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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [DC Pattie] [ In reply to ]
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DC Pattie wrote:
Each time I run Boston I always wonder about a small percentage of first wave runners (no more than 5%) were their bib number is such a mismatch to their running speed and outward physical appearance (way overweight) that I become suspicious. Because there's just so many USATF "certified" races - certainly some BQ's each year are via coursing cutting or some "arrangement" with a race RD.

BTW, her punishment should be a mandatory marathon followed by a camera crew to show the world her true marathon capability.

Good job sneaking the backdoor brag in there :)

With Boston's 16-month qualifying window or whatever length it is, I suppose it's possible someone qualified like a boss, and then work, or injury, or a baby, or whatever occurred. A person can gain a lot of weight and lose a lot of fitness in a year. But yeah.... I would also probably also think "how the fuck did this person get way up there"

My own "cheating" experience:

Two years ago, at local 5k turkey trot, my 10-yr old boy took 3rd in 14-and-under AG (front door brag). Last year, he moved up to 2nd place in same event. That second race, I happened to actually look at results. First place was a 6-yr old kid who had same time as an adult with same last name, so I'll assume it was a parent. I then looked at previous year's results - same deal - that 5-yr old kid won with same time as his parent. Looks to me like the parent registered the kid and pushed him in a stroller? Regardless of how it occurred, don't you think the timing company or RD would notice something odd about a 5-yr old kid winning a 14-and-under AG?
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [TeamBarenaked] [ In reply to ]
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I would also probably also think "how the fuck did this person get way up there"

Before the marathon, they were saying on Boston radio stations not to post your race number on facebook because people were using the numbers to make fake race bibs. A guy in 2014 found his number in photos on four different people.

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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Bob Loblaw] [ In reply to ]
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Bob Loblaw wrote:
boilham wrote:
Pathetic. I once witnessed a marathon race cheat. I turned her in at race end, too. She was well ahead of me, in a smaller venue with less likelihood of being caught. She turned around about 2 miles before the halfway checkpoint, and began running towards me, cutting at least 4 miles off the race distance for her. Another woman, maybe females more likely to do this?


enh... all about opportunity. assuming that the man leading the men's race is leading the whole race, it's gonna stick out a whole lot more. not all races have cyclists for the lead woman. the question is how many age groupers have medals at home from races where they cut the course.
a while back here on ST everyone was looking up some guy's swim times and found that he was mysteriously faster on two-loop swims.
i don't understand any of this, personally. i mean, if the woman's family is being held hostage by terrorists who threaten to kill everyone if she doesn't win the race, ok, i'll give her a pass. but otherwise... why? i mean, what does someone gain from all this?

That was the guy who stole his competitors bike shoe in T1 also. Local Slowtwitchers tried and tried to get him to a pool for a videotaped session so he could demonstrate his remarkable swim improvement, but not surprisingly, to no avail.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [TeamBarenaked] [ In reply to ]
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TeamBarenaked wrote:
Looks to me like the parent registered the kid and pushed him in a stroller? Regardless of how it occurred, don't you think the timing company or RD would notice something odd about a 5-yr old kid winning a 14-and-under AG?

I agree with you, but I think at many local 5ks the person running the timing could give a rats ass about the results, and the person handing out medals has so much on their mind or is just someone from the charity, or whatever, that they aren't stopping to think. Or maybe they thought the 5 year old was mis-registered and was actually older. So in either case, did the 5/6 year old go up and get a prize? Assume not.

At Battenkill last weekend, a friend in the Womens' Cat 4 division was over 3/4 of the way through the (68 mile) race, positioned mid-field after the race had split up into many groups, and a women she hadn't seen since pretty early in the race comes flying up past her on a hill, looking as fresh as a daisy. My friend was riding with another racer at the time, and they were both completely gassed and agreed there was no way that person had ridden the whole course. The question is, why would you jump in a car, drive up the course, and then jump back into the race, only to claim about 25th place? Team points? To get the finishers bike jersey? It's bizarre how and why people do these things.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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Kay Serrar wrote:
The question is, why would you jump in a car, drive up the course, and then jump back into the race, only to claim about 25th place? Team points? To get the finishers bike jersey? It's bizarre how and why people do these things.

was talking about this with the far more talented Mrs. Loblaw last night. You can come up with scenarios where it might make sense - but usually it just seems like trying to reason through these things isn't the way to go. people do incomprehensible things for equally incomprehensible reasons.
i mean, cheating at a race to get 25th place - it's not like we're talking about blowing up a dam or poisoning a city's water supply. it's not that kind of incomprehensible. it's just... baffling?
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [kny] [ In reply to ]
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Is that the same guy who missed all the timing mats and claims it was "the telemetry sensors" in his shoes?
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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Kay Serrar wrote:

At Battenkill last weekend, a friend in the Womens' Cat 4 division was over 3/4 of the way through the (68 mile) race, positioned mid-field after the race had split up into many groups, and a women she hadn't seen since pretty early in the race comes flying up past her on a hill, looking as fresh as a daisy. My friend was riding with another racer at the time, and they were both completely gassed and agreed there was no way that person had ridden the whole course. The question is, why would you jump in a car, drive up the course, and then jump back into the race, only to claim about 25th place? Team points? To get the finishers bike jersey? It's bizarre how and why people do these things.

