There were a couple of things that I’ve seen regarding The Boston Marathon that struck me other than the reports of alleged cheating.
Red Rover
On Monday, I came across the a picture and a Facebook post I made that generated a surprising amount of interest and controversy. There were over 100 comments and more than 100,000 people have seen the post.
I posted the the picture with this comment:
As I sit here waiting for finisher data to come in late tonight, I saw this picture posted. Not cool at any marathon, let alone Boston.
I expected that some people would see the post, and that runners would generally agree with me that it is “not cool” to form a human chain stretching across the finish line.
The first post simply said “I disagree”, and then “Why do you care?” Eventually, the majority were in agreement that this is in poor form.
Why is this “Not Cool”?
Safety.
Generally runners running more than two abreast is discouraged. This was one of the comments to the post:
Having lost 6 weeks of training due to injury because people pulled this stunt at the finishline. Impeding fellow runners can be a DQ.
Common Courtesy.
There were a few runners that may or may not have been impeded. These runners could have had their Boston Qualifying Times affected. Yes, the clock time was over 4 hours, but adjusting for actual start time, and depending on the age/gender of those behind them, it portentially could affect a BQ time, or a personal record.
They didn’t spontaneously decide to form the human chain across the finish. It had to take some time to set up. At the least, some runners had to have been affected to some level. Some runners had their finish line photos affected by what I view as a selfish act.
Other Points
- These were NOT charity runners. They all qualified to run Boston. Most qualified at St. George Marathon. Some of the initial defenders of these runners assumed that they were with a common charity.
- I looked at some course photos. It does appear they all ran together the entire way. I cannot make judgement as to whether they were impeding runners throughout the race, as some have assumed.
My Wife Deserves a Medal
So when I crossed the finish line I took two medals. We both deserved one.
This is decidedly “not cool”.
I posted this in a private FB group with the names redacted, and even that didn’t stop the picture from spreading. After a few negative comments followed the 300+ likes he got from his followers, his Instagram account went private.
I felt obligated to post on this. After all, I have been openly critical of the “everyone gets a medal” mentality.
He ran as a charity entrant. He was supporting a charity that raises money to help a bombing victim. It’s bad enough to take a medal that you didn’t earn. Maybe you aren’t thinking clearly and thought this was a good idea. But he did this while representing a very worthwhile charity. He thought it was a gesture worthy of sharing. He gave a stolen medal to his wife for putting up with his training schedule. I was going to say that he should have just bought one off of EBay. But those medals were likely stolen as well.
As someone in that Facebook succinctly put it, “This would be like Tom Brady giving a Super Bowl ring to Gisele.
OK, off my soapbox. I am continuing my Boston analysis. I did notice that on the BAA results link they added a
form to report suspected cheaters. By all means use that form, but feel free to give me a heads up too, if you’d like.
Thank you to all of those that have already contributed to the site. Contributions go towards site expenses, and to compensate those that help gather the data. Please consider making a small contribution to support the site.
It’s indeed very not cool to steal a medal… what was/is he thinking?!
The BAA actually sells a companion medal for runners to give to someone that supported them. Taking an extra medal is appalling.
That’s actually very cool of the BAA to offer that. And if it’s publicized in the marathon materials, even sadder than he felt like he needed to just take an extra one.
There are no “extra” medals. He potentially took someone else’s medal.
He sure as hell stole it. That’s how he got it. Shameful!!!
Not greatly advertised, but thanks to this post, I found it in the online store and ordered one for my wife!
Thanks for posting that. I didn’t know they made those but since you posted I found it and I just bought one for my wife as she was instrumental in helping me with her support.
What a great idea – I will look for the companion medals! Thank you for the info.
Agree completely. I’m sure you’re going to hear the following: 1. “they deserve it just as much, so what’s the harm?” 2. “Go after cheats not these ‘fine’ people. It’s all wrong for the obvious reasons you stated but someone is probably typing away furiously with a response that will probably expand on points 1 & 2.
