Women's winner of BMW Dallas Marathon blows her legs out, finishes carrying a fridge.

Actually this story is even better.

http://cw33.com/2017/12/10/high-schoolers-heroic-show-of-sportsmanship-highlights-dallas-marathon/

It's actually the GIRL WHO HELPED who was the "hero."

Well, it is Texas after all, they think anyone who's over 80, blind, and packing heat in a church is a hero in the making.

Dallas18 wrote:

No money, and the woman who came in second said she didn't want Chandler Self DQ'ed

I think both the winner and the second place finisher have been placed in a very difficult positions It's undeniable that the winner received help that is not allowed, but she did not request that help and it is not reasonable to expect her, in the condition she was in, to fight off someone trying to help her. The second place finisher would be technically correct to ask that the rules be followed and the winner be DQ'd, but many would call her selfish if she did so. The only saving grace is that the finish was apparently not close and the winner probably would have managed to cross the line first without any help.

Ages ago, I was the second-place finisher involved in a partly similar scenario. I and another woman were going after OTQ's at a smallish marathon. The other woman went out aggressively and was way ahead at 20 miles, but then started to struggle. She fell several times in the final quarter-mile and people were trying to help her but the race director, knowing that the OTQ was at stake, shooed them all away. The winner crawled across the line in 2:44:57, making the OTQ by 3 seconds. I ran across the line 19 seconds behind her. I was disappointed to miss the win and the OTQ, but I had done my best and she was the better runner that day, and all I could say was congratulations. I bet I would have felt differently if she had received help to finish.

These feel good stories are the opposite of "feel good" for me and this is a just a microcosm of how screwed up our society is. If you ask 99.9% of the non running population they will say either or both of the runners are heroes and the saddest part is if the high school girl would have done that right thing and ran past the struggling runner she would have been demonized for not stopping and helping. That high school girl will be on Ellen this week.

GOML wrote:

Absolutely should be a DQ.

If that had been me, I’d have been waving away the help from the other girl, knowing that such assistance, by rule, results in disqualification.

Plus I’d know that my marathon finish (and victory) wasn’t accomplished solely based on what I could do under my own steam.

I imagine the hobby jogger crowd would tear me a new one over this stance, but as a competitive runner, that’s my opinion.

A few years ago, I fell four times in the last 800m of my marathon, including once about 50m from the finish line. A race volunteer tried to help me get up, and I yelled at the top of my voice "DON'T TOUCH ME!" to scare her off. Later I emailed the race organizer about the incident, and asked to tell every volunteer not to touch a runner who is still trying to get up on his own.

I am a slow hobby jogger by your standard, but that does not mean I don't have any integrity.

-- A hobby jogger.

Lefty lib wrote:

The runner who helped her was part of a relay team.

Remember, folks, there's no "help" in "team!"

Just curious, Did the RD respond?

DQ bro wrote:

I guess Dallas isn't nit picky about that kind of stuff

According to their official rules they are:

"Any assistance received from anyone other than an official race volunteer or other course official may result in a disqualification."

I guess the operative word there is "may," but if this doesn't meet that then I'm not sure what would.

Now NYRR is promoting this. It's no doubt a feel good story but...if someone carried a Keitany across the line for the win would they DQ?

https://twitter.com/nyrrnews/status/940279354692653057

Imma HJ too wrote:

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

A few years ago, I fell four times in the last 800m of my marathon, including once about 50m from the finish line. A race volunteer tried to help me get up, and I yelled at the top of my voice "DON'T TOUCH ME!" to scare her off. Later I emailed the race organizer about the incident, and asked to tell every volunteer not to touch a runner who is still trying to get up on his own.

I am a slow hobby jogger by your standard, but that does not mean I don't have any integrity.

-- A hobby jogger.

Just curious, Did the RD respond?

No. I didn't get any reply. That probably means I wouldn't have been DQ'ed even if the volunteer had helped me get up. But that would have ruined my race experience.

Just to add another piece of info, for the 2nd and 3rd time I fell (don't remember which), a few runners who had finished their races were walking back from the finish line. They said to each other "we can't help him, because he could get DQ'ed." I was very grateful that they never touched me.

From that story, you’re a competitive runner in my book. It’s about mindset and purpose, not just an arbitrary time or pace cutoff.

wwnyrrd? wrote:

Now NYRR is promoting this. It's no doubt a feel good story but...if someone carried a Keitany across the line for the win would they DQ?

https://twitter.com/nyrrnews/status/940279354692653057

So, another "dashing whippet" bending the rules...

To me, it looks like she was using her left forearm to fend off assistance but it was fairly useless since she couldn't even stand. I agree HS girl should have left her alone but she had enough to worry about without using energy to fend off unwanted assistance. Give her an asterisk and let it stand.

I've seen two articles now that said she was on a 12 person relay team running two miles each. The race website says relay teams are 5 person teams. They were trying to compete with the race leaders. I'm so confused by this whole thing. I'm thinking that's another reason this chick didn't just blow by here at mile 21.5. Everyone from then on would have thought she was the rightful race winner and would have caused all kinds of chaos.

DownhillRunner wrote:

I know this runner. She wouldn't have wanted the help. Not her fault.

Huh?.......she wouldn’t have?.....but.....???

Nowadays, race rules are not so clear-cut to leave space for decision by race director/coordinator. I think for this one, the race director decided that the "may" is a "not".

hobblejogger wrote:

I've seen two articles now that said she was on a 12 person relay team running two miles each. The race website says relay teams are 5 person teams. They were trying to compete with the race leaders. I'm so confused by this whole thing. I'm thinking that's another reason this chick didn't just blow by here at mile 21.5. Everyone from then on would have thought she was the rightful race winner and would have caused all kinds of chaos.

Doubtful. In these situations the relay runners almost always have a different colored bib, or something obvious like "relay" printed on it at the very least. It's important; not just to avoid confusion at the finish line , but also during the race itself (e.g., if you were the first female and at mile 22 another female runs past you - you need to know right away if you need to chase her or let her go).

zimber wrote:

Nowadays, race rules are not so clear-cut to leave space for decision by race director/coordinator. I think for this one, the race director decided that the "may" is a "not".

Would this happen in the Olympics? If someone is pulled across the finish, do they still get a medal if they win the race? At the course marshall's discretion?

survey says wrote:

DQ bro wrote:

I guess Dallas isn't nit picky about that kind of stuff

According to their official rules they are:

"Any assistance received from anyone other than an official race volunteer or other course official may result in a disqualification."

I guess the operative word there is "may," but if this doesn't meet that then I'm not sure what would.

https://www.bmwdallasmarathon.com/official-rules/

It’s interesting how that is written. You’ll see every once in a while elite runners sharing drinks or sponges with others. By this rule, they could be disqualified as well.

If I remember correctly, even at the Olympic trials Cragg got a drink for Shalane or something like that.

Runners are allowed to share water/refreshments in a race as long as it does not become a situation where one runner is consistently servicing another (others)