Runner knew marathon leaders were running off course, doesn't stop them: "I’m not going to shout. It’s not my job.’’

Runner knew marathon leaders were running off course, doesn't stop them: "I’m not going to shout. It’s not my job.’’'

With that new headline Rojo's pulled the knife from left side of Pence's back and plunged it in right.

Pogue Mahone wrote:

Runner knew marathon leaders were running off course, doesn't stop them: "I’m not going to shout. It’s not my job.’’'

With that new headline Rojo's pulled the knife from left side of Pence's back and plunged it in right.

More like Rojo pulled the knife out and is now stabbing with a pair of rusty scissors.

rojo wrote:

However, the quote still bothers me. No, it's not his job to do it but there are lots of things that we as a society do to help the world be a better place that we aren't required to do.

I'd love to know the conversation between him and the volunteer on the bike.

When are you going to stop your Trumpian way of doubling down on misinformation and views that are not shared by the overwhelming majority of marathoners, not WP posters?

You obviously have either not run a marathon, or at least run flat out.

Calling out to people running the wrong way is what back of pack can do..."hey mate, this way...we'll wait for you"

If a third place guy has the ability to shout loud enough to get heard from over 100m then he wasn't trying to race. That he even engaged with the other biker tells me that he was concerned.

He is right. It is not his friggin job to be marshalling whilst running,,,it simply isn't.

Every week you manage to outdo your disconnect with society with a new trolling thread.

The only people with questions to answer are the RD and team. It happenned to me when I was RD of a major race (with higher national esteem than Quad City). A guy with the fastest ever standard PB, an Olympian, trained his guts out to take down our record, and being in front, with a course that cannot have lead bike/car, he took a diversion midway in. He was disappointed at 3rd place, I was even more disappointed that an opportunity for him and us was missed, but at no stage did he nor anyone else blame anyone but himself.

There are briefings, and where the bike took over from car, that would have been poinetd out to anyone in contention...that is the responsibility of race and competitors.

Is there a rule that says you have to tell them? If not ALL'S FAIR.

If you don't take every legal advantage, you're not competing, and that's hurts not only you but your opponents too. Next time they'll pay more attention to the course.

If he had said "all's fair..." and "it's a competition," this story wouldn't have pressed so many buttons. But I think saying "It's not my job" really rubs older people, especially, the wrong way. Like no one can extend themselves anymore if it's not written into their job description, if they're not getting paid for it.

But what can you expect out of this gig economy? Everything is a la carte. You get paid for this specific task at the bare minimum that a company can get away with and get no benefits, no extras unless their hand is forced. So every minute you spend doing something extra is exactly that, extra, and some people are not going to do it cause it's just expending energy they can't afford.

This kind of thinking wouldn't dominate if we had more unions. Sure, they get bloated and excessive and make professions soft, but there should be some kind of medium where people have some sense of breathing room that allows them to be a person, not just a job.

rojo wrote:

Webber Grill wrote:

TLDR - "rojo and I created a controversy out of nothing"

I love how people think I created this controversy. I found out about it from the Washington Post for Christ's sake. It was on NPR.

I read the Post article. Unlike this thread, there was no sensationalism in it. But you modified the thread, so I am not going to beat a dead horse.

Note to Tyler Pence.

On behalf of those who took the time to watch the television explanations, looked at the course map, and listened to your interview on the DP emergency podcast, I would like to apologize for all the abuse thrown your way by posters here for how you phrased something in what was most likely several minutes of post-race interviews. You come across as a class act and how you are handling this will be a great learning experience for the runners you coach.

I've been quoted by media and had my comments shortened to make my position sound much different than it really was. It happens. We just have to deal with it. Best wishes in your training and in your training of young runners.

To Everyone Else.

A GoFundMe page has been set up on behalf of Elija Saolo. If you're upset about what happened, do something constructive and take action by making a donation. I did.

The venerable "He started it!" defense. You brought it here and fanned the flames, seemingly without bothering to ask the guy about it.

Nice to see that you no longer consider his finish line smile to be offensive. If his only crime is not being PR-trained, I don't think it fair to blast him for that on the forum.

Even if your opinion of the guy is unchanged, it would have been 1000x cooler to ask him about it and do a little write-up on the national controversy than it was to just take a quick little dump on an amateur's character.

I was also in the race and led astray by the race cycle. I have set up a gofundme page as well, goal is 30k, it would go a long way in my neighborhood, and to show my support for the kenyans I am donating 5% of all contributions to the little kenyan dude that finished behind me.