Anyway, for those here’s the rule. it is a token of your (and only your) achievement for running 26.2 miles (legally) and crossing the finish line. 2. The pure gesture would have been to give up your medal and hand it to your significant other and to not steal or “beg” a selfless volunteer for an extra one.
Keep up the great work.
Regardless of his good intentions “Shame on him.” That was clearly stealing. He could have found another route to celebrate his wife’s support. Real jewelry comes to mind or take her out for a nice dinner.
Back in 1986 I ran with a bad cold and finished 48 minutes slower than my qualifying time. There were no medals left when I finally showed up at the finish line. I wasn’t upset about it because I was so slow that day and I did finish 5 more times, so I have 5 finishers metals instead of the 6 that I earned. I always assumed that my missing medal was given to a bandit, but maybe my medal was given to some nonrunner somewhere.
I’m an ultra-runner, so my wife puts up with a lot of “I’ve got to go running” (probably far more often than an average marathoner), as well as having to drag my sorry behind home after a training race. When I finished my “A” race last summer, I would have never thought to ask the race director for a spare buckle, let alone steal one.
I may not word this thought exactly right, but as someone who has run for a nationally recognized charity for the last three years, as well as having been a race ambassador, I’ve had to sign what amounts to a “morals clause” contract which, in essence, says that I recognize that my actions and how I convey them in person or on social media, are a reflection of said organization, and that the organization can sever our relationship if my actions are deemed to put the org. in a negative light. Essentially, when fundraising or representing them at an event, especially if I am wearing that organization’s gear, people see me as a representative of that group. If this charity doesn’t condemn his action then it could be interpreted, by some, as condoning it, which could potentially harm their reputation in their community and make it harder to raise funds in the future or even, at the most extreme, have BAA withdraw future opportunities to have this charity team run the race.
While I understand his wanting to acknowledge his wife, there are other legal ways to have done that, which wouldn’t have hurt his reputation, or potentially that of the charity for whom he ran for.
A better gesture would be to give his wife his medal.
I was about to post this too. He appreciates his wife, but not apparently not quite *that* much.
If every runner grabbed a second medal at the finish there would be none left by the time I got there. 🙁
Not cool. Both manifestations of the extreme entitlement mindset. “I will do what I want because I feel like it, and screw the others”.
Like Justin mentioned, you can buy a “thank you” medal for $15 from the BAA’s official jeweler. It’s a nice medal & a much better option than possibly denying a finisher from receiving their medal.
In fairness, she ran further than most of the people featured on this site.
She was not a finisher in anyway shape or form for this year’s Boston. Her husband is a fraud. Congrats to her for accepting an unearned medal. She is so much better than the rest of us. Great examples of losers.
Took a medal for his wife? I can’t.
Give her yours then, jackass! Screw your deserves.
And the chain was made of assholes, nothing more.
I guess I should have taken an extra medal and gave it to my wife as well. After all, she put up with our two kids for 4 hours every Sunday morning so that I could go train.
On second thought, no, I shouldn’t have. She wouldn’t have accepted it anyway.
I was so angry about this that I searched up Andrew’s team. I hope they never allow him to run with them again.
Dear Ms. Duncan,
A member of your team took two medals at the finishing line, one for his wife, who did not run. Having one of your team members steal a medal brings disrepute to your team.
https://www.marathoninvestigation.com/2017/04/human-chains-medal-thievery.html
I thought you should know about this as it is likely to go viral.
Yours truly,
I agree with this article. But what is actually funny about the Tom Brady analogy is that the wives of the players do actually get a superbowl ring. They get a ladies version.
And you can buy a commemorative medal for Boston.
YES
Not cool on both counts. Completely selfish on both counts. Taking/stealing is not ok!!!! Blocking other runners at the finish line is the ultimate insult.