Maybe this woman was just a better athlete than your friend ? Maybe she's had a few years out but was formerly elite ? We've all seen people not looking the part doing some great times. Just because she looked fresh doesn't mean she cheated.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [cougie] [ In reply to ]
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cougie wrote:
Kay Serrar wrote:


At Battenkill last weekend, a friend in the Womens' Cat 4 division was over 3/4 of the way through the (68 mile) race, positioned mid-field after the race had split up into many groups, and a women she hadn't seen since pretty early in the race comes flying up past her on a hill, looking as fresh as a daisy. My friend was riding with another racer at the time, and they were both completely gassed and agreed there was no way that person had ridden the whole course. The question is, why would you jump in a car, drive up the course, and then jump back into the race, only to claim about 25th place? Team points? To get the finishers bike jersey? It's bizarre how and why people do these things.


Maybe this woman was just a better athlete than your friend ? Maybe she's had a few years out but was formerly elite ? We've all seen people not looking the part doing some great times. Just because she looked fresh doesn't mean she cheated.

After 3.5 hours of riding Battenkill all riders have a 'look' about them - tired, sweaty, hot... i.e. not fresh-looking. That look comes from having ridden hard for 3.5 hours over the hills and dirt sections. Also, the field, by then, has split up into many groups according to abilities and fitness. As you'll know if you've done any long endurance event, running or biking, even after 1-2 hours the faster people are up ahead of you, and the slower people are behind you. The people around you are 'your' pace. So it would take some highly unusual circumstances for someone to suddenly fly past you on a climb 3.5 hours into a tough bike race. The fact that she looked very fresh suggests she may not have ridden the whole course. Maybe you're right, though. Maybe she's an ex-elite pro racing Cat 4 who soft-pedaled with her friends for 3.5 hours and then decided to 'finish strong' for the last hour...
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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Maybe she started late. After all, the woman who won that race won by a whopping 20 minutes by riding solo all day, so there clearly was a wide span of talent in the Womens 3/4. Maybe this woman was also fast and talented and had some reason to be coming from behind late in the race.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [kny] [ In reply to ]
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kny wrote:
Maybe she started late. After all, the woman who won that race won by a whopping 20 minutes by riding solo all day, so there clearly was a wide span of talent in the Womens 3/4. Maybe this woman was also fast and talented and had some reason to be coming from behind late in the race.

This was not the Womens' 3/4, but the Womens' 4. And she didn't start late as she was in the main group for the first 15-20 miles until the peloton broke up. Women 4 was also the last group to start, so it wasn't someone from a later starting category. But you're right, maybe she blagged it for 3.5 hours and then said to herself "I've had enough of this shit." There's no way we'll ever know, but it was certainly very odd at best, and cheating at worst. Maybe it was unplanned cheating - maybe she had some problem and got picked up and then later decided she wanted to finish the race and thought "no harm, no foul". Dunno. But as I said, it's very apparent when someone looks (and acts) completely fresh compared to everyone else around you late in a race like that.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [kny] [ In reply to ]
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Maybe she started late... Maybe this woman was also fast and talented and had some reason to be coming from behind late in the race.


Or maybe she cheated...
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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Pretty sad that she would do this. Glad to see that Andrea is getting the recognition she deserves for actually running the miles.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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"So it would take some highly unusual circumstances for someone to suddenly fly past you on a climb 3.5 hours into a tough bike race."

You mean something unusual like a flat or a mechanical?

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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [kdw] [ In reply to ]
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Yup, good point. Maybe she got a flat fairly early on, causing her to lose 5+ minutes. She then hammered for the next 2.5+ hours, passing a number of groups on the road who were themselves working hard together in pacelines, and then was able to keep hammering, blasting solo past two other riders at 3.5 hours in, all the while still looking super-fresh. That could be it. If it was, she shouldn't be riding Cat 4.
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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"That could be it. If it was, she shouldn't be riding Cat 4."

Maybe it was her first road race...basically, your conclusion that she must have been a cheater says more about you than anything else as there are any number of possible scenarios that don't involve her being a cheater.

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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [kdw] [ In reply to ]
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Such a classic ST response...

First, it really doesn't matter. It was for about 25th place in a Cat 4 race. Second, it's not my conclusion. I wasn't there, and if you look at my original post I said that the person I know who recounted this to me, and the other rider she was riding with (no-one she knew before the race), both felt there was no way the rider that "blasted past them" could have ridden the full course. That is all. It was their perception. They didn't really care and didn't say anything to anyone official after the race.

There could have been some incredibly unusual explanation for it. Or not. If she 'cheated' there may have also been some reason she did. Or not. I really don't know or care. But the balance of probabilities is that she didn't ride the full course. If saying as much gets your knickers in a twist, then "whatever."
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Re: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race [Kay Serrar] [ In reply to ]
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I think cheating is still pretty rare really isn't it - hence the fuss when someone does ?

As Sherlock once said - " eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"


I've ridden 4th cat races and been beaten by guys who were elite a few seasons back but just stopped racing. They'd be able to cruise by me too.

I guess we'll never know. Unless she had strava on ? Strava flyby could work !




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