Sponsored Athlete Disqualified From Raleigh Ironman 70.3

By
Derek
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144
26141

A triathlete with connections to Nuun, Coeur, and Eagle Bicycles was disqualified from The Raleigh Ironman 70.3

 

 

 

Below are her splits for the Raleigh race –  From sportstats:

In addition to having no splits for the run segments, her run time of 2:01:27 for 13.1 miles would be a personal record for the 1/2 marathon distance. She ran the 2017 Houston Marathon in just under 6 hours. In March she ran the SF Half Marathon in just over 3 hours.

Even after her disqualification, she still has posts promoting her Raleigh result and she continues to promote the brands.

She did complete a Sprint Triathlon just this past weekend. That result does look to be legitimate. It is worth noting that her run pace in that (shorter) race was much slower than the pace she claimed in Raleigh.

Her best Marathon time was the 2015 Chicago Marathon (her first marathon):

 

She missed all of the splits after the 20k. Her pace from 20k to the finish are highly improbable. She covered that distance in approximately 1:25:00 – a 6:10 minute per mile pace. She ran the first 20k at a 15 minute per mile pace.

And, yes, I did zoom in on her watch. It is not clear enough to read the mileage with any degree of certainty. In this case, I believe the splits (and missing splits) tell the story. Her Chicago time was not a Boston qualifier, but I believe that if she did not run Chicago legitimately, it shows the start of a pattern that apparently continued in Raleigh.

I have reached out to her, but have not received a response as of yet.

 

 

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144 COMMENTS

  1. To cross the finish like that (arms raised, looking especially proud) after cheating?!? And why exactly are these companies sponsoring such a poor athlete to begin with? I would be embarrassed to have her running around with my company’s logo on.

    • With the popularity of running on the wane, many of these companies know they need to attract new customers. As inspirational as elite and professional athletes may be, they are also intimidating. Normal and non-athletic looking runners on social media like her and Kelly Roberts are more motivational. People who never considered running a marathon or challenging an Ironman may look at them and say, “If she can do it, maybe I can too…”. Sponsoring everyday, middle-to-the-back-of-the-pack athletes, especially those with a decent social media following, is actually an astute marketing strategy.

      • It may be “an astute” marketing strategy, but I would be embarrassed if she was wearing my company’s logo. Some things aren’t worth the money.

    • Hold the phone!

      Are you saying only svelt race winning athletes should be sponsored?

      Sad to see this person not race for the joy and thrill of it but, rather trying to fullfill unrealistic self imposed expectations.

      I weighed 452lbs when begging my tri efforts. Did my first sprint at 425lbs. Finished my first Ironman at 230lbs. It was never about the times it was about the finish as will be st IMAZ this year.

      Cheers

      • When did weight become a part of the conversation? Companies want people who will spread the word about their products regardless of how fast they are or what shape they may be. People who cheat, or are suspected of cheating, tend to be looked down upon by the potential market for sports nutrition products.

        It’s just a shame that triathlon tends to attract the kind of people with a “win/finish at all costs” mindset that leads age groupers to race outside of the rules.

      • I don’t believe anyone is saying that. Even you are racing to the “joy” you should still respect the rules and events. You should not be a cheater especially is you are “sponsored” athlete. If you goal is to inspire people, you also may be inspiring them to cheat because “hey, I’m not one of the elites, I can do what I want because I’m trying”

      • “Are you saying only svelt race winning athletes should be sponsored?”

        he may not be, but I am. If you are marketing as product, do you want someone who weighs 425 lbs and is slow wearing your gear? Or someone who looks like the fastest person on the planet? Obviously the latter, because people are more likely to want to emulate the svelt runner and wear that clothing. It is the same reason most models are attractive. That is the way marketing works. They’re not selling a weight loss product, they’re selling running gear.

  3. After zooming in at her watch, I see that her total time is 4:52:56, which is about 11.64 min/mile. However her the total mileage it appears is 22.48 miles.

