Sleuth purchases race pictures and discovers that Ft Lauderdale 2nd place cheated to enter elite team

I tried to redact the name of the young runner in question, but apparently I missed it in one spot. And it's visible in the Best Time CCT results. Sorry about that, folks. I've emailed

letsrun@letsrun.com

and asked them to redact. I was simply trying to make a point about how different runners respond to course cutting--and how it's incumbent upon those who value the integrity of the sport to reach out to the folks in charge of upholding integrity and saying, "Hey, this happened and it's not kosher. "

Please forget the young man's name. That's not the point. Thanks.

Keeping up the pretense. wrote:

"Women’s Running covered this event via our Instagram account and, upon finding out about this incident from various sources, immediately removed all photos pertaining to this runner. Thank you to the runners who alerted us."

but name her and post links to Marathon Investigation and Miami New Times.

What is this about? What photos?

And on the MI FB page, there is this message: "Derek, please treat the threat as serious stuff to protect yourself and your family"

Has Jane Seo hired the Yakuza?

"That's when Murphy, who I imagine was in a hat smoking a pipe..."

https://youtu.be/VnmjXFuqkSY?t=8m12s

Kim Jong Un's Stylist. wrote:

Good work and good video included with the article Doubler, but can I suggest one thing if you're going to be a media personality, you ditch the Kim Jong Un type hair style, get your wife to cut it instead of the kids.

doubler wrote:

I liked this article..

https://theringer.com/to-catch-a-marathoner-d92a599d4bc2

I'll admit It's about time to just go with the shaved head. I'm running out of options.

doubler wrote:

Kim Jong Un's Stylist. wrote:

Good work and good video included with the article Doubler, but can I suggest one thing if you're going to be a media personality, you ditch the Kim Jong Un type hair style, get your wife to cut it instead of the kids.

I'll admit It's about time to just go with the shaved head. I'm running out of options.

Dude, you like fine. Great thing you are doing.

I know an old running group that used to race blazing times - 15min 5Ks and a years of BQing. I never understood how they were so fast because they never ran that much and they didn't have a history of running. One race I caught them cutting the course when I was volunteering. I regret this, but they were all prominent figures in my community - one was my family doctor, two more were surgeons, one was high up at big company I wanted to work for, and a few were lawyers - so I never said anything.

When timing mats cane out they all stopped racing.

I can't speak for other older runners, but I can speak for myself: I can't imagine doing what this young woman did, under any conditions. Not just cheating like this, but claiming an award that I knew somebody else deserved, then going back and expending a lot of effort to cover my tracks: it's a craven thing. I'm glad she got busted.

But there's no need, at this point, for anybody here to feel vengeful, or to keep prosecuting the case. She's been busted. She came (relatively) clean. When future employers google her name, p. 1 of organic search is all about her escapade.

Which is to say, karma has worked in a particularly fast and effective way here. So she's gotten a huge life lesson. That's a good thing.

No need for vengeance.

I once unintentionally cut a course. It was a 5K--the Resurrection 5K in Tupelo--and it was my first race back after a health scare. At the 2.65 mile point, I'd guess, the teen kid ahead of my, who I'd been bird-dogging the whole last mile, suddenly cut to the right, and I followed him and realized that I was clambering down an embankment that couldn't possibly be part of the course. Then we were back on the course, heading for a finish on a local track, and I was cursing mentally, knowing that something wasn't right. We finished and my Garmin read 3.02 or somesuch.

Here's the complete text of the email that I wrote to the race director when I got home:

____________________________________________________________________

Dear [ }

Let me start by thanking you, as race director, for a really nice race this morning. I've run a hundred races in the past decade and this was a genuinely memorable experience. I was particularly touched by the prayer offered just before the start.

Secondly, I want to alert you to an issue that seemed at the time like a minor but forgettable one. It turns out to be somewhat more worthy of attention than I'd realized. It involves a younger runner in the race--one who, I fear, may (and I'll stress the word MAY) be guilty of something more than a minor error in judgment.

