Jeff Donnelly – Serial Cheater – Showing No Signs of Stopping

By
Derek
-
13
16012

Jeff and Sheri Donnelly

Below is a brief history of suspicious results for Jeff and Sheri Donnelly.

    • Jeff has run Boston in 2011, 2012, 2014 , 2015 and 2016. It is unlikely that he legitimately qualified for any of these.
    • Sheri was removed from the Full marathon results at the 2014 Desert Classic Marathon and dropped to the half. Jeff had an identical result, but was missed in their review. Sheri’s result was caught because she would have been the first overall female finisher. Jeff’s used this time to run The 2015 Boston Marathon
    • His wife, Sheri ran Boston in 2014 with a forged bib.
    • Sheri was disqualified from The 2015 Big Wildlife Run for cutting the course
    • Jeff and Sheri ran Boston ’16 using a qualifying time from Buckeye Lake Marathon – No timing mats
    • Jeff and Sheri were registered for The 2017 Boston Marathon but were later disqualified from their qualifying race – 2015 Surfer’s Point, and removed from the entry list.
    • “Howard Goldman” was disqualified from The 2016 Wicked Marathon. Howard’s entry was paid for by Jeff Donnelly, because “Howard” was actually Jeff. He ran a Boston Qualifying  time as an alias. He has been disqualified.

      Jeff Donnelly aka “Howard Goldman”
    • Jeff appears to have cut the course at the 2017 RNR Arizona Marathon – on his way to a 4:44:12 finish. I spotted him in a photo while investigating another course cutter.
    • Jeff Apparently cut the course at this half marathon. I was made aware of this thanks to twitter.

 

 

 

 

Jeff indeed was the only runner that missed the split on his way to 2nd place in his age group.

 

Summary

It would appear that his Boston days are over – unless he plans to enter as an alias or a bandit. I would love to speak with Jeff and Sheri and understand their true motivation. I doubt that will ever happen – I am aware of a number of other media outlets that have been unsuccessful in their attempts to contact Jeff and Sheri. I am very curious why Jeff continues to cut courses even after multiple disqualifications.

Here are the links to the prior articles if you care to read.

Couple Cuts Courses and Forges Bibs To Run Boston

Marathon Cheating Couple Disqualified from Surfer’s Point Marathon – Will be Removed From the 2017 Boston Marathon Entry List

Serial Marathon Cheater Strikes Again in Arizona

 

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13 COMMENTS

  1. God this guy sucks. Paying money (in some cases) to cheat in races. Much cool, very intelligence by this couple.

  2. Great find. This poor guy is probably wondering how the heck he can cheat at a race without Derek finding him again and again. 1:37 half marathon.. doubt it.. His athlinks profile is littered with slower races of varying distances – many 4 and 5 hr marathons and 2 hr halfs. With the occasional mid 3 hr marathon that qualifies him for Boston.

    After very brief glance at Athlinks,

    I don’t know if you saw the 2014 Buckeye marathon (he and wife both ran 3:29) (I am sure you have) http://buckeyemarathon.itsyourrace.com/Results.aspx?&id=3134&y=2014&eid=0&g=A&amin=0&amax=99&s=&srch=

    The maui oceanfront 3:55 kinda looks suspicious as that would be hot and windy and he only has finishing pix:
    http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?template=MPX2&new_search=1&event=Sports%2F2015%2FMaui%20Oceanfront%20Marathon&match=401

    Who knows the true motiviation – I would guess he likes to say he runs Boston – the whole definition of a good runner thing.

  3. I think every sanctioned marathon, especially and including Boston, should post lifetime bans on them both. This wouldn’t, of course, prevent them from hijacking another bib or qualifying under an alias. This is crazy.

  4. Why do they want to keep doung this??? To set some kind of Guinness record for the most DQs in races? I don’t know whether to be angry at, or pity, this pair. Probably the former, since I’m struggling to get back into form right now. But I would never dream of cheating — ever.

    People like this — SMDH.

  5. They are seriously mentally deranged: No other explanation but let them keep cheating. It’s actually “fun” when Derek catches them. Frankly and seriously, if the Donnelly’s are reading this and you have friends and family that you care about. Stop it for their sake! Infamy isn’t a good thing especially for something so silly as this…

    More practical issue is why are races permitting them to run? And when they do cheat, why aren’t they being disqualified from the results?

    • I think it may actually be “Hoffman Shorty” 🙂

      I also dig the t-shirt of the lady in a swimsuit — totally what all the serious runners are wearing to races these days.

      • To be fair, the shirt looks like a race shirt – Maui Oceanfront Marathon 2011. Wonder if he cheated in that one, too?

