Hahaha. What an idiot.
Notice that, according to her, her husband "was looking at his watch" when she passed halfway. What, no splits on your watch or his to show? Also notice that, according to her, her last half was run in 1:30:00. Yeah riiiight.
On and unrelated note. I have some distant family that live just a few miles from the Chickamauga battlefield (where that picture in the article was taken). There are seriously a LOT of stupid fat rednecks that live in that place. I never saw anyone out for a run. I never saw any non-overweight people except for the meth heads and chain smokers. The area is beautiful though.
It's a 2 loop course, but there are enough roads she could've cut back and taken the lead.
The timing company they used is top-notch; I can't imagine they had a chip error.
But, also, there are typically golf carts floating around the National Park around the leaders; I can't imagine suddenly there being a new leader without anybody noticing.
Whole situation seems like a mess. I used to serve on the board of the Chattanooga Track Club; glad that I don't have to deal with this PR mess.
Her only result on active....a 6:08 marathon.
http://results.active.com/events/2013-baltimore-running-festival/marathon/tabatha-hamilton
"called out to her then that she was at 1:36:51."
Even if her split was 1:37, that's still an ~1:18 second half. Quite a nice negative split.
Well, plugging her name into athlinks.com and looking at her results in pretty much tell the story.
* Marathon PR: 4:25 (2009)
* Half-Marathon PR: 2:19 (Sept. 2014)
Even the apparent fact that she ran a first-half of 2:06 should have been pretty exciting for her!
Claiming that she ran 1:36/1:29 halves is just embarrassing. Really, just super sad. That she even thinks anyone would be stupid enough to believe that. The fact that she is claiming this as her actual time rather than asking about timing errors pretty much shows that this was an active cheat. And for what?
Just sad.
She did waddle the Baltimore Marathon in 2013 in 6 hours plus. So fitness shouldn't have been an issue. http://results.active.com/events/2013-baltimore-running-festival/marathon/tabatha-hamilton
Even if you accept her account, she ran ~1:37 for the first half and 1:19 for the second. I'm not sure that's much of a defense...arguing the highly-unlikely vs. the impossible.
Here are her times aggregated through Athlinks:
http://www.athlinks.com/athletes/200707116/Profile
Her marathon PR is 4:25 at St Jude in Memphis in 2009.
O god. Another marathon cheater thread. This will have 400 posts by next week.
TAA wrote:
O god. Another marathon cheater thread. This will have 400 posts by next week.
This one is more relevant as the cheater won the race. This is not a matter of quibbling over whether someone who finished 143rd overall with a female Boston qualifying time of 3:33 ran the course.
crete wrote:
omg, she's a fatty too
http://www.marathonfoto.com/Marathon/Baltimore-Marathon-2013/offering/myMarathonfotos/RaceOID/17472013M1/Language/en
Here is her photo from the Talladega Half Marathon in September of this year:
http://i57.tinypic.com/aa2ol.jpgHer response that "it was a PR by 6 or 7 minutes" is enough for me to discredit the possibility that it was just a chip timing malfunction. Liars gonna lie.
Switek wrote:
crete wrote:omg, she's a fatty too
http://www.marathonfoto.com/Marathon/Baltimore-Marathon-2013/offering/myMarathonfotos/RaceOID/17472013M1/Language/enHere is her photo from the Talladega Half Marathon in September of this year:
http://i57.tinypic.com/aa2ol.jpg
Fat? You nuts, she's a cutie. Maybe a bit delusional, but cute.
1. I didn't even read the whole story. I took one look at her chunky upper body and huge legs and I knew she was lying.
2. Lool last half in 49 minutes? That would give zersenay tadese a good laugh.
The way she did it is pretty easy to figure out:
http://www.battlefieldmarathon.com/marathonmap.pdf
The course is basically a lollipop with two loops. She comes through the half marathon in a pretty good time and then completely blows up. She stops at 14 and walks off the course up toward the parking area on Lafayette Road. At some point, she realizes that she can jump back in the race, figures what the hell, and cuts back toward the course for the last mile. There are loads of folks finishing the half marathon so no one notices her jump back in.
When the pictures are posted, they'll be pretty damning. I'm glad the RD stepped up and DQ'd her without waiting for "proof." Those times are all the proof they needed.
Stick here...
For those who don't know I was president of the Chattanooga Track Club last year the club that manages this event. I have spent many years helping plan and organize this great marathon. The course is run in a battlefield that's mainly wooded. You run out for one mile do two 12 mile loops then come back. There is a mat at the halfway point of the half marathon to track the splits.
Because the event is so scenic it's easy to cheat. There are trails which connect the roads that allow for shortcuts. What happened here is blatant cheating. This person ran through the check point took a short cut and walked it in. The distance she covered was probably close to 14 miles. I spoke with the leaders of the rave and they never recall seeing this woman. It's obvious she cheated.
There is no way it's an honest mistake or her device didn't work. That's what she said at the end of the race:
Tabatha Hamilton, a 31-year-old from Trenton, Ga., was the women’s winner as she finished sixth overall with a splendid time of two hours, 55 minutes and 39 seconds. She was running her second Chickamauga race, but it was by far her best as she posted a personal record “by six or seven minutes.”
“I was running really slow in the first half, but I threw the hammer down in the second half. My legs feel like lead and they’re a bit shaky right now, but my goal was to just finish and I was hoping to have a PR,” she added with a smile.
From Chattanoogan.com:
http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/11/8/288140/Knoxville-s-Jason-Altman-Wins.aspx
hey ther wrote:
Fat? You nuts, she's a cutie. Maybe a bit delusional, but cute.
uh-huh...