I finished 8th in today's Resurrection run with a chip time of 20:41. As I made clear to everybody within listening distance just after I finished, my time is an illegitimate one. I took a shortcut and ran roughly one-tenth of a mile less than the posted distance of 5K.

I did so because I was following the two younger runners directly ahead of me as we plowed towards the third mile marker. There was a female officer, I discovered later, standing at the proper turning point up ahead of us, but I didn't see her because I was focused to intently on the two runners just ahead of me. Those runners took what at the time seemed like the correct R hand turn, but it was, in fact, an early R hand turn, one that took us down the shaded parking lot and alongside the large building that overlooks the track where the race finished. I realized within 20 or 30 yards, as I charged after the two young runners ahead of me, that we had taken a wrong turn. But I continued down the hill, veered under a covered walkway, plowed down a grass bank, and then--joining up with the sharp downhill stretching left to right across my field of view--came back out onto the race course roughly 100 feet from the track.

There was nothing to do at that point but to finish the race. My Garmin read 3.02 miles as I crossed the line, which merely confirmed that my finishing time of 20:41 was an illegitimate time. I told this to the first volunteer I found. I then looked around for the two young runners whom I had followed on this "short course." I found the young man who had finished directly ahead of me. I heard him telling several people that he had earned a PR. He didn't particularly seem to want folks to know that he had run a short course.

I decided to forget about the episode until this evening, when I checked the times on the Best Times CCT website:

http://www.besttimescct.com/results/Tupres13.txt

I found the young man's name. His name is { ] He finished the short course in a time of 20:09.

Why is this important? When, just out of curiosity, I googled his name and hometown. I discovered that he holds several Mississippi state records for the 10K distance.

http://www.mstrackclub.com/Race_info/MS10KRecords.pdf

On 5/13/2006 (???), at age 10, he ran a 54:12.

On 5/8/20010, at age 11, he ran a 48:47.

It turns out that he also holds state records in the 5K in 2009 (23:59, age10) and 2010 (21:54: age 11)

http://www.mstrackclub.com/Race_info/MS5KRecords.pdf

I'm assuming that the 2006 in his age 10 10K record is a misprint.

Nevertheless, this record of (apparent) achievement is important, and it brings me to my main point. If [ ] is the Mississippi State champion at those various distances, then it's especially important that his races be run over certified, or at least verified distances. I'm here to tell you that he ran a short course in today's race. I know because I followed him and a second runner on that short course. I spoke directly to your volunteer about that fact immediately after completing the course. And I said something to [ ]himself--I didn't know his name, but I asked three or four young runners at the finish line and found him pretty quickly. He sheepishly acknowledged my claim, but then, less than a minute afterwards, I heard him bragging to someone that he'd notched a PR. No serious competitor I know would make such a claim.

As I say, I was planning to let all this vanish into thin air until I looked at the race results this evening, did a small bit of research, and realized that the young man in question--the young man who led me off the course into a short-course mistake--was a young Mississippi state champion. At that point, integrity demands that I bring the matter to your attention.

I've taken the liberty of CCing Buck Jones, a member of the Mississippi Track Club in charge of state records. As a professor of English at the University of Mississippi, I take the education of young people seriously. Integrity is a part of that education. I certainly don't have enough evidence to impugn Mr. [ ]'s integrity, but I believe that today's race gives us all legitimate reason for concern nonetheless. Perhaps there's a grey area here that needs pastoral care. That's the spirit in which I'm writing you.

If you've read to this point, many thanks for doing so! I truly enjoyed the race. Please express my thanks to Whomever held off the rain that was forecast for this morning.

best wishes for Easter,

__________________________________________________________________

Buck Jones took my complaint very seriously indeed. I've just gone back and checked, and the young runner is no longer listed as Mississippi state champ for the ages and distances I flagged.

So sure: I was offended and somewhat prosecutorial--because to me, the sport begins and ends with fair play. Nothing "won" by cheating is worth a damn. Keep teaching that lesson to young people. Ms. Seo has clearly learned that lesson, the hard way. Instant karma. She won't do THAT again.