She deserves the medal as much as I do since I ran a 32 km over the Easter Weekend – lady I would be ashamed of obtaining a medal not earned
I’m a long time reader and sometime poster on this blog. Probably since the Mike Rossi days. Anyways, I thought to myself many times while hobbling into Boston last Monday that I’m going to get investigated. I find it pretty funny, I’m sure I’ll jump out like crazy from the results as I’m sure many other runners do that have injuries, bad races, etc. Hot, hot start combined with a bad leg and I went from a 3:09 qualifier to walking the most of the 2nd half of Boston to a 5:29 finish. Anyways, no missed mats or bib mules for me. Investigate away! Let me know if you want race photos, save yourself some $$ from ordering them yourself! And thanks for your awesome efforts catching cheaters. Love what you’re doing.
David Ketron
Boston bib 7256
He just reeks of self-entitlement.
At least we have some stories like this to counter-balance the assholery:
http://turnto10.com/news/local/double-amputee-gives-boston-marathon-medal-to-child-battling-cancer
the mitigating factor is that he had to pay/raise $5,000 to get in so I’m sure BWH is grateful for that. I do hope ALL of that 5 grand (minus race fees) go to actually help people: Does anybody know? Now with that being said, it was a purely selfish and infuriating move. “I deserve, so I took.” He probably felt like he “paid” (not raised) his money so I want more: And his wife? come on! Do you really deserve a boston marathon medal for being a partner in a relationship? Not cool. Maybe she has no clue about the race, how special it is or marathon running in general. I wonder if she’s walking around her town/office wearing it. Now, if he had given the wife HIS medal then OK. Nice gesture. Cant wait for the response from them and the charity.
Well actually… he only “raised” $1000, one donation from his parents a week ago.
I thought BAA required $5,000 from any charity runner regardless of how much money they raise
Yes, then you personally get charged the difference. It is kind of said to see someone use a charity to buy a bib versus someone who legitimately supports the cause, but I guess either way they get their donation.
I’m wondering why the medals were seemingly just placed somewhere so that one could easily ‘take’ one. I assumed that the medals were placed around the runner’s neck by someone at the finish line and ‘given’ upon completion. Totally unacceptable. In any event, I hope the fellow returns the medal and buys a companion medal for his wife. As far as the human chain goes, not cool…and why weren’t they separated by officials!?
I have seen people aggressively take multiple medals from volunteers. What’s a volunteer to do? Especially in the case where the volunteer is of much smaller stature than the athlete?
you have a group of selfless, wonderful volunteers who were probably “guilt-ed” into handing one more over OR he just hid his medal and walked further down the line to get another. I don’t know what time he finished in but if it’s mid to late pack, it can be chaotic. Again, I’m sure the volunteers are instructed about this situation but frankly, they are there out of love for the sport and event. Who wants to get into an altercation with some entitled punk.
I volunteered handing out medals at the Publix Marathon in Atlanta last month. While yes, we were instructed to place medals around the neck and only give one, I’m sure there were people who tried to double back for a second one or ran as a bandit and got one from one of us before we realized they didn’t have a proper bib.
I’m guessing that was his method. It’s probably 20 or 30 feet of medals with hundreds of volunteers so he probably got his first one and then tucked it under his shirt and went back for the second further down the line.
I’d say I’m surprised but I’m not. A friend of mine is an event coordinator as his full time job. He ran out of medals at one of his events even though he ordered 500 extras because people that didn’t even run came down from the adjacent health and fitness expo and took them.
We had a similar problem at our local Turkey Trot that I’m the organizing committee for. People took more of the swag than they were entitled to by signing up so some of the slower finishers got nothing. It’s almost impossible to prevent and it is very frustrating.
Much like the cheaters we see outed on this blog. Some people’s sense of entitlement knows no bounds.
