I created this GPX file by copying the trackpoints in Kate's original GPX file, using GPX Studio to create my file. I downloaded Kate's file from Strava on 24/04/2023, before it was deleted. Kate's file appears to have been m...
Every time this type of thing comes up, the counter to publicising this basically boils down to "why does it matter?"
I think in this case especially, but in most others too, it matters for a few reasons:
1 - None of this matters on the surface. Who cares which normie runs which race at which speed? In simple terms, it doesn't matter at all. But take a look a bit deeper: the reason sport matters at all is because it instills ideals of hard work, honesty, fair play, the challenging and betterment of oneself, and the satisfaction with a job well done. There are health benefits as well, both physical and mental. All of those things largely reply on the sport being completed honestly. If someone, or many people, are cheating, then the only reason why sport matters is neutralised. Why are we even here, whether we agree with what Derek does or not? Honest participation is at the soul of what we love doing.
2 - In this case, the alleged perpetrator writes about her exploits for a largely very-amateur crowd. She apparently claimed that she ran a 3:18 marathon with no fuelling strategy, only one long run of 16 miles in January (everything else just "regular" runs), plus the no chip, no watch nonsense. It's a baaaaaaad idea to put out the notion to inexperienced runners that this is doable. For reference, the Instagram post talks about her lack of a fuel strategy, and the rest came from her notes/comments on the now-deleted Strava entry. That's dangerous, for a journalist to be putting out in the world. I do not want to see a mostly untrained, under-fuelled newish runner attempt a marathon on the back of a journalist telling them that she ran that time like that. And people do read this stuff.
3 - Journalists shouldn't lie. Doesn't matter if it's about sport; none of them should do it. They do, I know, I know. But they shouldn't, and if they're caught, they should be held to account.
4 - Running is a hard sport. We might find it easy in some ways now, but it's generally something that the average person struggles to do well for a long period. It's plain rude to cheat others out of what they've earned via training, given that many amateurs start from a place of finding running extremely challenging. I'm one of them: when I went on my first run, aged 22, I made is about 2 miles before I nearly threw up. Years later, so far I have a sub-40 10k and a sub-90 half, and I plan on working more to get faster. I am in Kate's gender and (almost) age categories, I am running roughly the times she's run, or is claiming to have run (her fake 1:32 at the Landmarks Half is close enough to my PR to give me pause). I don't think any of us should be cheated out of placings by cheats.
"Why does this matter?" demeans the dedication and work ethic of everyone who does this stuff honestly. That's why it matters.
I think honesty matters and if she cheated she deserves negative consequences. But I think you overstate the danger of her description of preparation and race. Most newbies consult a number of sources, so one outlier doesn't matter much even if she is an editor of RW. Moreover, everyone is different. I ran my first marathon at age 28 on a base of 33 miles a week and one "long" run of 17 miles. I had no fueling strategy. I ate sushi the night before and drank water during the race when I felt like it. My gun time was 3:08. Many people would have done worse with that prep, but I suspect a number of people would have done better.
Ah, fair enough - that's extremely impressive! I do wonder if you're a bit of an outlier too, as I do think most wouldn't be able to handle a quicker marathon on ~33mi a week? It's a very good time on lower mileage training, but coming from my background of sprint events, I'm always going to be worried that I can't run far enough, and err on the side of distance training. So definitely taking my biases into account here!
For what it's worth, sushi (from a trusted outlet!!) is my go-to before a race. It's fuelled my 5k, 10k and half PRs so far (I'm 40s F - low 19, high 39 and low 89 respectively). There's something about the simple carbs and protein, plus general lack of sauce, onions etc. that really sits well with me. I do get that it's super risky though :/
I'm curious about how many folks come clean with a mea culpa to MI when Derek reaches out, and the situation never gets reported. Does it ever happen? Is it just common personal trait of a person that cheats to refuse to acknowledge culpability? An honest "yes, I cheated because of XYZ. I would not have come clean had I not been caught, but I am very sorry and I will work to be better."
I'm curious about how many folks come clean with a mea culpa to MI when Derek reaches out, and the situation never gets reported. Does it ever happen? Is it just common personal trait of a person that cheats to refuse to acknowledge culpability? An honest "yes, I cheated because of XYZ. I would not have come clean had I not been caught, but I am very sorry and I will work to be better."
Bet they almost never admit it, bc people who do this stuff convince themselves they DESERVE these race results whether they actually achieved them or not. They're typically affronted that anyone dares to question them.
Technically she could save face at this point with the gullible majority and come back with a thrilling exposé article on how people lie, cheat and bandit in the seedy underbelly of global hobbyjogging. She was undercover guys, a mole, an insider living on the edge!
if burrito lady can get suckers to back her, a better-late-than-never article on testing cheating in road running would have the same effect.
I'm curious about how many folks come clean with a mea culpa to MI when Derek reaches out, and the situation never gets reported. Does it ever happen? Is it just common personal trait of a person that cheats to refuse to acknowledge culpability? An honest "yes, I cheated because of XYZ. I would not have come clean had I not been caught, but I am very sorry and I will work to be better."
