Dean Karnazes, ambassador for Kauai Marathon, removed from the results, possibly cut the course

If Dean did stay at the Hyatt and was running late it would have been very easy for him to just run and jump in at the corner of Poipu Road and Ala Kinoiki. That would be about a mile into the course. To believe his story, he would have to double back to the starting line down Poipu Road and then return and run back where he came from. Can anyone confirm if they saw Dean at the Hyatt?

Hyatt location:

http://goo.gl/maps/A6dlN

Course Map:

http://www.thekauaimarathon.com/wp-content/uploads/fullstars2012-1.pdf

medium_pace wrote:

reasoning wrote:

To add to the point about the timing mat: It seems like a short timeline for picking up the mat. The race starts, it takes 2-3 minutes for everybody to cross the line (including walkers at the back), and then, 2-3 minutes later, they pick up the timing mat?

...There were only 300 people in the race. It should not have taken more than 30 seconds for everyone to cross the line. It is possible that seven minutes after the start they had already starting taking down the mats and/or the mats were turned off...

30 seconds MAX. I work the start line for a marathon that has a ~25' wide start line. Our first ~400 starters take about 15-17 seconds to cross the start line, based on the chip data for their start corral. I also work the start line for a 600 runner half marathon with a 30' wide start line. All those runners (some walkers) cross the start line in about 35 seconds.

As for the timeline of start mats being picked up, it's different for every race, but the marathon I work for our last starter crosses the start line about 4:45 after the gun. We might have a few stragglers coming out of the portos but the last of the continuous starters is at about 4:45. At 4:46, i.e. as soon as the last starter we see crosses the start line we start disconnecting the start mats and start getting them out of the street. We need to do it that quickly because we need to get that road partially open to traffic, and we have our racers coming back through the start line at mile 3.2. The wheelchair racers take about 11:00 to return, so we know we have a 6:00 window to get the mats and boxes disconnected, loaded in the trucks, and out of the start zone. It's wicked tight but we get it done. We do have someone manually recording the bib numbers of any stragglers so that we know they actually crossed the start line.

No idea if the race Dean did has any similar issues that require them to remove their start mats quickly.

Ran kauai before wrote:

The race starts in the pitch black (to cut down on the heat) it would be easy to have "hidden" at the first turn...

There is no way Dean Karnazes deliberately missed the start of this marathon. They always introduce the invited elite athletes (Shorter, Rodgers, Rupp, Karnazes) at the start. There is no way Dean K would deliberately miss that.

When Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, his last marathon was New York, which he ran in just over 3 hours.

Nothing in the 3:20 to 3:30 range would be a big deal for him. No reason to cut a course.

Who is more worshipped - Kim jong Un in North Korea or Dean making an appearance at a charity marathon?

Looked at the results yesterday. Last place guy was 1:16 chip differential. So it definitely didn't take long to get everyone on the course. Plus Deano is an experienced runner, he should know to let someone know he's starting if he was that late.

To answer medium_pace, Kip has been having the time of his life. He was voted Dentist of the year for the 5th straight time, his fan base is growing and he has been running 2:45-2:50 marathons (he ran 4 in the last 7 months). To stay out of the spotlight he has obviously been using alternate names for the races. Pretty much all of those that live in the area know by now that he was just a victim in the whole cheating thing, but I heard he is quite amused that the rest of the country still mistakenly thinks it did actually happen.

no practice today wrote:

No idea if the race Dean did has any similar issues that require them to remove their start mats quickly.

quote]

They had a half marathon split so as small as the race was, they probably took the start mat and used it there.

fklhgklhklgjdlgkdj wrote:

most discussed... wrote:

As with all things Karnazes, this has to be the most-discussed mediocre running in the history of man.

I loled when I read the title of this thread then loled again when I came to this post, touche

No that would be Jordan Hasay

most discussed... wrote:

As with all things Karnazes, this has to be the most-discussed mediocre running in the history of man.

Don't let Oprah hear you say that!

There were only a little over 300 in the marathon, but another 1800 or so in the half marathon starting at the same time.

Starting at o-dark thirty, I don't think Dean is the only runner to be late to this race, I am surprised if they took up the mat so soon.

I thought deano always stayed 26.2 miles from the race start so he could get a sufficient warm-up for these hobby jogs. I could see how a detour made him a little late.

I think the real question here is was it the snooze or am/pm that caused him to be later for the race.

Perhaps he ticked off the wake-up call guy at the hotel.

spin for the win wrote:

So after all the hoot and holler it turns out that DeanK actually ran 3:23!!!

He is the greatest!!! Long Live King K!!!

What time did he leave the hotel?

How many miles did he have to run to get to the place where the starting mat once was?

Is there a course difficulty factor, an island wind allowance, or an altitude conversion we can apply?

Bet he would have been 30 minutes faster if he ran with a rabbit.

I really can't stand Karn-o. Just seeing any photo of him is enought to get my blood boiling. I seriously think he is more responsible than anyone else for the general dislike and lack of respect given to ultrarunning on these message boards. As a some-time ultrarunner myself, I sometimes literally dislike myself because I associate ultrarunning so strongly with Dean. The guy truly is a big stinking POS.

However, much as I would like it if he got caught cheating and was publicly humiliated, I think there is nothing much here. The only question seems to be, did he run a mediocre marathon, or an even more mediocre marathon? We can be pretty assured that he is physically capable of such mediocrity, whether or not he did what he said. Maybe at best he took an age group trophy that he shouldn't have, but I find that hard to get worked up over. Still, it's nice to see him getting raked over the coals a little bit, whether or not he truly earned it on this occasion.

Dean has WON several ultras, run 300 miles WITHOUT stopping, run 50 MARATHONS in 50 STATES in 50 DAYS.

Yeah, I think he could handle this marathon. Some of you people are pathetic.

Joan Purcell wrote:

Dean has WON several ultras, run 300 miles WITHOUT stopping, run 50 MARATHONS in 50 STATES in 50 DAYS.

Yeah, I think he could handle this marathon. Some of you people are pathetic.

And let's not forget that Dean doesn't care much about speed, but those few times where he worked on speed it became evident very quickly that he has the capability of being a world class middle distance runner.