Jean's Marines: What a crock

Amazing.

Food for thought: Maybe the Marine Corps Marathon race director could do what was done at Boston years back: toughen the qualifying standards?

Seriously. What would happen if the OVERALL qualifying time (no matter age, sex or physical issues) was, say 3:15?

No ifs ands or buts. No numbers for 'charity runners' and no numbers 'celebrities'. You qualify and that's it.

Would qualifying for the Marine Corps 26.2 then have some added weight?

It's nice these...ladies...got off their couches, but why pick the Marine Corps Marathon, when there are marathons over the border?

So let me ask you: according to her email to her group it seems that TNT is also cheating.

Shouldnt this be the bigger story? How long has this been going on? Why hasnt the Race director addressed this? Im betting it has to do with $$$.

Well clearly they have no clue as to the fact they are committing a transgression, they may be totally unaware?

(just suggesting it)

I think it would be better if the qualifing standard was more like 3:50, so we can let G.W. Bush and other politicians continue to run it.

From the original story, the RD said this....

"It shouldn't matter that other people are doing it. Tell us who they are so we can clean that up, too."

Please read the whole story.

Which group is TNT? That's not "Team In Training" (the Leukemia charity) is it?

That's what they're often refered to as.

POST PICS OF HER AND THE OTHER CHEATERS!

LIFETIME BAN!!

This group blew it, no doubt. No sympathy for their actions but they are owning up and making changes which hopefully will improve the culture surrounding the "running for a cause" mentality and approach to "races".

Check out their response on their website.

http://www.jeansmarines.com/news.asp?nid=14

Does anyone care to explain why there is so much bashing directed at a Leukemia charity?

I don't know the history of Team in Training, but I know so mid-3:00 marathoners who have done it simply as a way to do something positive for helping cancer research while training seriously for a marathon.

Is there a reason so many of you are pissing on Team in Training?

"help restore the reputation of JeansMarines"?

You're kidding.

You're Kidding wrote:

"help restore the reputation of JeansMarines"?

You're kidding.

Dude, they f***ed up, big deal. The reputation they have is for getting fat, lazy, chain smoking housewives off their obese asses and doing something positive in their lives. Their judgement in cutting the course was wrong. They seem embarrassed, as they should, and are taking real steps to make sure that their priorities are adjusted and this never happens again. Hopefully it serves as a wake up call to the other charity groups to stop pushing people to the marathon who have no business trying it, but it probably won't.

G Cleff wrote:

Seriously. What would happen if the OVERALL qualifying time (no matter age, sex or physical issues) was, say 3:15?

No ifs ands or buts. No numbers for 'charity runners' and no numbers 'celebrities'. You qualify and that's it.

lets say you were more generous, how about a 3:30 qualifying time.

if 3:30 were used, the MCM would have had only 498 finishers OUT OF ALMOST 20,000.

the big problem here is that jeansmarines as an organization is not properly training these women to complete a marathon. the MCM has a cutoff time of 7 hours. you can WALK a marathon on little or no training in that time. the cut off time for this marathon allows for a pace of OVER 16 minutes per mile.

if you cut off 4 miles as some of these cheaters did, you only need to maintain a 19 min/mile pace.

Mike Lundgren wrote:

Interesting that in her bio, Jean claimed to have won the 60-64 age group at Marines, too, makes me wonder about that and what other ethical matters she's "shortened". Sad that "feeling good about oneself" takes priority over standards and values.

amen to that.

especially when it was JEAN herself that took the cheaters on the "shortcut."

it seems common sense to me that a woman who shows other people how to cheat at a marathon should be banned from it.

if i cheated at a marathon i would fully expect to be banned, and i should be.

jean herself organized and led the cheating.

based on the articles i have seen, this is not the 1st time she has helped her "runners" cheat.

jean is a fraud and a cheater.

You're right. My bad.

"She then decided to pursue a career in medicine and, in 1974, graduated with the highest marks in her class in clinical practice from the University of Toronto School of Medicine, the largest medical school in North America."

Anyone want to attempt to varify the legitimacy of this statement?! You have to wonder. It's almost like the football coaches who have been fired for 'elaborating' on their resumes!

WTF do they need a Chief Ethics Officer? How stupid do you have to be to not know how NOT to cheat in a race. (And we're not talking about doping, this is just a bunch of joggers). You start behind the start line, you don't go until the gun goes off, you run the full distance on the marked course like everyone else, and you go through the finish line. A 6 year old could tell you how to run a fair race.

I accept that it's good that they are getting people to exercise, it's good they've admitted they were wrong, and they should be forgiven (although they should still pay any consequences dealt out like a year long ban). But let's be honest- this wasn't a "mistake in judgement", it was CHEATING.

runner femme wrote:

I accept that it's good that ... it's good they've admitted they were wrong, and they should be forgiven (although they should still pay any consequences dealt out like a year long ban). But let's be honest- this wasn't a "mistake in judgement", it was CHEATING.

the concern i have is that they have not admitted they were wrong. one of the articles says jean sent out an email to her "runners" telling them that cutting the course is "PERCEIVED AS CHEATING" by some.

it is not perceived as cheating, it is cheating.

i am also tired of seeing articles saying she helped runners "cut the course," call it what it is, she helped runners cheat.

if i intentionally helped a dozen runners cheat i should be banned for life, not a year. jean marmoreo is a cheater and a fraud. it is as simple as that. she helps runners cheat. a year long ban is far to short.