    • It is hard to say for sure what the distance is on that watch. I also thought it was 22.4. But it COULD be 27.4. However it is really the split times that tell the story.

      • 22.4 – 12.4 (20k) = 10 miles in 85 minutes (8:30/mile). I don’t think she could run that. Combo of walking and riding in vehicle? Where’d she go and what did she do for an hour and half before showing up at the finish line? Looks like she quit and didn’t turn up Monroe and go across the bridge after the 20k point. Not that far from there over to the finish. Where did those 10 miles come in?

  4. to be fair… shes not sponsored… she simply shares companies she loves and uses. If you knew her in real life, you’d also know that’s not a pr for her, she trained for 6 months with a coach for this race and PR’d her distances/times many times in her training.

    • That is not accurate. She is listed as sponsored or an ambassador for all of those companies. With that comes benefits – usually in the form of equipment. She is actually a part time employee of Nuun. Also a PR typically refers to a verifiable result in competition.

    • “she trained for 6 months with a coach for this race and PR’d her distances/times many times in her training.”

      Sounds like a great coach and great training! All the greats go out and beat their PRs multiple times in training before a big race.

      • Ray- typically if you are doing a lot of speed work and runs off the bike- you ARE going to PR your 5k & 10K times while training for a half marathon.
        I’ve known her for years. YEARS! I watched her get down on herself during training, and get down on herself when she didn’t meet her goal for this race. She complained to me about training for 6-9 hours a week. She wanted nothing more than to cross the finish line in the 8hr cutoff, which she did. We all tracked her.

        • Ray- she does social media posts in exchange for discounts. Because, this sport IS expensive after all.

          • And I’ve font this race 3 times, sounds like she literally came out of transition, ran up that hill, turned left at the main drag and sat down for lunch, paid the bill, and finished her “race”. I am a part of a laaaarge tri club who sends 25+ to Raleigh each year and all 3 years NO ONE had missed splits on the chip. Irontrac and ironmobile SUCK because ironman is notorious for having upload issues. However they eventually post later on in the day and it’s ACROSS the board of splits (missing bike AND run splits during the race, to be updated by 5pm that day for halfs). I also know VERY FEW people who have ever PR or come within 5-10 minutes close to it for podium finishers and anywhere from 20-45 minutes for the MOP. This race is hot, humid, miserable, and nobodies idea of a PR course. You do this race because it’s close to you, you are a lover of a sufferfest/smashfest and can punish yourself more than the average triathlete so a podium is possible, or it’s one that has special memories for you in my case and you overlook the awful lake washing machine and headwinds/current against you at what feels like each turn, the bike that slams you with the hills in the back half, and the no shade undulating hills from hell while you’re literally burning in what feels like hell of a run.

            I call BS. On this and on Chicago, where she sneak attacked by sandbagging on 15 minute fast walking on the first half during the cool morning, to bust out 6:15 miles for the second half. If you can run a 1:30:00 HALF MARATHON after “running” another half marathon, why not go sub 3:10:00 for that marathon? She’s so humble to walk the first half and sprint the second half. Now that. Think about it, we really aren’t worthy of that level of greatness. I take it ALL BACK! She IS amazing

        • you tracked her???? How??? She had no run splits. Please let us all know how you tracked her, yet Ironman has no record of her run splits? Where are her in race photos for the run portion of the course? It is a simple fix. Where are her splits from her Garmin, upload to Strava. Where are her other half marathons? Athlinks doesn’t have them. I understand she is your friend, but don’t put yourself out there for somebody who in a day or two will admit what she did.

        • I train for Half Ironmans, and 6-9hrs is not enough for proper training, If you are good, you may be able to keep most of your performance, but there is no possible way to increase your performance that significatly without many more hours. 10hrs is usually the easy weeks, and then up to 14hrs on many of the hard weeks of training.

        • You may PR in a race during your training (possibly, not necessarily), but it would be in a RACE not in your TRAINING. This woman has been lying to you for years.

          And I don’t know what you “tracked” — she missed most of the splits.

