I wrote about Maureen briefly in an article focusing on The 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon. Her 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon result qualified her for Boston 2018. During my research for that analysis, I came across more instances that need further review.
She will be toeing the line on Monday at The Boston Marathon based off of this result at The 2016 Disney World Marathon.
The pacing by itself doesn’t look suspicious at all. But when you look at everything together, it raises doubts as to the authenticity of this result.
Course Map
In reviewing the 2017 results, the most common place to cut the course is the loop the section between the 1/2 split and the 20 mile marker. It seems from looking at the data that many runners cut somewhere between miles 16 and 17, missing the 20 mile mat, and skipping the entire Wide World of Sports Complex. Maureen missed the same timing mat in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Splits are not available at Disney before 2013.
Photo Opportunities
For both 2015 and 2016 Boston Marathons, The Walt Disney World Marathons were her only races where she has official Boston Qualifying times.
In both years she also had time to stop for photos with the characters. Also, in both years she has no photos in The Wide World of Sports Complex despite appearing in 56 photos from 2016 and 82 photos in 2015.
Maureen is listed as a Dopey Challenge Finisher in both of these years as well. This means that she completed the 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon and marathon in consecutive days. Achieving Boston Qualifying times as part of the Dopey Challenge would be quite an accomplishment.
12 Consecutive Boston Marathons
Maureen has completed 12 consecutive Boston Marathons. This Monday will presumably mark her 13th consecutive finish.
Looking back, her 2014 races seem unblemished. She ran Boston Qualifying times both in Boston and at Disney. This time, she missed no mats at Disney and appeared in photos at Wide World of Sports. (She also did have character photos in 2014 as well). As mentioned above, her qualifying marathons for 2016 through 2018 Boston Marathons were all at Disney, and are all questionable.
I have not had much success in having Disney disqualify participants that did not win age group awards.
I do not doubt that she has Boston Qualifying ability. At 2017 Disney, I estimate that she cut about a mile off of the course. If I am correct, she still would have likely qualified for Boston had she not cut that section. Still, the evidence is clear and she should be DQ’d.
Even if she runs a Boston Qualifying time on Monday, it is my opinion that she should not be in the race in the first place, and therefore ineligible to run Boston 2018.
Team In Training
I reached out to Team in Training regarding Maureen’s status in these races, and have not received a reply. However in speaking with some former members of TNT, it is my understanding that the expectation of the coaches is to help the other runners first and foremost. Also they presumed that wearing the TNT coach shirt would have made it easier to cut the course. Coaches will often not run the entire race and serve more as spectators.
It probably would not have raised suspicions if a TNT coach were jumping around the course to cheer on other TNT members. It should be noted that I have no confirmation of her TNT status for these races, and that these are just theories.
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No real way to cut a mile off the Disney course and skip the 20 mile mat, normally a cut at mile 16-ish going towards 21.
The mile she that I believe she cut in 2017 was in a different section of the course.
I’m on the same page now. I was looking at the previous course you posted and not thinking about this years course.
I’ve run in several Disney races, and the TNT coaches are running around everywhere — backwards, sidewards, whatever. I wouldn’t think twice if I saw a TNT coach run straight off the course.
Also, there’s no way to be missed by the Disney photographers. If you’re on the course, they will get a dozen photos of you in each location.
She’s proven she’s Boston level multiple times and the evidence in this case against her is weak.
She missed the same split 3 years, and has an impossible split time in 2017.
Obviously the photographic evidence against her is strong (actually, dispositive), but I guess I don’t see which split was impossible in 2017… Am I missing something?
I’m confused on this one too. Derek’s very words above are “The pacing by itself doesn’t look suspicious at all.”
Now he’s saying there’s “an impossible split time”?
The impossible split time is for 2017. The years with the missed splits were 2016 and earlier.
For those still confused, the split in question is from the 10-mile mark to the Half mark in the 2017 race:
43:31 @ 5M (8:42/M)
1:27:38 @ 10M (8:49/M)
1:46:05 @ Half (5:57/M)
He talks about the 2017 race and then says “She will be toeing the line on Monday at The Boston Marathon based off of this result.” Is that from the 2016 race? Why not say that: “…this result from the 2016 race”? Why not give explicitly give the 2017 splits like you just did?
This article is extremely poorly written. It takes serious investigation to know what the heck Dereck is talking about in this one and what the problem is. The article doesn’t plainly lay out the case.
I thought I clearly stated that she used 2016 Disney to qualify for 2017 Boston. i Will review to make it more clear. I did not specifically lay out the 2017 Disney splits in this article – I did in the prior article. That race was not her qualifying race so I didn’t focus on it – although she did use the 2017 Disney result to improve her corral placement for Monday’s Boston Marathon.
I don’t know about the evidence, per se, but she did not even need to qualify this year or last year as she has run 10 consecutive Boston Marathons and is now “permanantly” qualified.
That is incorrect. The 10 year finishers still need to qualify. They are only able to register before the normal process begins. The only real benefit is they just have to hit the BQ standard to gain admission.
Coach, whatever you perceive to be, are sounding stupid. Please don’t embarrass you sorry ass like this.
If only this were true…
unreal. What does that say about Team in Training? They should really ban her from representing their fine organization. If not, it brings them down a notch in respectability. Again, not the first but maybe this will be the last time she cheats and gets to run the Boston Marathon. Maureen, what type of lesson does this send? Do the entire running world a favor and don’t show up to run Boston. Stay home. If you cant qualify legitimately anymore, then don’t cheat to do so. also, for goodness (or Goofey’s sake) will Disney take their race seriously and monitor better. What a joke!
how on earth does anyone run a BQ qualifying race while stopping for photo opps at a @RunDisney event? Those lines are LONG! I understand those runners that go out and just run can easily qualify, but I just can’t understand doing character pictures and still earning at BQ, that doesn’t make reasonable sense at all.
In my experience as a TNT coach, you are not actually participating in the race when you are coaching. That would be highly unusual – your job is supporting the runners you’ve trained, not qualifying for your own Boston.
How does it work for “coaches” during a race? Do they pay the entry fees? Do races work out a deal with coaches?
they get special bibs. No official finish times.
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