Not often, but every once in a while, they apparently do. Derek wrote this a number of years ago. I found it fascinating:
I was first made aware of “Linda” and her husband a couple of months ago. It did appear that her husband had carried her bib in some races, but I didn’t see the motivation. There was no Boston Qualifying time, so I set aside...
I don’t see a problem with giving her a week, trying to follow up, and giving her another week. You never know what might occupy someone’s attention at a given time, regardless what their habits are generally.
It’s not like this is highly time-sensitive breaking news, is there some great malfeasance could occur in the intervening period, or that Derek has to worry about really losing out by being scooped by somebody. That’s not to suggest that he’s really at fault; I’d just expect him to err a little more on the side of caution.
Umm, he wrote she was provided four days to respond. She's a member of the media, an industry in which communication is the foundation.
I graduated from university with a communications degree and was a print journalist for eight years, internships included. If I went four days without checking my email, social media, I'd have been booted really fast. It was my job to stay on top of my beat, which involved communicating by social media.
It appears shot got DD's message. Her IG is down. How many woke articles did this woman write for RW? I bet a lot of them.
I'm curious about how many folks come clean with a mea culpa to MI when Derek reaches out, and the situation never gets reported. Does it ever happen? Is it just common personal trait of a person that cheats to refuse to acknowledge culpability? An honest "yes, I cheated because of XYZ. I would not have come clean had I not been caught, but I am very sorry and I will work to be better."
Not often, but every once in a while, they apparently do. Derek wrote this a number of years ago. I found it fascinating:
It appears that with every post about a runner cheating and a mention of Marathon Investigation we get the people brutally condemning Derek for his coverage of Dr. Frank Meza. That's unfortunate, as all Derek did was report the truth, and his coverage was 100x better than the hundreds page Letsrun message board coverage, which was truly dark.
It is an absolute tragedy that Dr. Meza committed suicide, but outing him for his obvious marathon cheating over a decade while being a respected health professional and coaching his amateur track team and a local high school team is 100% appropriate. Let's also not forget that Meza unofficially holds the record for fastest marathon by a 70-74 year old.
I mean, Meza literally used A BICYCLE to cheat at the San Francisco marathon. A bicycle! Additionally, if you followed the excellent reporting on the issue, Meza went to pathological lengths to cheat, meticulously planning how he would course cut, using his timing watches to ensure that went over the various timing mats in a way that made it seem like he was just running fast. He had a clothes changing strategy to disguise his cheating during the marathon, for goodness' sake!
Additionally, and this is incredibly important to note, Meza and his family aggressively denied any cheating at all, to the point that they started threatening everyone with legal action for what people were saying and writing, even though it was completely obvious to anyone with a brain that he cheated.
Think about what that means - this guy spent more time arranging his cheating than running the races, then denied to his dying day that he cheated. If you were a patient of Dr. Meza, how do you think that would make you feel, knowing that a health professional went to such lengths to cheat on second tier amateur marathons? If he were willing to cheat on something so insignificant in the scheme of things, what else would he be willing to cheat or bend the rules on?
It appears that with every post about a runner cheating and a mention of Marathon Investigation we get the people brutally condemning Derek for his coverage of Dr. Frank Meza. That's unfortunate, as all Derek did was report the truth, and his coverage was 100x better than the hundreds page Letsrun message board coverage, which was truly dark.
It is an absolute tragedy that Dr. Meza committed suicide, but outing him for his obvious marathon cheating over a decade while being a respected health professional and coaching his amateur track team and a local high school team is 100% appropriate. Let's also not forget that Meza unofficially holds the record for fastest marathon by a 70-74 year old.
I mean, Meza literally used A BICYCLE to cheat at the San Francisco marathon. A bicycle! Additionally, if you followed the excellent reporting on the issue, Meza went to pathological lengths to cheat, meticulously planning how he would course cut, using his timing watches to ensure that went over the various timing mats in a way that made it seem like he was just running fast. He had a clothes changing strategy to disguise his cheating during the marathon, for goodness' sake!
Additionally, and this is incredibly important to note, Meza and his family aggressively denied any cheating at all, to the point that they started threatening everyone with legal action for what people were saying and writing, even though it was completely obvious to anyone with a brain that he cheated.
Think about what that means - this guy spent more time arranging his cheating than running the races, then denied to his dying day that he cheated. If you were a patient of Dr. Meza, how do you think that would make you feel, knowing that a health professional went to such lengths to cheat on second tier amateur marathons? If he were willing to cheat on something so insignificant in the scheme of things, what else would he be willing to cheat or bend the rules on?
Meza did it to himself. He could have fessed up and nobody would even remembered it a week later. But his tiny ego got hurt. He made decision to ride the bike and jump off the bridge.
Every time this type of thing comes up, the counter to publicising this basically boils down to "why does it matter?"
