Another marathon cheating story

Some race results.

Martin Franklin and William Juarena, there's a new sheriff in town.

So her other times may not have been legit. This kind of thing tends to resemble an addiction -- people who do it and get away with it keep doing it until they "hit bottom." Can only happen with age groupers and winners of 9th tier races, but it happens fairly often.

To the ignorami complaining that the RD may have DQ'd the "winner" on too little evidence: She didn't return calls officials made to her cell phone before DQing her. Sound like the actions of someone with Noble intentions to y'all?

Looks like she might be a habitual marathon cheater based on the evidence. Looking at some of her 10 mile times at crim does not look like she can run 2:09-3:10 for a marathon. Just my 2 cents.

This is an e-mail forward I got from Fred VanHalla who heads Front Line racing. It doesn't really sound like she intended to cut the course...

Here's the real story of Cristina Noble's Disqualification from the Sarasota Marathon:

I'm certain many of you heard about Cristina Noble's disqualification after winning the Sarasota Marathon. I was immediately livid when I heard this as a news story on WDIV Channel 4 in the Detroit area. I knocked off a note to WDIV right away, but, felt I better first write to Christina to see if she'd prefer just to let the story fade away without any outside interference. Here was her response....

Hi, Fred.

This is a big misunderstanding that the media has spun into a big scandal.

It has been an awful week (as you can imagine). At this point, I don't want the "spotlight" on me, I just want to crawl into a hole. I keep thinking that this is a bad dream and that I'll wake up tomorrow and find that it didn't occur.

I'll tell you how it really happened...

I have severe IBS that is exacerbated when I run. Therefore, I always have to make pit-stops along the way (this is also why I have race times of 3:07 to 3:24). Before the race, I e-mailed the race director to find out how far apart the port-a-potties are spaced. She responded quickly and told me that they are every 2 miles.

I was the leading woman (which is surprising because I'm not that fast). At mile 16 I grabbed a Gu. Soon thereafter, I needed to make a pit-stop. At approximately 16.5 miles I asked a race volunteer where the closest bathroom was. He pointed straight ahead and said, "I think it's that way." I should have phrased my question differently and asked, "How far is the next bathroom?" Shortly after mile 17 I saw and used a port-a-potty that was located on a construction site, just off of the race course. Even after this, I was still the first woman (!).

I finished with a respectable time of 3:10:05. Honestly, this is not a winning time. The winners usually finish under 3 hours.

The race director called me the next day I told me I was disqualified because I stepped off the race course after mile 17 and that my times from that point on were not valid.

I believe that I didn't do anything wrong by simply using a non-race provided bathroom that was less than 20 yards from the race course. I feel that I am being singled out as a scapegoat for the promotion of their race (maybe it was that I'm not from Florida????). This was the 3rd annual Sarasota Marathon, with only 2700 registered runners between the 1/2 marathon and full marathon. They are getting a lot of free publicity from this. I bet that next year their registration numbers will really increase.

I'm not overly concerned about being denied the title of the "winner", because realistically, in any normal marathon, a 3:10 would never be the first place finishing time. I am upset that I am being denied my race time of 3:10:05 that I earned.

Not only am I mad about what occurred, but I am pissed that the reporters didn't get their facts straight. It was really crappy of Channel 4 to air this on the 11 o'clock news. As you stated, they never feature positive stories. Why wasn't there a story on the news when MaryBeth won Bayshore???? She's an awesome runner that is olympic-caliber, but yet only us local runners know about her many achievements. It would be nice to hear about the accomplishments of the many great runners that we have racing on our team and others throughout the metro Detroit area. It's funny to see that they didn't run a story when I was declared the winner on Sunday. They only air a negative story when I got disqualified on a screwed-up technicality. But also that they have put their media spin on it. Not only does this put me (and the sport of running) in a negative light, but they are questioning my moral integrity. I am an honest, upstanding individual and I do not like anyone challenging that. The story makes it sound as if I am a devious cheater. Come on!!! Runners are the most honest people I know. If we are planning on running a 20 mile training run, we won't let ourselves stop anywhere short of 20.00 miles. If someone were to cheat in a race, why would they do it when they are already in the lead, and go for a time that is slower than what they already run???

This wouldn't have even been an issue if there had been another woman finish ahead of me. This has really affected me and has left a sour taste in my mouth. At this point I don't want to put my name on any other race registration. However, I am thinking about possibly going back to Sarasota next year to redeem my pride and show them that I am a 3:10 marathoner.