He said he just took it, that’s not possible as the medals are always watched by the medals team and he is behind a barrier between the volunteers and the runners. They are always watched so he’s lying. He’s considered a BANDIT by the B.A.A. What he probably did was get a medal at the front of the line and then took it off, put it in his pocket and got another one further down the line. It happened all day long on Monday, we see it every year. It’s hard to combat every single incident of this. That’s why we call it KARMA!!!! They are jerks for taking a second medal for selling, for another person not a finisher or do whatever with it. It’s total bullshit. 🙁 This guy will not return it most likely but his stupid face is out there now. KARMA!!!! I know this from being a 9 year Veteran Volunteer for the Boston Marathon Medals team. KARMA!
Forming a human chain is not cool. So the runner behind has to slow down (while on runner’s high) and figure out how to get around you at the finish line? It must be frustrating to slow down right before the finish and having to walk through the finish line. What if you want a picture, too?
Stealing a medal? Honestly, I can’t care less. We live in a world where everyone gets a medal for any reason. I know people who buy medals and bibs off of ebay, put them in display cases so they can pretend they ran Boston. I know a lot more casual runners who claim running Boston Marathon is easy (they ran some 5k, 13.1 events in boston) because they think running a 5k in Boston is the same as running Boston Marathon.
This is really not cool. Those medals are meant for finishers only. I also have a spouse who went above and beyond to support me (especially given that he also ran a marathon but did not qualify for Boston). But as much as I appreciate the support and know that it would have been much harder on my own; I am the one who physically ran the qualifying time to get into Boston, physically did the training and physically ran the 42.2 km to earn my finishers medal.
I run and although it’s unlikely I’ll ever qualify for Boston, I can dream. My husband is not a runner and frankly does not ‘get it’ for the most part…all the training, the gear, the tech stuff, the races, etc… So IF I were to ever qualify and run Boston and even after all the hours of running and weekends of me not being part of the family for hours on end… I hardly think he’d be thrilled to get a medal – and not even my medal. He’d much likely prefer a Amazon gift card or a gift card to 5 Guys than anything running related. LOL So unless his wife is a runner or vicariously ran and trained with him, I think she would have enjoyed some OTHER ‘gift’ and measure of his appreciation for her support.
I wonder if this guy would have tried it at the Marine Corps Marathon, where uniformed Marines distribute medals to finishers.
So he took someone else’s medal from them to show his wife how much her sacrifice meant? What a guy!
I want people to know that the guy who took two medals does NOT represent the rest of our Stepping Strong team, and some of us are very upset to read about this.
What an extraordinary cause. Ironically, I would know nothing about Stepping Strong if not for the selfish actions of this guy so there’s a silver lining, I presume. Still think he’s a jerk but I can distinguish and understand that his actions should in no way represent the great cause. He should issue a statement NOW so nobody associates this cause with this person. Assuming he just paid his $5000 and isn’t involved beyond this one race, that is.
do they know who he is?
There really aren’t “extra” medals. So he possibly took the medal from a runner.
What kind of Douche Bag steels a medal from any race!
While deserving of an award/gift/giant “thank you,” she sure as shit does not deserve a race medal anyway….she didn’t run!
This is possibly one of the “uncoolest” things I’ve ever seen!!! If I had run that race and not got a medal because he decided to “treat” his wife I would have been absolutely gutted!!!
Treat your wife out of your own pocket not at the expense of the event company or even worse another fellow runner
Taking two makes you a thief! If you wanted to reward your wife, you would have given her your medal instead of stealing one for her! The “entitled generation.”
A few years ago, I did my first and, to date, only full distance Ironman triathlon. My son passed away unexpectedly four weeks before the race. He was an encouragement to me with his last communication to me was a text telling me I could finish the IM. I got an extra medal to bury with him for supporting me, BUT, I contacted IM, told them what and why, and only then did I receive an extra medal upon finishing. So, I see getting an extra medal, but not without approval of the race director. Had IM said no, I would have buried my finishers medal with him.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
The comment “Having lost 6 weeks of training due to injury because people pulled this stunt at the finishline. Impeding fellow runners can be a DQ” is not only ungrammatical (nor does it make sense), but also ridiculous. To say that (and I think I”m getting this right) people running in front of the person for something like 15 seconds, caused this person to a) become injured? (got caught up in human chain, fell to ground?) OR b) caused this person to lose six weeks of training (how–human chain formed time machine?)? Or, is this person saying that, having been injured and having lost 6 weeks of training, this person saw this event and reflected back on the trauma of aforementioned grievous injury/loss of training time and became emotional, over-wrought, and generally pissy enough to give a damn what some people do at the late hour of 4:27 at a finish time? Just checking. Back to my real problems.