      • I have that shirt (it is a tech running shirt) from the 2011 Maui Oceanfront Marathon event – I see I beat him in the HM 🙂

  8. Not only does this guy suck big time …. but how does the BAA allow a course to be a BQ when there are no timing mats? That leaves these courses open to the likes of this man who cheat repeatedly.

    The course I used for my improved time for the 2017 Boston had mats every 5km as well as at the half way point and the end. I didn’t notice at the time, but they sent an email to me with links to watch videos they had recording at the timing mats (not sure if it was all or some). But I think the video recording is a fabulous idea, if for some reason the chip didn’t record (which it did), if you know they are recording, it is so easy to see who did and didn’t cross the mat.

    • It would be nice if BAA could screen out problematic races from their list of qualifiers, but I imagine that it’s just way too much work. They can’t possibly check and see if each race has working timing mats or other anti-cheating measures. What if the timing system fails on race day? What if the volunteers accidentally mis-mark the course to make it short on race day? The BAA can’t possibly police all of these things.

      I’m sure this is why they also accept ridiculously downhill races – it would be much more work to verify the elevation profile of every race (and not take them at their word). By accepting any and all USATF certified courses, which only certifies the distance as far as I’m aware, the BAA avoids an astronomical amount of work that they don’t want to get into.

  9. Racepass is so wrong. I can’t explain in detail of all the things they do because I would run out of space posting this. First, I talked to several Race Directors who have no idea about Racepass. Racepass is doing this without their permission which is actually theft. Unless they are getting a discount, which they are not, they are basically becoming the companies broker without their consent. I heard there was one race that was free and Racepass was charging for that race. I heard that particular race was taken down off the Racepass website. Several other races the Race Directors said things to me about what is occurring and I can’t even write the words in this post. But they were NOT happy.

    I hope no one purchased bibs, and if they did they need to call Racepass and cancel or contact their credit card company. Everything is suspicious of this new “startup” company. No one has heard about them in the running world which is a very small world.

    The biggest scenario is what happens when someone purchases bibs? The race has different requirements and waivers that they deal with. Why would someone want to risk to save a few bucks to know that they might be attending a race and since the bib was purchased fraudulently, the Race Director won’t give them a bib. Can you imagine what that would feel like, especially when someone flies out of town and hotel expenses.

    There were 2 people who defended Racepass and said that “maybe” everything is okay. I explained that it is just not a civil issue, it would appear to be also criminal under California law. Every state is different but I can assume the guidelines are very similar. I sent the following below excerpt:

    They could actually be charged with Fraud which is a felony and theft and be sued civilly. The element of Fraud is under California Penal Code PC 470. (a) Every person who, with the intent to defraud, knowing that he or she has no authority to do so. They did NOT have authority to sell the free tickets to obtain financial gain. And they intended to defraud. Specific intent crimes typically require that the defendant intentionally commit an act and intend to cause a particular result when committing that act. (U.S. v. Blair, 54 F.3d 639 (10th Cir. 1995).) merely knowing that a result is likely isn’t the same as specifically intending to bring it about. (Thornton v. State, 397 Md. 704 (2007).) They knew what the result was. Those tickets were free for a reason to the runners. The RD could have had a special grant, like a government grant or a donation. Or they will ask for donations. People will be hesitant to make a donation when the person bought the tickets already. So, when they sell the free tickets under false pretenses, they could be also be sued civilly for damages for Court fines and the cost of the races plus penalties. Yes, its a criminal act. And of course, they are gaining profit by selling something higher than the price offered which is scalping.

    So, you all get where I’m going with this. Their “Mountain View” address is suspicious, their phone number is registered to Broadband.com (not a landline), only 51 likes (as of 5/15/17) (but the tickets are going fast according to Racepass.com), they sold out already on unlimited race packages so quickly. The comical part is Racepass appears to write they are so busy with all the purchases, but the Racepass website looks like a ghost town. Of course, one of the purchasing options to have unlimited races for $695 has quickly sold out.

    And finally, out of the 50,000+ viewers on Facebook that read Marathon Investigation’s report not 1 person has defended Racepass on any business transaction nor no one who represents the company or knows the founder.

    Update: On 5/15/17 on Racepass website one of the co-founders wrote: “To the fullest extent allowed by law, you agree to WAIVE, DISCHARGE CLAIMS, AND RELEASE FROM LIABILITY Racepass, its officers, directors, employees, agents, and all Organizers from any and all liability on account of, or in any way resulting from Injuries and Damages, even if caused by negligence of Racepass, any Organizer, or their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, and leaders, in any way connected with any Event. ”

    Basically in a few words, good luck getting your money back if the race cancels!

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