As for sending out the email... you can if you want. You can include a brief explanation of what happened, and how that led to the disqualification. Most importantly, thank you for your support.

-Cristina

*******************

As soon as I heard Cristina's name on the newscast, I knew something was greatly wrong. And it wasn't with Cristina. I have written to WDIV at this link ClickOnDetroit.com - Contact WDIV , and gave them much of Cristina's story - said they should apologize and also have a story about every Michigan runner that has won a marathon in the past year. Feel free to write to them as well.

And, if you'd like to write a note of support to Cristina, please do so to at

cnoble2x2@aol.com

. She's pretty upset with some of the vultures in the running community who are no better than the news media at attacking someone without knowing the facts. We need to pick her up and get her back in the race. In fact before I sent this out, I again checked with Cristina to see if it was okay to send this out to the team. Her response was...

"Sure, you can share this with the rest of the team. I know that there are many bad things being said about me and this situation. Again, it's from those who do not know the facts. I haven't even been able to read any of the articles or blog postings. Actually, I think they would upset me too much. Like you said, I am not a highly paid professional athlete, I am a normal runner who really enjoys to run. Unfortunately, the way that the running community can ostracize one of their own without knowing the truth has dimmed my love for the sport"

Cristina ran for us twice last year; at the Crim she was 3rd runner on the Front Line Stump Jumpers and was our 6th woman in the hot Chicago Marathon. I'm really looking forward to her competing for Front Line Racing Team in 2008. Let's see that she's out there with us.

All for now,

Fred

Looks like Mullins (page 2 of this thread) and Bdsambo have gotten very different stories of this incident from individuals who claim to be involved. I really hope this woman has the guts to go back to Sarasota or some other well monitored marathon to try to run a legit time to put a strong case forward that she did nothing wrong. Or else she'll fail and then all the "did she, didn't she" can be put to rest. I suspect however that she will not.

I work for a marathon. A few years ago we had a woman cross the finish line at about 3:15. Similar to this case, she missed one of our chip mats at an out of the way location. When we confronted her to get her story she swore up and down that she had run the whole course, even though the splits we had for her made no sense (~1:50 first half, ~1:25 second half). We extended an invitation for her to come back the next year-free entry and we'd pay her plane ticket and lodging if she ran within 15 minutes of her time, but she didn't take us up on that.

Further research showed she had missed chip mats or had splits that made no sense at a couple of other races. We also found that she had a couple of marathon finishes that looked legit...........in the 5+ hour range!

This sh*t cracks me up.

bdsambo wrote:

This is an e-mail forward I got from Fred VanHalla who heads Front Line racing. It doesn't really sound like she intended to cut the course...

Here's the real story of Cristina Noble's Disqualification from the Sarasota Marathon:

Fred

She didn't intend to? The real story of her DQ? Nothing Noble has shared explains away the missing split. Nor has she has protested her innocence with vigor and answers that anybody else would had they just won a marathon. A look at previous races for her reveals one thing after another that raises suspicion about her ability to run as fast as she has in marathons in the past year.

No event would DQ a runner unless they felt they had ample evidence to do so. Nobody seeks out runners to DQ nor do they suppress or alter evidence to do so. On a daily basis we see good people doing bad things. Often, those around them aren't even aware of it and would swear on a stack of bibles the good person gone bad would never, ever do such a bad thing. Happens all the time.

It's wonderful Noble has her supporters. A very good thing, really. One hopes they remain so after the the dust settles on this sad situation.

anachronist wrote:

What is an IM?

It is Instant Message, sir.

Where is my curry? I want my curry now, Kapil!

Funny!!

"I have severe IBS that is exacerbated when I run"

"It was really crappy of Channel 4 to air this on the 11 o'clock news"

Hmmmmm wrote:

interesting find wrote:http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=216362&rsID=49347

Scroll down top the 5th place finisher in the 30-34 Female, note fifth place

This from the 2006 Detroit Marthon

Holycrap....her splits from 17 & 20 are missing...

Check out the course map and draw your own conclusions

i don't want to call anybody out as I don't know the facts, but ouch that hurts her case, as does the fact she ran 3:51 in chicago (although I guess the heat might be responsible for a 40 minute drop in time??)

interesting find wrote:

Hmmmmm wrote:

Holycrap....her splits from 17 & 20 are missing...

