The 'London Marathon Cheats' thread on the Runnersworld forum, was always one of my favourites. People used to spend a great deal of time hunting, analysing split times, checking the photos, looking into previous race performance of Pof10 etc.
I have no doubt there was the odd 'honest' cheat amongst them, dropped out, got a lift to the finish and somehow registered a time collecting their bag, but the majority seemed to have jumped the barrier after tower bridge and just brazenly carried on. Many didn't realise they were setting world class times for those sections of the race, they would have been better off having a rest and a coffee before starting again.
There are some things about the current case which are extremely fishy, based only on the none details in the article. Her leg started to hurt and a friend with a car was conveniently there (looked like a hilly bit as well).
This is not the London Marathon, where if you get back on course, it's difficult to get back off, especially at the finish. She could have easily not crossed the line.
The line about not wanting to interfere with the 2nd woman's race, or not wanting to be asked 'how the f did you get here?'
The whole thing reeks!
When his name was removed and added to the DQ list, and then discovered when others looked up results in preparation for the following year, it kind of made his IM tattoo slightly embarrassing!
OOF!!
DrP
So if i've got this right...she accepted a lift to the checkpoint in order to drop out of the race, decided to continue instead, placed 3rd and accepted it and then didn't admit the cheating until rumbled a week later.
Sure, it may only be a minor race, but what a way to end your running career - she might as well just give up now and take up cycling!
it kind of made his IM tattoo slightly embarrassing!
Could you suggest he gets it amended to "I'M a cheat"?
There's obviously more to this than meets the eye. I wonder if she has been coerced in some way. Who was driving the car I wonder?
Ultra races are a bit unique anyhow aren't they.
I've often wondered what's to stop someone getting on an ebike etc. Even with tracking etc some times competitors can be miles apart completely off the beaten track without any marshalls etc.
I've even been up on our local hill in the early hours shouting words of encouragement to Ultra runners and pointed them in the direction of where they need to go. Is that cheating?
Off topic but in my first and only 24hr MTB event I did in it in a team of 4 with a local club I had only just joined. I'd never even met the other 3 in my team until the day we turned up. Just so you get the full picture, I was a newbie riding a £450 hardtail with some running shorts and a really old football jersey.
In any event, on my 2nd lap (which was probably a fair few hours into the actual event) I started and immediately dumbly took a wrong turn where some tape had dropped and then got called back by another competitor after riding maybe 50-60metres so I realised what I'd done and went back.
Didn't think much of it until the guy who called me back went absolutely nuts, screaming at me for cheating, following me around the whole course yelling at me, bellowing at bemused spectators and their kids about how "number 131 is a ****ing cheat" and they have to report me and so on. There was no reasoning with him at all and I eventually just dropped back to try and avoid the whole unseemly spectacle but then had to listen him yelling insults back at me about how I couldn't keep up with him despite being a dirty cheat.
Anyway, there's literally no point at all to this story other than it still really annoys me years later when I think of it and I assume some competitors must genuinely cheat in even the most casual of events if silly mistakes triggers reactions like that from people.
In retrospect, perhaps it was the riding in a football jersey which triggered him, in which case fair enough really.
In retrospect, perhaps it was the riding in a football jersey which triggered him, in which case fair enough really.
Haha, well these things happen don't they?
I mean, it's not like you kept going along your accidental short cut, crossed the line in 3rd arms aloft, uploaded the short cut ride on Strava, and then splashed it on your Insta account the next week. Then Mr Angry might have had a point.
In any event, on my 2nd lap (which was probably a fair few hours into the actual event) I started and immediately dumbly took a wrong turn where some tape had dropped and then got called back by another competitor after riding maybe 50-60metres so I realised what I’d done and went back.
I was racing a well known event in west Wales, 25ish years ago, and was in the lead group as we climbed a hill on our second lap. We were a bit bemused to pass a few people with race numbers on who were standing at the side of the course having a fag, having obviously ridden down a fire road which linked from one side of the course to the other. Bloody cheats, was the gist, even if they were stopped and having a fag.
Two or three years later, working for a bike company, one of my colleagues described the above event from his perspective of having taken the wrong turn with a few other riders, getting lost, finding they'd cut the course, not knowing what to do so stopped and had a fag and eased in at the back of the field. 😀
Related - I was running an XC race when two runners ahead of me went the wrong way, going totally off piste.
I shouted at them but they didn't hear me (being a decent way in front), briefly putting me in 2nd place!
Sadly they found their way back to the course - re-joining behind me, not taking a shortcut - and overtook me again, and I finished 4th 😀 .
Lol similar thing happened to me in a road sportive which rightly or wrongly, was being treated as a race by a lot of people. I got dropped from what you might call a "lead group" very early on and then spent an age ploughing ahead solo without seeing a single sole in front or behind.
Next thing I know, the exact same group appear behind me, say their hello's for a second or two and then drop me all over again. Transpired that the entire group had taken a wrong turn, performed a reasonably significant detour and then re-joined the course behind me- where they promptly reeled me in and spat me out the back again. So I manged to get dropped twice by the same group despite never catching them in the first place.
