I am the user formally known as “gerechtigheid” and I would like to clarify a few things here. I haven’t replied back as that user because the account was disabled. I assume because of either her claims of harassment or the fact that I used a disposable email account during registration. I was hoping to stay anonymous because I have discovered that one can never underestimate the motivation of someone (or their associates) to obtain “retribution” over a perceived injustice. I can assure you that nothing nefarious was going on here.
Background: I had no axe to grind. I do not know the person involved, and have never previously contacted her in any way shape or form. She does not know me and I do not know her. I did not even know her name until November 2nd when she posted a photo of her race bib along with a vase of flowers and a teddy bear that her boyfriend gave her. The bib number was barely blurred out. In fact the borders of the numbers were still readily visible if you clicked on the picture to view it full sized. She has since deleted that picture. I cannot post it here without her (the copyright holder’s) permission, and I seriously doubt I would be able to obtain that now. However, several people in that thread saw it and can verify this.
I took a mental note of the number so I could track her progress during the race along with a few other people that I was going to cheer on.
I really wanted to see this young lady finish. I like stories of people overcoming adversity and accomplishing great things. I read about her struggles back in August and like many others, developed a passing interest in how she would do when race time came around. She was one of a few people that I wanted to track during the race and then cheer on as they ran across the finish line on the live video feed.
As the day unfolded I noticed her bike splits were showing that she was in jeopardy of not making the cut off. I didn’t even notice her screwed up swim time. I was later happy to see that she did indeed make the bike cut off and started into the run. Her run splits then showed that she was obviously walking (18 min pace) and then halfway through they simply stopped. I figured that she had finally DNF'd after struggling all day. It was the logical conclusion based on her split times. I stopped keeping track of her at that point and figured that she would probably post an update on what had happened, e.g., “how the wheels came off”, “undertrained” etc. Despite this, I was impressed that she still showed up, toughed it out and gave it a huge effort. Even if it ends up as a DNF, that kind of effort is still honorable.
Two days later: She finally posts an update. She claims to have run the marathon at a 9 minute pace. RED FLAG. I distinctly remember seeing her in the tracker performing at walking pace two days earlier. So I go look her up in the athlete tracker and see if maybe the timing was screwed up and was since corrected. If that were to be the case, I was prepared to be both shocked and awed at an incredulous 4 hour IM marathon from this young lady.
Then I notice the finish time, which was 4 minutes and 55 seconds after the end of the first lap. So she ran 161 mph on the last lap? It was so fast that the timing mats on the second lap couldn’t even register it? It became very obvious what happened here. My heart sank. I decide to sit on my hands for a bit, see if anyone else says anything, and give her the chance to come clean.
Two more days later: After a couple of more days and more people congratulating her on her “finish” I decide to say something about it in the spirit of this post:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...rum.cgi?post=4064550 Quote:
“to all, regarding this thread:
these incidents occur several times a year or, at least, they're exposed several times a year, and that tends more often than not to happen here on this forum.
in that way, a public service is provided, and those of you on this forum, through your sleuthing, are sort of triathlon's "usada" of course cutting. and, you do it with humor (my favorite was the outboard motor strapped onto the back - via photoshop - of one infamous triathlete of some repute).
at the same time, these threads, after having served their purpose, tend to decay into something that's not helpful. it's good that we can expose behavior that needs to see the light of day. however, i don't want this forum to be a vehicle for public humiliation. i've pulled a couple of posts in this thread that were, in my opinion, guilty of that.
i'm going to let you guys get in your last licks, but, please, be sensitive to the concern i express above. then i'm going to lock the thread down. i'll keep it on the site, but, it'll be locked, which means no more posting to it.
please do not start another thread to take up where this thread leaves off.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman”
Notice that I never posted any information about this young woman except for the bib number, and that was it. She had already posted a picture of it herself the day before the race.
The claim about harassing her “across several forums as well as facebook” is a patent lie. I have never conversed with her in any manner. No proof of this from any of these supposed places will ever be provided because it never happened. She simply did what many do when the heat is on. “play the victim”
Why did I do it? Most competitors actually train hard all year. Many of them make great sacrifices with time, money and family. They tough it out with grit and perseverance and sometimes fight the battle of their lives on race day to accomplish something extraordinary. For most, it is a result that they worked hard for all year. For some, it is a defining moment in their lives.
To allow people to get away with cheating and shortcutting this process denigrates the sport and degrades, or “cheapens” these hard-fought accomplishments. I won’t stand for it and neither should anyone else.
Shame on those who rationalize in favor of anyone who cheats. They should know better. Everyone learned about this as children. There is no valid excuse.