Dr. Leonard Raphael has run Boston 5 times since 2010. He has used The Austin Marathon and Bryan/College Station Marathon as his qualifier for all of his Boston runs.
Splits for the qualifying runs are not available prior to the 2012 Austin Marathon.
However, in the 7 Boston qualifying runs that Dr. Raphael has registered since 2012, he has missed timing mats every time. For these races, very few runners missed the mats. The odds that a single runner would have a chip malfunction on the same mat for multiple years is extremely remote.
He has been removed from the results (disqualified) from the 2014 and 2015 Austin Marathon.
He does have a qualifying time that can be used for entry to the 2017 Boston Marathon that was recorded at the 2016 USA Fit Marathon.
AUSTIN MARATHON 2012-2013
Dr Raphael ran Boston Qualifying times from 2006-2011. But there is no data online to analyze. So I have nothing to present or no conclusions to draw from those races.
In both 2012 and 2013, Dr. Raphael missed the 20 mile split. Calculating his registered split from the 13.1 mat to the finish shows that he registered the following negative splits.
2012 Austin Marathon
1st half: 2:11:34
2nd half 1:25:22
2013 Austin Marathon
1st half: 2:21:12
2nd half 1:22:18
He was just over 10 minutes off of the world record for his age for a half marathon, and he did it in the 2nd half of 2 separate Full Marathons
His 2013 and 2014 Austin Marathons resulted in disqualifications, so I do not have splits to analyze.
Bryan/College Station Marathons 2012-2013
He missed the 1/2 marathon splits in both of these races. There are no published splits prior to 20 miles in 2012, and 22 miles in 2013. His official times were 3:47:58 for 2012 and 3:40:47 for 2013. His 2013 BCS Marathon result was used to run Boston 2015.
USA FIT Marathon 2016
This course is an out and back with 2 loops. There were splits recorded for most runners at 9.3, 13.1 and 22.14. The spreadsheet I was forwarded does indicate that Dr. Raphael only recorded splits at the 13.1 split.
Since the course is two loops, this indicates that the only mat he ever was registered at was the mat located at the start/finish line. He was never recorded anywhere else on the course.
He is currently eligible to register for 2017 Boston Marathon using this result.
Summary
- 7 Boston Qualifying Times Since 2012 – Missed Mats in all 7 qualifying races
- Disqualified from Austin Marathon in 2014 and 2015 – Did not run in Austin 2016 – First Time he hasn’t run Austin since 2005.
- Didn’t hit any mats on the course of his 2017 qualifier race. Only hit the mat located at the start/finish line.
- His registration window for 2017 Boston starts on Friday September 23rd. I will monitor to see if he shows on the list of applicants.
Did you reach out to USA Fit?
Here are his actual Boston results:
2016 none
2015 4:16:41
2014 4:40:55
2013 none
2012 4:48:38
2011 3:59:38
2010 4:06:58
Also, he ran in 2008 and 2009 and judging by his results I'd guess he cheated into those races as well.
2008 4:21:34
2009 4:23:56
And the sad thing is that those aren't shabby marathon times. This guy's in his late 50's and now early 60's running very respectable marathon times for his age. Yes, they're not BQ times, but it's sad how low someone will resort to get into Boston. And he's a freaking doctor so he could pay $5K and go the charity route every year if it was so important for him to go to Boston.
They have been contacted, and say they will investigate.
At least he's not in a profession where ethics and honesty are vital. Oh wait…
Austin course looks easy to cut from about mile marker 14 over to 21.
Derek:
You're justified to do this for the Boston impact just by itself, but I hope you're also sharing your investigation with the qualifying marathon. The reason I say this is that the egregious cheaters not only bump someone out of Boston, but they can also bump someone out of their AG award at the qualifier. Since it's usually a lot harder to AG place than BQ, this may do even more good than notifying Boston.
It is. I live around mile 17, and I've both hopped in and hopped out while doing training runs, etc. in this stretch of the course (with permission, not banditing). No one would notice or care. Crazy that we don't have a timing mat at the northmost point.
Comments are closed.