Actually it is possible you could cause somebody to get injured. Especially at the end of a hard long race, because if a person is sprinting to the finish and they join hands right in front of you:
1) You have to stop suddenly, possibly causing all sorts of things to be torqued out of place and pull a muscle, twist an ankle, etc…
2) You run into them and cause a dog pile.
When you are in the heat of the moment and “sprinting” to the finish to get your nice finish line photo, it is not that easy to just shut down instantly, that is why they say at races not to stop right when you cross the finish line, because you can cause problems with the finishers behind you.
Exactly.
While I (thankfully) have never had to deal with something like a human chain, I have had issues with other runners slowing down, veering or extending their arms out in the past, including one collision about 100 yards from the finish line and a near-collision at the finish line.
Something similar happened to me and a few other runners a year ago during a six-mile run, which was part of a training series leading up to a half. I had a nice pace going about halfway through the course, on a fairly narrow street, when all of a sudden five or six runners in a row spread-eagled their arms to create basically a moving roadblock. Why they did this, I don’t know. Those of us immediately behind them loudly complained because we all had to drastically slow down — we couldn’t pass safely because they were essentially taking up the whole lane. We were risking a pile-up if we had tried. So we all just had to follow until we saw a point where we could safely pass. Amazingly, these runners saw nothing wrong with what they were doing, and actually talked back at US for telling them to put their arms down. So yes, this is a dangerous, ridiculous, and totally uncalled-for stunt that can easily lead to people getting hurt. And doing it at the finish line is inexcusable.
I chalk up a lot of this to how cavalierly some people take running anymore, especially in races. I’m seeing more and more instances of bad etiquette, and it’s frustrating and at times scary, given the largebfields that some of these events have. I’m not an elite runner by any stretch, but I recognize this is an athletic event, and I treat it and my fellow runners with responsibility and respect. Yes, you should have fun and enjoy the experience — but that does NOT include acting the fool. People can and do get injured, thanks to others’ indifference or carelessness. I think some forget that.
And as for the clown and the extra medal — his wife did not earn it. You don’t take what you haven’t earned. Pretty simple to me.
I think the comment implied they got injured being impeded at another race event under different circumstances. You should bear in mind that what might be “..at the late hour of 4:27” for you, is not for so many other runners, whose marathon finishing achievement is no less a special moment to savor than those far ahead of them. I hope your real problems are resolved soon.
I ran on Monday and there were a LOT of people delirious with heat stroke towards the end. A lot of people also stopped at the finish line and I almost plowed into one of them. I can’t imagine how much worse it would have been getting clotheslined instead.
These are both dick moves. The chain runners could have done the holding hands thing after the race. The guy that stole a medal should have given his wife his. What is the point of giving somebody something you do not own?? Having said, I only take medals from very few races these days. I started doing that after I realized that I was throwing away the medals I was getting mainly because I am generally in the slowest 20% of the field. I mean, what are supposed to do with them? I guess I will start handing them out to random race wives at races since my wife would throw it away.
Not cool at all! Both things are awful. People might only get one chance at Boston and that chain group killed their photos and maybe even their race. And an extra medal!? No!
The guy should have have just given her his medal if he thought she deserved it.
I would have no problem with Tom Brady giving HIS OWN Super Bowl ring to Giselle (or one of his 5 😉 ). But he’s not going to take a second one to give to her!