Check out the course map and draw your own conclusions

http://www.detroitmarathon.com/images/stories/maps/mara_map_07.pdf

bdsambo wrote:

B/c I have seen you post for several years I accept you are not her or someone schilling for her.

I will accept the info you post is what you say it is.

That said, there are problems with it and I find the content and her explanation very tough to believe.

Her version is that she left the course to use a bathroom and was DQd for leaving the course to go poop. The writer could have written just as good of a story with a sympathetic angle.

She had a chance to explain her side of the story to the paper that reported this, but she did not return any phone calls. Why?

The version she gave you is completely contrary from the info in the newspaper that reported the story. The paper said she was DQd b/c "she did not run part of the course." The article says there were mats at 17 and 18 miles that she missed. (I know someone posted earlier that there was only one mat around 17, not 2).

If her version is true, the story would simply say she left the course

If her story is true, it is an odd coincidence that she missed a timing mat, placed at a good spot to catch cheaters.

I have a hard time buying the excuse that she was DQd b/c this local marathon and she is being "scapegoated" since she is not from Fla. She seams to imply that the race wanted to give the award to a local runner and that they decided to do this to get free publicity.

I don't buy that.

I am also not sure I accept the, "why would I cheat I was in 1st place?" She was in the top 20 or so when all this happened, but It is certainly possible she did not know she was in 1st and may have thought someone was in front of her. She may have been dying and thought the runner behind would catch her. I don't know, but in my experience, whenever someone starts a sentence with "why would I..." what follows is a lie.

I also do not buy her claims that she does not care about winning the race since her time was not that good. Bull shit. According to the article in the paper, when she finished she told a reporter she was "happy with her time." She WON a marathon. She won a $4,000 watch, but she does not care, b/c her time was only 3:10 and not really good enough for a win.

I just don't buy that for a second.

Her email, makes me even more convinced that she cheated.

Went to the link that listed Noble's previous results, and noted she has run Bayshore Marathon three times. Her fastest result was in 2007.... look what's missing in those results...

http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/top-athletes-gruplus.tcl

Note, too, that Bayshore is an out and back course.

It looks like this lady is a 3:25-3:35 type who has a habit of cheating when the course presents an opportunity for her to do so.

Also, her question from her email "Why would I cheat, I was in the lead" (or something to that effect)? Simple answer to that one... because you didn't feel like running the entire distance, CHEATER!!!

I have run five marathons, big and small, and I have never missed a timing mat, or had a problem with one recording my split time. I can understand if this has happened maybe once to a prolific marathon, but this is a chronic problem with Ms. Noble.

If I were an RD, I would refuse her entry to my event.

your link doesn't work

Not sure why.... go to http://www.classicrace.com, or try....http://www.classicrace.com/Results07/index.htmlClick Bayshore marathon then do a search for top 10 females. You will notice her 1/2 marathon split is missing from the 2007 race. I hope that works.

anEconomist wrote:

your link doesn't work

yeah it is missing, the evidence is adding up although to be fair, there were two other women in the top 25 who were missing a first half split

Nothing Noble About This Girl wrote:

Not sure why.... go to

http://www.classicrace.com

, or try....

http://www.classicrace.com/Results07/index.html

Click Bayshore marathon then do a search for top 10 females. You will notice her 1/2 marathon split is missing from the 2007 race.

I hope that works.

anEconomist wrote:

your link doesn't work

To this day I maintain that I won the Boston Marathon!

[quote]anEconomist wrote:

yeah it is missing, the evidence is adding up although to be fair, there were two other women in the top 25 who were missing a first half split

Without accusing anyone else of wrongdoing, I would say the other two results to which you refer also appear to be not legit.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

Non-cheaters want to believe that no-one would ever cheat. But they do. Good, non-evil people do.

I knew a guy who got into the habit. Cut a course in a 4 miler. Swore up and down he didnt. His teammates/friends backed him, and you start to think "well maybe he didnt". Eventually admitted he did.

Before he admitted it, I think he thought if he denied it, then what does reality matter?

I think is an addictive, compulsive behavior. Also a heat of the moment thing.

Someone saw her take her bib off? And said she was just on a training run? 3:10 is not a training run for this person. What explanation could there be for a mat not taking her time?

The truth sets you free. Come clean.