Limp Kitten wrote:
I wouldn't be suprised if in the end it comes to light that this had very little to do with running at all, and much more to do with fraud. Running was just the front used to funnel the cashflow. As I said, I just find it very hard to believe that someone would travel around the United States with a sem-elaborate cheating routine simply to make their ego bigger...I'm guessing someones pocketbook is what was getting bigger.
Skimming donations is pretty dumb and very easy to catch. The guy is a doctor, which means he could make much more $ bilking medicare/medicaid or even regular insurance companies.
I suspect that the plan was to run a ton of sub 3 marathons, raise money for CF, write a book and then tour around doing motiviational speaches. If done right, that kind of thing could bring in pretty big bucks and would feed the need for attention.
One other point as to jumping on and off the course in Boston. When I ran Boston, I had a bad case of the poops from mi 9-16. I repeatedly ran off the course and went back behind buildings for emergency relief. Each time I came back on the course, it looked like I came from a parking lot way off the course. No one said anything--neither runners nor spectators. Also, Boston is always a heavily bandited race. It is not unusual to see people without numbers. It is an easy race to cheat.