This guy taking the medal for his wife is just infuriating!! We all have families that put up with our running and we don’t steal medals! Why didn’t he just give her HIS medal if he thought she was so deserving? What a jackass.
I worked hard to support my husband when he trained for his first marathon. I won’t even wear the t-shirt for his race, much less put a finisher’s medal around my neck! They should mail that back to the race officials with a note of apology.
NOT AT ALL COOL WHATSOEVER NO MATTER WHAT
I was unlucky enough to be ruuning in the middle of the race near that ridiculous chain of women in pink Ellen shirts and they were all running like that then too. Ugh.
Wow, the amount of entitlement in that man is appalling to me. I should’ve grabbed four more medals at the finish line–one for each of my parents, my brother, and my boyfriend. Maybe a few more for my friends as well for putting up with the time I devote to running. Looks like he was running on behalf of the Stepping Strong BMH team too. Not the way that charity wants to be represented, I’m sure. Yikes.
While I am firmly in the “not cool” camp for both of these offenses, my question is why are there way more comments about these 2 things… “Line of ladies”, and “bonus medal boy”, than the normal comments for the actual cheaters in other posts
?
TL;DR… Both bad. Why do so many more people care about these yahoos than actual cheaters?
Because this post went viral on Facebook, so now everyone who actually made it to the website from there is putting in their two cents. Social media is a fickle thing.
Why all the fuss and hand bagging about a medal? Is that the reason you run the Boston Marathon, to get a medal? Judging by most comments it would seem few of those commenting wouldn’t run a marathon if there were no medals issued to finishes. Maybe the Boston Marathon organization should consider scraping medals and donating the cost of the medals to Derek Murphey so he wouldn’t need to beg for donations.
The fuss is because she didn’t earn it, nor did he have any right to steal one. Stooping to insult Derek just shows that you have nothing substantive to support your position.
It’s the theft. He can give his own medal to whoever he wants. Stealing a second one for his wife is garbage. Publicly bragging about it suggests that he’s a garbage human being rather than someone who had a momentary lapse in judgment.
Correction: ….would, instead of wouldn’t run..
If my husband gave me a stolen medal from a race, I would have to seriously question his judgement and really wonder what other things he is capable of…and I would returm the medal to the BAA!
I am angry enough about this that I found him on Instagram and sent him a message. Nothing too bad, just that what he did is awful and he lacks morals and she doesn’t deserve that medal. He replied and let me know that the medal was given to him by a volunteer, who placed it around his child’s neck at the finish line. Newsflash: kids aren’t allowed in that area! He’s still making up stories and lies about how this happened. I can’t even comprehend how he thinks this is acceptable, but I do believe that he and his wife belong together.
I actually sent him one on Instagram and Facebook but he didn’t reply. I’ve done plenty of marathons and been on the receiving end of there not being enough medals because some chose to take more than 1. It’s unbelievably selfish of this guy.
Wow give your supportive wife YOUR medal if you want to honor her not someone else’s. As a running mommy I love the sentiment of his post, but HATE that he doesn’t get how egocentric his choice to steal another runners medal is. I hope Boston bans Andrew from running again.
Also, I’d be pissed if I’m trying to sprint my finish and I have to slow down just so you can get your photo op.
Please update if you find out this guy gets a consequence for his thoughtless actions.
I love you so much I stole this for you… bwahahaha!
Forgive my soapbox moment, but I ran my first marathon in October and carried a bracelet the full 26.2 miles to give to my wife at the finish line as a thank you for putting up with my training schedule. I have two young kids and my wife picked up the early morning responsibilities while I was out for 2+ hours on weekend training. Taking a second medal is not ok- there are other ways to say thank you. This guy should do the right thing and return it to the BAA.
That is so sweet! You’re a keeper.
What is the person’s name who stole a medal to give to his wife? Hw needs to be called out.
