11,000 runners at Mexico City Marathon are DQd for cutting the course, 5,000 got the DQ in 2017. I need an explanation.

Ran the race actually; the thing is that every six years (at least for the last 12 years) there has been a series of medals, last cycle those spelled the word MEXICO and this year it forms the mal of Mexico City. On one side you have a lot of people wanting to get the six medals even though they don't fully prepare for the race, on the other you have some others that are training either for Berlin or Chicago and use it as their last long run / tempo. Most recently is that the race is elegible to qualify for Boston, and there are is not so much scrutiny into validating all the results and proofs that each runner is completing the course, which means that if planned correctly, you can cheat your way into Boston.

Mostly this is what happens in the race, it's either the Hype, qualifying for Boston or "helping your friend qualify for the race". Basically there is no control into stepping into the route anywhere you want to, meaning that people can even run the last 2 kms without any problem or being told to get out of the race course

Sorry about the typos, but the current six medals forms Mexico City's Map and there is not so much control over who steps into the race. Another thing is that Adidas is using a lot of influencers and recreational runners to promote the event and make the hype even greater. It's normal at this point of the year to hear people saying "I'm preparing for Berlin" or "I havent trained well enough so I am only doing X Kms" and so on. Also because of how the race course is designed, there are actually some strategic points where you can walk like 3 blocks from one point to another and suddenly you go from the 15 km mark uo to the 35th km, so there are a lot of factors

I also ran the race this year. I think making the metals collectibles is the main reason people are cheating. This generation of Instagram photos and tik tokers want the instant gratification without the work behind it. It’s an international problem not just a Mexico City problem. In marathons where the entrance in open to anyone and the entry fee is fairly cheap you will find situations like these. I think as the marathon becomes more prestigious and harder to get into, the Instagram influencers will no longer see it worth going through the trouble.

As a first time participant I recommend it. The course was flat and beautiful. The organization was legit and the crowds along the course were spectacular. Mexican people were very supportive with their signs and cheers I got emotional several times along the course. I plan to run it again next year even tho the altitude killed me haha.

Because they want to have the Boston good for age standard.

The information in all these news stories is only partially correct. There were MANY course-cutters, but not 11000.
As far as I can find, the original article was published on infobase site on 31th of august (sorry, can not post link).
It sites Marathon Investigation webpage. There is no article about CDMX Marathon 2023 there, but there is an article about 2018 edition with exactly same number of finishers: 32.645.
There is also a picture showing 38.336 registered participants, and a number of 27.523 finishers in the final results - probably, the source of this 11.000 number.
In this year's edition, there were 28.364 registered participants (according to the oficial App). About 23.000 claimed finisher medal. 500 were DQ'd in the first day, about 1500 more few days later. Now there are 21.015 finishers in the official results

Maybe they inflate DQ numbers for PR reasons. I'm sort of curious in seeing this event now.

I've done a bunch of racing in south/central America. The general theme is that of poor race organization (although that doesn't seem to be the case here) and "rules are more like guidelines". Most folks follow the mentality that cheating is part of the game and harmless to others. Everybody does it, so if you can get away with it, may as well go for it.

Sad part is that this carries over into government, crime, and everyday life. My friends/training partners from these parts of the world talk about corruption and crime as if it's the norm and expected behavior. They just laugh about it.

Hmm I guess 'Murica isn't much different... we just make corruption straight up legal.

And you're not wrong; I'm from Mexico myself and there are lot of normalized things when it comes to cheating, corruption, etc. basically the norm is "if the president / organizer / other guy does it, there's no problem If I do it as well" and it's something that we grow up with. It's almost a cultural thing, impunities have made cheating an everyday thing, and it's something that goes into every aspect of society, from sports into academics and government. Not everyone does it, but it's something that has been perceived as common / normal and in consequence there is not so much enforcement in preventing it.

At the Juarez marathon, 12000 started and 800 finished with 11200 somehow ending up in ElPaso.

You mean that time a deranged, old, white man fired upon a crowd with his fully auto converted gun , and a cowardly, "small town" country singer ran off stage without alerting anyone. Yeah, I'd call that a cultural thing.

I think it's more like calling Las Vegas a cultural thing.

I have ran this marathon and can say - there were A LOT of runners after km30 who obviously were out of place. When you run 30 kms in 2h10 - 2h20, you do not expect to see many 50+ yo women or overweighted men ahead of you. And it was the case, crowds all the way to the finish line.

I've always thought about this in terms of developing countries and don't know what the solution is. I got pulled over once in the middle of nowhere in Mexico and the officer was saying something about a fallen officer fund in my limited understanding of spanish. I happily gave $50 or $100 and my aunt who was with me was appalled. I told her I thought it was the best $50 I ever spent.

You don't want to potentially find out what happens if you don't pay.

If you live in one of these countreis and you have to give $500 to get a building permit, what are you going do do? Not pay it? I don't know you stop it.

The finisher medals in El Paso are a lot better than in Juarez, plus they are actively encouraged to finish in El Paso by the organizers.

For some reason the El Paso marathon never has finishers in Juarez however.

Ever worked construction? This is a cultural issue. Laziness and corner cutting are nothing new.

like walking 1/2 mile to the pub and having 3 beer and walking home for the DQ.

More on the hamster wheel runner.

news.yahoo.com

Florida man in human-sized hamster wheel arrested off Tybee trying to run across the ocean

A Florida man was arrested 70 miles east of Tybee Island last week for trying to run across the Atlantic Ocean in a human-sized hamster wheel.

Open link