Live data from Hacker News

Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

marathoninvestigation.com

121–130 of 197 posts

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#121
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree that now she's come clean any identifying information should be removed. How?

Ah, yes, that's a good point. Once it's on the internet it's there forever.

Not just that - race records like this are public. Even a piece which said only "second place runner in this marathon cheated" would be easy to connect to her name.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#122
These sorts of situations keep appearing with lots of attention. One of the most (in)famous instances has a thread with thousands of pages on the Letsrun.com forum

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539

There's also the case of the guy who was faking his run accross America

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7355147

For whatever reason, this group of people in the online running community gets really into discovering who is cheating.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#123
post #42

Personally I am fascinated by marathon cheats. Every time I see a story about someone cheating in a marathon I can't help but wonder what was going through the person's head before, during, and after. I also wonder how often they do it, and why. You don't win any money, there is no incentive I can make out beyond bragging rights. I mean, they aren't exactly footraces, right? It's an endurance test, IMO. Usually for c…

The New Yorker did an interesting article examining one such cheater http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#124

What exactly is the point of this post? I second the opinion that this shouldn't be on HN. It's just doxxing the poor girl.

I don't think it meets the strict definition of docxing if the person in question is using their real name on social profiles along with face pictures and publicizing their results. Although I do sympathize with someone getting publicly shamed.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#125
post #20

Regardless of the cheating, this type of post doesn't fully sit right with me. Given the permanence of record on the internet, this does bring up the issue of how we police bad behavior, and how we incorporate forgiveness into that. That said, the poster was pretty fair, and generally refer to her as "the runner". It definitely reads as an obsessive sleuthing, no doubt in part because there were follow-on discoveries…

This runner cheated consciously, lied afterward, covered up the cheat with a conspiracy later (biking the route to create a fake data trail). Its hard to smear any investigation as 'obsessive' compared to that.

And cheating at public events is not innocent. Its a rupture of the social contract, up there with stealing and libel. It should be dealt with promptly and vigorously. She should be banned from all further events. This is not the sort of person you want in your society, in your business, in your life.

I'm more disturbed with the evident impulse to forgive. Is nothing important any more? Is character and honesty so worthless?

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#126
post #20

Regardless of the cheating, this type of post doesn't fully sit right with me. Given the permanence of record on the internet, this does bring up the issue of how we police bad behavior, and how we incorporate forgiveness into that. That said, the poster was pretty fair, and generally refer to her as "the runner". It definitely reads as an obsessive sleuthing, no doubt in part because there were follow-on discoveries…

I don't agree that it's innocent. Competitors in marathons (the ones that have a chance of winning especially) have put a lot of time, energy, effort, and pain into training to be successful.

To have their rewards for that effort and commitment stolen by someone who didn't earn it is not fair and should be scrutinized and called out.

To call this "trivial" seems like maybe you have no interest or experience with marathons? It might be trivial to you, but substitute marathons for some challenging endeavor in your life. If your success was stolen by someone who cheated, you wouldn't think it was trivial either.

Certainly mass internet lynch mobs are a bad thing. But what this site does is necessary. There are many instances this kind of behavior documented on sites like this.

Some of these cheaters are obsessive and do it over and over again. It is very unfair to other competitors (even those who have no chance of being winners...), taking credit for the commitment to something that you don't have.

Maybe this kind of thing bothers me more because I've seen it with people who pretend to have military service ("stolen-valor"). It's just frustrating seeing people blatantly pretend to have done something difficult just to get the accolades.

Anyways, I agree that these are self-inflicted wounds for sure.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should someone who cheated at a PUBLIC event and very publicly claimed the prize and actively misled other runners and the judging committee not be exposed publicly? Is it not in the public interest to punish these peoples? Or should we never report on such misdeeds for fear of any personal and professional retribution? Isn't that part of being a responsible adult in a civil society? She's a sponsored running/lif…

I don't think there's any reason this post shouldn't have happened, or the cheating shouldn't have been given a public, lasting record. And yeah, the sponsorship and team membership raise this from "costing someone else a medal" to "serious manipulation". But I share the sense that something is weird here. Maybe it's just the section trying to cast doubt on the claim that she was feeling nauseous - there's a sentimen…

>> Maybe it's just the section trying to cast doubt on the claim that she was feeling nauseous

She was feeling so nauseous that she couldn't finish the extra 1.5 miles all by herself but could bike the entire course to falsify data on Strava to double down on her cheating? Give me a break. The fact that she only recanted after all the evidence was presented to her about the depths of her cheating tells us all we need to know about her character in this instance. Positions of public trust bring with them public responsibility, and this is what it looks like, for better or for worse.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should someone who cheated at a PUBLIC event and very publicly claimed the prize and actively misled other runners and the judging committee not be exposed publicly? Is it not in the public interest to punish these peoples? Or should we never report on such misdeeds for fear of any personal and professional retribution? Isn't that part of being a responsible adult in a civil society? She's a sponsored running/lif…

I don't think there's any reason this post shouldn't have happened, or the cheating shouldn't have been given a public, lasting record. And yeah, the sponsorship and team membership raise this from "costing someone else a medal" to "serious manipulation". But I share the sense that something is weird here. Maybe it's just the section trying to cast doubt on the claim that she was feeling nauseous - there's a sentimen…

Yes I agree. It went beyond proving the simple facts of the case, into attempts discredit the runner's character in other ways.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#129
post #71
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case the runner needed to achieve a certain qualification time for another event. So she was under pressure, which led to the poor decision.

I wish people would not refer to dishonest decisions as poor decisions. It's an example of spin and was doubtless invented by a PR company for some politician caught with his pants down.

I specifically chose those words for their generous effect.

Re: Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

#130
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's any reason this post shouldn't have happened, or the cheating shouldn't have been given a public, lasting record. And yeah, the sponsorship and team membership raise this from "costing someone else a medal" to "serious manipulation". But I share the sense that something is weird here. Maybe it's just the section trying to cast doubt on the claim that she was feeling nauseous - there's a sentimen…

Yes I agree. It went beyond proving the simple facts of the case, into attempts discredit the runner's character in other ways.

You mean by pointing out another race a few months ago where she ran another half-marathon but pictures show that someone else finished the race with her bib?
Post reply on HN