Profiting from the great iPod debate (Read 1037 times)

MP3 is fine, but no i-Pods??

I'm so there!

What would it mean for USATF to "disqualify" a course?

Well, since the USATF officially bans headphones, can they not disqualify the course?

I run with a 4 pacers who sing to me in 4 part harmony, all my favorite tunes. Is this illegal?

I really don't care if a course is USATF certified/qualified or not. At keast not right now. I couldn't qualify for Boston if you held a gun to my head. As a matter of fact, I would probably prefer it than suffer through a BQ pace at this point in my flegling running career.

Ditto. Is that marathon Maine or Oregon? Not that I'd do that, as I am planning on a race a few weeks later in MI. But I'm wondering how I'm going to feel in that last half without music (and the GRM is a gorgeous course, but much of it is inaccessible to spectators and did will likely be in Death Valley on a JDRF ride, so I'm not even going to have a cheering squad). Shorter distances are no biggie, but as it is I seem to run at a pace that no one else runs--everyone is either faster or slower. Most races longer than 15k find me spending a good deal of the race completely alone for miles. Purists can scoff, but my fastest paced race EVER is a HM with my iPod--I ran it faster paced than ALL of my shorter distances without.

Well, since the USATF officially bans headphones, can they not disqualify the course?

The USATF offers services for both course certification and event sanctioning, which includes the provision of insurance for the event. They are not the same thing. A race's course can be USATF certified and the event not be USATF sanctioned. Events that are USATF sanctioned are required by contract to abide by USATF Rules of Competition, including the ban on the use of iPODs and MP3 players. Like Portland, some of the most popular U.S. marathons, such as NYCM and MCM, are run on USATF certified courses but are not USATF sanctioned. Thus, they are free to decide whether or not to apply and/or enforce the rule banning the use of headphones. NYCM "discourages" their use, but doesn't ban them. MCM rules say that they are not allowed, but they apparently didn't enforce it in 2007.

I notice on race entry forms that it says that headphones are not allowed on the course. I wear mine and have seen others wearing theirs and haven't seen anyone being hauled off to the Runner Jail yet. Can they DQ me for wearing my mp3 player?

Yes....just as you can be DQ'd for violating any race rule. Some races enforce the rule and others don't. Whether or not you can be DQ'd should not be the issue. Whether or not you should abide by race rules should be the issue.