MARATHON CHEATERS: Some people reacting to the thread below on the runner, who apparently cut the course in a marathon in Allentown, Pennsylvania, felt that the evidence was slim, circumstantial, that proof was not sufficient to condemn him even in the court of public opinion. A few even said shame on me (and RW) for even opening the discussion. Sorry, but I have been around this sport long enough to know how cheaters function, beginning with Rosie Ruez, falsely acclaimed the winner at Boston in 1980. What stood out in the case of the Allentown runner was how closely he fit the pattern of those who had run (partway) before him.
Consider the case of one serial cheater, an individual whose name I won’t use because I don’t even remember it, perhaps his most fitting fate. He was from Kokomo in my home state, Indiana. He was the CEO of a prosperous business in that town. He was a member of the Young President’s Club. On a Monday morning in November one year, I looked in the newspaper and discovered that this individual had finished 3rd master in the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:25, winning prize money.
And I didn’t know the guy. Never had met him. Never had seen his name in a race summary. None of the friends I contacted knew him either. Indiana is a small state, and you would think a runner that fast, particularly a master, would have caused a few ripples in our pond.
I contacted Bob Glover, a coach for the New York Road Runners and, coincidentally, also a consultant for the Young Presidents. He knew the individual, had met him at seminars, including Hawaii. Bob said, “There’s no way he’s that fast.”
We contacted race director Fred Lebow, who said he would check to see if the Kokomo runner had run a legitimate 2:25. This was before the era of electronic timing, but NYRR did have videos of runners at several points along the course. Running 2:25, even in as big a race as NYC, there are relatively few runners around you. Pretty easy to pick someone out of the crowd. Based on circumstantial evidence, it was clear to Bob and I and the NYRR that the Kokomo runner was guilty. We surmised that he probably was not trying to win prize money, nor trying to score a time quite that fast. Best guess was that he had miscalculated. He had stepped off the curb too early and crossed the line too soon, thus got caught.
But it got stranger.
Further checking determined that he had been course-cutting for several years at both NYC and Boston, those being the only races he ever ran. Never ran any running races in his home state. Never left a trail. No footprints. He would run NYC (or the last few miles of NYC) and score a time fast enough to gain entry to Boston, then score a time in Boston fast enough to guarantee entry in NYC. Back and forth for several years, one PR after another, starting at 3:30 (which might have been legit), then faster next time, faster again, breaking 3:00, then faster still, then whoops: Too fast. I’m caught.
This is one reason why, circumstantial evidence or not, I suspect the Allentown Runner is as much a cheater as the Kokomo Runner. They both fit the pattern of cheating in marathons, not a crime, only something that a person with any kind of moral compass would not do. They also both fit the pattern of the classic sociopath, someone who breaks the rules, written or understood, but does not necessarily do harm or commit a crime involving money. Here’s the definition from Urban Dictionary: “A sociopath is often well liked because of their charm and high charisma, but they do not usually care about other people. They think mainly of themselves and often blame others for the things that they do. They have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly. They seldom feel guilt or learn from punishments.”
99.9 percent of runners would not think of cutting a course either to grab a good time, or even win a race as was the case recently in St. Louis. Shame on me for having to reveal how I feel about cheating. I know the huge majority of you feel the same.