Definitely not cool to steal a medal for his wife. My first ever 10K I was so disappointed that I didn’t get a medal. The reason there weren’t enough? People had taken more than one and those who only did the 2 mile walk also took one. I had to wait 3 weeks to get my medal. After training so hard and finishing my first big race it was a major downer after a great day. You need to earn those medals, not steal them.
As a 9th year Veteran Volunteer of the Boston Marathon, this is SO NOT COOL!!!! That makes him a BANDIT, he took a medal for someone who is not a finisher. Karma will see fit. Runners do not GET two medals. That means he probably faked getting his first medal and put it in his pocket and then went to another Medal volunteer and asked for another medal. Only runners who have a qualifiers bib and have finished received a finisher’s medal. If he really wants her to have one, let her wear yours or give her yours. She did not run, period. That is the B.A.A. rule. Karma, ya big LOSER!!!!! I love how he’s so proud of this but BLOCKED OUT his bib number. IDIOT! Karma! 🙁
In my opinion, there is a backlash against this guy that is out of proportion to the “crime.” He just wasnt thinking about how others would react to what he perceived was not a big deal, taking an extra medal for his loving, training-tolerant wife. With social media such as it is, small transgressions (taking an extra medal) can be amplified as can personal achievements (“look at me, I ran a marathon”). As to the human chain of 4+ hr finishers, I dont see the big deal – no one was gonna get hurt or miss their qualifying because of them. Now, the serial cheaters or train riders… that’s another story….
I somewhat agree with this sentiment. These people ultimately weren’t trying to hide anything and their intentions may have been good ones. However, those intentions were outweighed by the self centered nature of the acts. All of it seems to be driven by narcissistic social media attention seeking.
Awesome work Murph. Keep it up and thanks.
Companion medals? Gee, how about “companion-once-removed” medals for people who support the partners of the actual runners, like through babysitting and giving rides or just cheerleading on line? Or maybe just give a medal to anyone who likes unicorns and the colors blue and yellow and is willing to fork over money to the BAA for such insanely stupid gimcrack?
Here is what the BAA *should* do: Get rid of medals altogether– a marathon is not a war and if you need that chunk of crap to validate your effort, you’re just a putz — and also have a separate race for all of the charity runners, like on Sunday morning. Then watch all of the people who say they’re not really in it for themselves and could care less about recognition start bitching and exposing themselves as liars.
This guy is a tool but he is a natural outcropping of marathon running being subsumed by the general Western mentality of self-promotion at all and any costs. These are the twits who have driven entry fees for races through the roof with their disturbing neediness (gotta have bands at every miles, buffets at the finish, the *best* T-shirts, etc.).
I will never BQ as I am a slow runner, but I’d like to point out that finishing a marathon is a significant accomplishment for some of us. And for that reason a marathon medal means a lot to me. I only have two of them, but I earned them by legitimately completing the courses and crossing the finish lines. Wanting a medal does not make me a putz.
Stealing a medal is NOT cool. Medals are for marathon finishers. All of us marathon runners have someone behind us that sacrifices so we can do our long runs, or get in all the mid week runs we have to do. Someone that gets dinner ready, or picks up the kids, or has coffee ready for us when we get home from a long, cold weekend run. My husband gets my undying gratitude, a million thank yous, and hugs, and eventually I make it up to him. But he does not get a stolen medal. In my opinion, a stolen medal has no value and no meaning.
Total BS!! He should have his medal stripped!!
Affluenza! Strong work ethic but acts like a 1%’er taking whatever he likes as if money no object. But in this case you can’t buy more than one.
I would have irate if I ran the marathon and then didn’t get
My finishers medal because someone took an extra medal to “thank” their significant others and the organizers ran out. We all have someone who has to deal with our training schedules – find another way to thank them.
NOT COOL!! She wants a medal qualify FIRST like everyone else then run it!
Seems like there’s a simple fix: put a perforated tear-off on the bib. When you finish the volunteers can take the tear-off and give out the medal. Problem solved.
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