I think in this case especially, but in most others too, it matters for a few reasons:
1 - None of this matters on the surface. Who cares which normie runs which race at which speed? In simple terms, it doesn't matter at all. But take a look a bit deeper: the reason sport matters at all is because it instills ideals of hard work, honesty, fair play, the challenging and betterment of oneself, and the satisfaction with a job well done. There are health benefits as well, both physical and mental. All of those things largely reply on the sport being completed honestly. If someone, or many people, are cheating, then the only reason why sport matters is neutralised. Why are we even here, whether we agree with what Derek does or not? Honest participation is at the soul of what we love doing.
2 - In this case, the alleged perpetrator writes about her exploits for a largely very-amateur crowd. She apparently claimed that she ran a 3:18 marathon with no fuelling strategy, only one long run of 16 miles in January (everything else just "regular" runs), plus the no chip, no watch nonsense. It's a baaaaaaad idea to put out the notion to inexperienced runners that this is doable. For reference, the Instagram post talks about her lack of a fuel strategy, and the rest came from her notes/comments on the now-deleted Strava entry. That's dangerous, for a journalist to be putting out in the world. I do not want to see a mostly untrained, under-fuelled newish runner attempt a marathon on the back of a journalist telling them that she ran that time like that. And people do read this stuff.
3 - Journalists shouldn't lie. Doesn't matter if it's about sport; none of them should do it. They do, I know, I know. But they shouldn't, and if they're caught, they should be held to account.
4 - Running is a hard sport. We might find it easy in some ways now, but it's generally something that the average person struggles to do well for a long period. It's plain rude to cheat others out of what they've earned via training, given that many amateurs start from a place of finding running extremely challenging. I'm one of them: when I went on my first run, aged 22, I made is about 2 miles before I nearly threw up. Years later, so far I have a sub-40 10k and a sub-90 half, and I plan on working more to get faster. I am in Kate's gender and (almost) age categories, I am running roughly the times she's run, or is claiming to have run (her fake 1:32 at the Landmarks Half is close enough to my PR to give me pause). I don't think any of us should be cheated out of placings by cheats.
"Why does this matter?" demeans the dedication and work ethic of everyone who does this stuff honestly. That's why it matters.
Thank you for this, especially number 4. I have run a lot of 5K / 10K / 13.1M races in my life, but I am most proud of my 3 marathons. Yes, I ran mediocre times, but I ran 3 marathons, training for 6 months ahead of each one. Each one was really difficult, and during those last 5 miles of torture at each one, I told myself each time that I would never run another one. And then I did. It didn't occur to me to cut any course. It didn't occur to me to lie about any time. Why? Because unless you are elite the only reason to run 26.2 miles is because you can say you actually ran 26.2 miles. Running 24 miles and pretending you ran 26.2 miles is insane to me. Because of all this I get personally offended by people like this who cheat, especially people that are employed professionally by a running magazine (!) She absolutely should be fired, and I truly hope it happens, but I don't expect it. I feel we've crossed the Rubicon on stuff like this. Everyone is shameless and it feels like grifting will always be rewarded because the grift now is more important than integrity.
Race cheating by amateur runners seems deeply at odds with the principles of our sport. So why do some people do it when there is so little at stake but so much to lose? Duncan Craig investigates.
Can't help by laugh whenever another one of these runfluencers gets caught out by MI. The hobby jogger side of running is filled with main character syndrome. Take a look at any "mummy runs" instagram pages and it's filled with thousands of people celebrating mediocrity and putting these total losers on a pedestal.
If these dodgy operators spent the time they spent editing GPS files and writing instagram captions on actual running, they wouldn't need to fake it.
On the subject of runfluencers and cheating in the London Marathon... have a look at the London Marathon results from the "virtual" race in 2020. Obviously it was a strange time, and none of these results counted for anything. However, one female entrant, entered in the 18-39 age group, stood out. She posted a time just over 3 hours. It turns out that this person was 13 years old in October 2020, and the only evidence of this rather stunning feat for a child was an Instagram post where she "paced her dad" and ran a huge PR. Okay. She is now trying to be a runfluencer, running nearly an hour slower, four years later.
Sure, the virtuals meant nothing, but come on. That didn't happen. It's just grift for socials.
I'd give a pass to a 13-year-old, lame as that is. Hopefully she'll grow out of it.
But an adult RW editor? Or any other adult? Different story.
Interesting story given her position as an editor and her possibly lacking integrity and cheating races. If I ran the company and paid for her trip to London and all other perks I would certainly ask to recoup those expenses. Sounds like she was having great experiences and lots of free apparel without being a pro athlete. Living the dream.
Kate Carter - who has held a world record for being the fastest woman to run a marathon in a full-body costume - is alleged to have posted fake times at last year's event.
Carter declined to comment about the allegations when approached by MailOnline at her home in Wandsworth, South West London. She said enquiries should be directed through the publishers of Runner's World adding: 'I'm not speaking to you.'
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