Weren't these runners way ahead of this man? And wasn't he running at max marathon effort?

How could you reasonably expect him to yell hard at two guys way in front of him while he's struggling to maintain his marathon effort?

I'm assuming rojo isn't trolling for clicks, because this is a ridiculous attempt at ragebait. The guy is trying to run his best race and even though they're trusting the pacer's errant efforts, it's ultimately the other runners' responsibility to take care of themselves.

try a job wrote:

If the Kenyans are struggling so much financially, try getting a job and forget about trying to win a race for a couple of thousand dollars. McDonald’s is paying $18 an hour, use that training time to work and you can bring home $3500 every month instead of just with a few races.

Right the were poor garbage is just that. If you’re not good enough to make a decent wage running then you shouldn’t be doing it. Especially if you have kids to support. Doesn’t it cost thousands of dollars just to travel from Kenya? Why would you come to America unless you were being offered tens of thousands of dollars to do so. It sounds fishy.

I’ll donate. Here’s my 2 cents Elija. Go get a job at Dunkin’ Donuts and support your kids honestly. Not gambling their care by running silly races.

Exactly. And the fact that Rojo won’t take any responsibility for his actions has shone a light on his (lack of) character.

I’ll say it again … disgusting display from him.

Crooked Hillary wrote:

knox harrington wrote:

The venerable "He started it!" defense. You brought it here and fanned the flames, seemingly without bothering to ask the guy about it.

Nice to see that you no longer consider his finish line smile to be offensive. If his only crime is not being PR-trained, I don't think it fair to blast him for that on the forum.

Even if your opinion of the guy is unchanged, it would have been 1000x cooler to ask him about it and do a little write-up on the national controversy than it was to just take a quick little dump on an amateur's character.

Exactly. And the fact that Rojo won’t take any responsibility for his actions has shone a light on his (lack of) character.

I’ll say it again … disgusting display from him.

This site is the TMZ of running. Why would anyone be surprised. If you want a legit running site then go to Track and Field News. I think we just need to understand what this place is. Jerry Springer trash entertainment. It is addicting I’ll give it that.

Nailed it. You hit on why this bothered m e so much. We are teaching people to just be self obsessed.

You nailed it Rojo. And yet you pleaded for people to sign a petition demanding that other world class sprinters refuse to take a slot on the Olympic team so that the self-obsessed Sha’Carri Richardson could compete despite her self-obsession leading her to smoke weed at the wrong time. When you play the troll your only consistency is to provoke others. That is what we see here.

Can you really not understand that it’s not that we disagree that our culture needs to be less self-obsessed, but that you dragged a person through the mud in a very public way without knowing all the facts?

That relying on a purported quote from the guy in a newspaper article is NOT sufficient evidence to shame someone on your website?

And even now that we know that you were dead wrong and he’s not some selfish, unsportsmanlike narcissist, you refuse to admit any wrong and refuse to apologize.

Shameful.

You could shout at the top of your lungs from 35 seconds out. It won't make much difference. You'd just tire yourself out. It's not his fault or his responsibility to keep the guys on course. I don't see bad sportsmanship in the least. It's not his responsibility as he really wasn't close enough to say anything to them. 35 seconds translates to a fairly long distance (about 200 meters).

Ernest wrote:

thoughts and prayers wrote:

How the hell does the lead bike not know the course?

No wonder the RD is paying them $2k each.

The "winner" was aware of the screw-up, could have shouted "Hey, you're going off course!", but chose to keep silent to benefit himself. He shouldn't feel good about the win or the way he acted.

Going to walk this back. I was wrong.

The original thread headline and many news stories noted the winner, Pence, callously stating it was "not his job" to call attention to runners ahead going off course.

The assumption being Pence was in a good position to do something about it - but chose not to in order to gain advantage (time gain) or eliminate competition (DQs - which were issued).

What I additionally and incorrectly assumed was the two race leaders were in the clear and in sight of the finish, only to led off. We have seen this play out in big events before, such as a lead motorcycle driving off just before the finish and the race leader and blindly follows.

But the two leaders were lured off course around 14 miles. And never finished the race, being DQ'd long before the finish (for not re-entering the course where they left it). Again, this has happened many times before - recently at the Venice Marathon.

There wasn't a lot Pence could do - but apparently he did actually call out the problem to a race official around the time of the error.

I've been led off course while leading a race . Not fun.

But reading more about this, I can't say I would have handled it differently than Pence or can fault him.

Sloppy reporting made most everyone jump to the wrong conclusion.