GO! St. Louis Marathon "Winner" DQ'd - Take notes RD's

Best part is that they took away her entry into Monday's Boston Marathon for her fake third place 3:13 last year. DQ'd, denied and humiliated: perfect. Thank you GO! St. Louis RD for your swift and decisive action.

Worst part is that her cheating contributed to the denial of legitimate qualifiers into Monday's race. As one of those who has BQ'd and registered but been cut from the field due to an overabundance of entrants, this kind of BS enrages me.

This loser was a cheater, and a stupid one at that. There was a lead bike with the lead female all through the race, there were seven timing mats on the course, USATF officials monitoring specific locations...and she thought she could just hop out onto the course, run the last few miles, and pick up the $1500 first place check for a surprise 2:53 finish? Nice try. The paper speculated that she mistimed her attack, but regardless - what a douche.

but at least it was pretty clear right away that something was up:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/other/local-woman-wins-st-louis-marathon-amid-confusion/article_0afd64fd-ab56-541c-9528-63fa278e5037.html

And kudos to the real winner, Andrea Karl, who has been running for just a year and a half and has won in both of her marathon starts. I don't know her, but I want to make sure she gets some positive publicity after being denied the glory that comes with winning a race. Maybe she's not the next Radcliffe, but bravo to her for a fantastic 2:54 in her second marathon (first was 3:01). That's a great start. Good for her!

Why in the hell would she pull this stunt a week before she was to "run" Boston? People are nuts. Seriously nuts.

what a disgrace. A quick look at other race results of hers makes it super obvious she could never run that sort of marathon time. Bet she'll still try and run Boston though!

Does anybody know if the RD is THE Nancy Lieberman?

brava wrote:

Does anybody know if the RD is THE Nancy Lieberman?

I was wondering this also. Doesn't the Nancy Lieberman go by Nancy Lieberman-Klien(?) generally though?

To get a 2016 qualifying time.

People are Whacked wrote:

Why in the hell would she pull this stunt a week before she was to "run" Boston? People are nuts. Seriously nuts.

sdfdkjlaljksdfkjsd wrote:

brava wrote:

Does anybody know if the RD is THE Nancy Lieberman?

I was wondering this also. Doesn't the Nancy Lieberman go by Nancy Lieberman-Klien(?) generally though?

She did havea hyphenated name, at least for a while, yeah. I just wondered if maybe that wasn't true anymore. (New family situation or something.) Not a big deal, just wondering.

brava wrote:

sdfdkjlaljksdfkjsd wrote:

I was wondering this also. Doesn't the Nancy Lieberman go by Nancy Lieberman-Klien(?) generally though?

I would say according to the bio, its not the same Nancy Lieberman (Cline) you are thinking of. No mention of ODU or basketball anywhere

http://gostlouis.org/about-go/meet-the-staff/

This has happened in the Men's race too.

"The first to arrive at the finish line was American runner Fred Lorz, who had actually dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car. When the car broke down at the 19th mile, Lorz re-entered the race and jogged across the finish line."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon

People are Whacked wrote:

Why in the hell would she pull this stunt a week before she was to "run" Boston? People are nuts. Seriously nuts.

I caught a 52 year old woman doing the same thing at last years Go St Louis marathon. She cut the course at Disney 2013 (no intermediate mats crossed) to qualify for Boston last year. At Go St Louis, she missed the first three timing mats, crossing the one at mile 8 (at the top of a significant hill) in 34:00 flat.

She then wobbled the next five miles at a 13 to 14 minute pace to cross the mat at mile 13, then ditched the timing mat at mile 20 on the out and back section to the west. She crossed the finish line in 3:40 or so, good enough to qualify her for Boston 2015 by a country mile. That time was thrown out by St Louis race officials when I brought it to their attention.

At Boston 2014, she crossed the timing mats at 5km, 10km, then a huge empty gap of missed mats until the one at 40km. Her participation undoubtedly was assisted by a train trip between the two mats. The BAA threw out her 2014 finish due to the inconsistencies.

great work switek...

those timing systems should kick out results for people that don't cross all of them.

jla;ljklfdsjkfdsa wrote:

great work switek...

those timing systems should kick out results for people that don't cross all of them.

Maybe not. It has to be race specific.

I ran a marathon and one of the mats wasn't turned on for the first 100 runners. Later in the race, another mat was only half-way across the road. I almost had to double back to make it.

But missing all the mats. Come on! Removing the timing strip? WTF?

I'm amazed how this runner looked sad/dejected after winning the race. It's worth watching the video with the awards ceremony. Almost like they knew they made a huge mistake by winning it instead of finishing third.

BTW, what's the prize money for third place?

[quote[Why in the hell would she pull this stunt a week before she was to "run" Boston? People are nuts. Seriously nuts.[/quote]

To get a 2016 qualifying time.

Why?

This runner got away with it in 2014 and third place gets $300.00. This year, maybe they figured $1000.00 for second place would be cake? Could that have been motivation?

They were already in Boston this year. I doubt they cared about 2016. Most BQ cheaters just want to do Boston once.

Do they pay back last year's spoils and does STL pay the rightful third place 2014 person?

1904 wrote:

This has happened in the Men's race too.

"The first to arrive at the finish line was American runner Fred Lorz, who had actually dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car. When the car broke down at the 19th mile, Lorz re-entered the race and jogged across the finish line."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon

Yeah that's comparable

I think she was going for the second place $1000.00. In her interview, she said she didn't think she was first. She probably thought there was another woman that ran as she was waiting from her hiding place.

When she actually came first, she was shocked and angry at herself. She hightailed out of there because knew she'd be found out.

Good theory? Or was she just going for the BQ again? Will she give her story?

All I can say is what a creepy smile she flashed at that photo opp with Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Looks like she might have done this only for the money, and not for the glory. Compare the video of her to the one from 1980 of Rosie Ruiz. At least Ruiz did a good job of faking exhaustion.