn't with traffic, though, that's just the largest danger if there is a problem. Being unable to hear instructions at the start or while you are on the course is potentially dangerous because you will not hear last minute changes to the course, rules of the road, or guidelines while you are running to keep you going the right way. You won't hear about potential problems such as potholes, etc. As for GPS, I wonder about that myself. You do not have the inherent safety issues (which are there whether you want to admit it or not and whether or not you personally think that you should be allowed to take those risks,) but you do have the "assistence to a runner" - but then again, wrist watches are specifically allowed and does the GPS count as a wrist watch? If you look at the relevant rules (USATF Rules Article 4) and scroll down to rule #144 point #2 that no assistance may be given to runners, and then that point and the next few points define what assistance is. Any sort of electronic device (basically and paraphrased) can be considered assistance. Explicitly allowed are wrist chronometers and heart rate monitors. I have not seen a further definition of this rule; by wrist chronometer, do they mean only the stopwatch functionality of the wrist watch, or any wrist watch style device as long as it doesn't have any sort of display or control influenced by somebody outside of the race? If I use the pace functionality of my wrist watch to tell me how I am doing in relation to my mile splits, does that count as cheating? And if not, then how is GPS any different than that? I haven't really been able to decide how GPS fits into these rules that were written before GPS became a viable solution for most runners. My gut is that they are illegal, because "[...] radio transmitters or receivers, mobile phones, computers or any similar devices in the competition shall not be permitted." I would tend to think that GPS falls into that category of "similar devices".

Blaine, thanks. So do Lance's pacers or elites' bunnies count as "assistance"?

I can't speak for the assistance part of running with headphones. I've never been fast enough to win any race. It's a moot point for me. I just can't blame race directors for banning headphones for insurance reasons. I have my Shuffle turned up just enough to hear the music but, low enough to hear my surroundings. I do the same thing with my car stereo. We all know people who blast music who can't hear what's going on around them. For safety reasons, I wouldn't want them in my race either. Mostly, I think headphones in a race is just rude to the other people around you. You wouldn't wear your I-Pod to a party would you? A race is as much a social event as an athletic event, at least for me. You get bored during the race? Try talking.

If you read the articles pdf file that I linked to, assistance is explicitly defined and states what is and is not allowed.

Right. But what we are inquiring into is the adequacy of and justification for the explicit rules about assistance. I am also interested in why the rules of racing are centered around the concept of assistance, instead of something like "the experience of the participants." That the rules are written and clearly defined does not make them right.