Prescient article. She talks about her dreams becoming reality!

http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/08/bulging-with-bingsu

Jeez wrote:

Prescient article. She talks about her dreams becoming reality!

http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/08/bulging-with-bingsu

She claims to have gained 10 pounds eating 15 bowls of patbingsu over 5 days while skipping lunch and dinner? That is very hard to believe.

wippet wrote:

Jane Seo is a serial babe and a stone cold fox:

Fixed it for you.

Don't let the trolls get to you, Jane.

DashingDiva wrote:

This post is unnecessary.

PLEASE CLOSE THIS THREAD NOW

Can someone check the script on this BOT, something's gone very awry.

You forgot something wrote:

wippet wrote:

Jane Seo is a serial babe and a stone cold fox:

Fixed it for you.

Don't let the trolls get to you, Jane.

So, you objectify her, and because you find her attractive her cheating is acceptable and people who mention her cheating are in the wrong. You're a more disgusting a person than the cheater.

wippet wrote:

Jane Seo is a serial cheater and sociopath:

http://imgur.com/a/0IYHv

BOOM!!

Anyone who thinks someone would pull this off just ONCE is delusional. She obviously practiced in lower key events, knew it could be done, and had the confidence to lie, bask in the glory of the awards ceremony, try a cover up, deny again, then make a false apology.

Granted this woman has problems but the shame of public castigation isn't one of them.

Why is everyone so sure her 3:00 NYCM last year was clean? Did the blogger check her splits and photos to confirm that she really ran 3:00? She was 4th for the DWs with her 3:00 flat so why would that not be good enough to get on their elite squad?

sconehead wrote:

Hrvrd grd wrote:

Most likely got in for being a female and a minority. And they will pass you through as long as you are not a white male - then you have to work your "privileged" butt off

****

I highly doubt that anyone gets bonus points for being female and Asian in *college admission*. You're actually more likely to get into most colleges including Ivy Leagues, given the same credentials, as a white male.

Unless you're "Hrvrd grd" and just sat on his privileged butt.

Seo deserves all the criticism she's getting for cutting the course and attempting a ridiculous cover-up. Just like Rossi did. But all too often, the "good LetsRun" gets dragged down by "bad LetsRun" with posts like this.

Based on her cheating history and cover up she likely cheated her way into Harvard and continued while she was there. Not that it didn't take effort... Her cover-up and planning to cheat in the 1/2 marathon was a lot of work.

Derek, could you take another look?

Rosie R wrote:

Why is everyone so sure her 3:00 NYCM last year was clean? Did the blogger check her splits and photos to confirm that she really ran 3:00? She was 4th for the DWs with her 3:00 flat so why would that not be good enough to get on their elite squad?

whoahuhwut? wrote:

Derek, could you take another look?

Rosie R wrote:

Why is everyone so sure her 3:00 NYCM last year was clean? Did the blogger check her splits and photos to confirm that she really ran 3:00? She was 4th for the DWs with her 3:00 flat so why would that not be good enough to get on their elite squad?

You can check her splits yourself. NYC still has the unofficial results from 2016 posted. Those unofficial results include a split for each mile. Nothing terribly suspicious about her splits there, and I have no idea how you manage to cut the course at NYC and still hit all 26 timing mats. There's also plenty of photos of her on course wearing the correct bib, and crossing the finish line with a clock that is consistent to her recorded time.

3:00 equates to 1:25, so I guess she couldn't get the standard through legit means.

darkwave wrote:

whoahuhwut? wrote:

Derek, could you take another look?

You can check her splits yourself. NYC still has the unofficial results from 2016 posted. Those unofficial results include a split for each mile. Nothing terribly suspicious about her splits there, and I have no idea how you manage to cut the course at NYC and still hit all 26 timing mats. There's also plenty of photos of her on course wearing the correct bib, and crossing the finish line with a clock that is consistent to her recorded time.

Not sure why the Brojos removed this?

Seems like it is important to know that Jane has cheated before.

http://imgur.com/a/1soVR