      • I laughed out-loud at this: “All the greats go out and beat their PRs multiple times in training before a big race.”

    • Oh Lordt, here we go with the “bullying” claim in 3…2… how come these people ignore an inquiry into questionable race stats THAT THEY BRAG ABOUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA, but their family/friend/their alias always show up in the comments to bash Derek or tell all of us if we knew her/you, we’d be OMG BFFs and #obsessed with how awesome they are. Here’s a tip, advise your acquaintance/family member/yourself to respond back in private before the article is published?

      It’s the times we are in with social media f**kery by low moral people who muddy the waters for all of us who compete. If Derek asked me about a questionable race I’d respond back BECAUSE IVE GOT NOTHING TO HIDE. It sucks, everyone is suspect until otherwise in instances but thank these chronic flagrant sociopaths who cheat and are braggadocious about it, so we all suffer. Silence appears to show the absence of innocence in these cases. I’m sure he gives ample time to reply, and sees evidence of actively ignoring him. So OVER these losers who cheat. Social media is not your friend, you shouldn’t cheat lie and steal for some rando to give you a ❤️ Or 👍🏽 On your fake curated life.

      • Anya

        I think Susan C is actually the competitor I question. I have done 4 70.3s, and let me tell you the only time I have seen an increase and PR like that is when the person DNfd the previous race…..how do,I know. I finished Tremblant (2nd time) had a huge asthma attack , DNF daughter even after finishing the still open course at 8:52. This year I ran the same course in 7:16. I also call BS on this woman….no way she completed the entire course…if she wants to do it again to prove she can get that time, I would gladly race it with her…and I live in Canada

        • Me too. Much humble, so courage to come and defend herself anonymously. Hey 1455, why not offer up your garmin? If you don’t have a garmin with multi sport then your garmin at least has a run program, which is the only data in question. I get it “you shouldn’t have to, this is beneath you, yadda yadda yadda”. If you’re clean, isn’t it easier to “stoop to our level” and prove us haterz wrong?

          • @Anya
            She has stayed to her actual friends that she will address this in due time. Actually her exact words were “fuck those idiots! Learn how to read my god damn garmin like everyone else has! I’ll respond when I’m not busy working/training harder/living my best life, sorry that I don’t have time to sit arroyndnon the internet all day and criticize people.”

          • Hit a nerve it seems. Amy, the way she’s responding is typical and expected. The race director is the one that has final say in this court and he handed out the DQ. Her status with companies will also make their determinations. Chicago shows a history that cheating is something she is capable of.

          • Amy just an FYI, that kind of response is basically how everyone that gets caught cheating reacts initially.

            If you have looked at what was posted, especially in regards to the Chicago splits, you’ll see she’s full of it. It takes two seconds to screen shot your Garmin data. I have personally had super inconsistent paces over the past few years and would have no problem providing the data.

            Also, busy training? I don’t think 6-9 hours a week is “busy training.”

          • @Amy

            Well, why hasn’t she released her Garmin results, or spoken with Derek. He gave her a chance to come clean. Why wait?

        • @Amy… cool story bro, I’m glad you’re living your best life by not giving a f**k and needing to tend to it and not waste time with haterz. You’re cavalier attitude fits perfectly with a cheater, you guys must get along famously.

          You know what gets under this haterz skin? People who have no reason or rhyme to compromise their integrity and morals over something as pedantic as being a moderately terrible racer. I say that with #muchlove because THATS ME as well. I do this because I have a congenital intimately fatal lung disease and I’ll one day not be able to do it anymore. So pardon me if I don’t applaud you/your friend for paying 275-390 depending on when good ol’ 1455 registered.

          Getting off my hater soapbox to tend to some reports, this hater is an oncologist who has more time to dick around online and hate on your friend, so I better get a life and try to figure out how not to suck at it, according to you and your multiple friends/personalities

      • Like the countdown, Anya! 🙂

        It’s been said here before, I’ll repeat it again. It’s amazing how these “truly wonderful,” honest, hard-training “athletes” so disparaged by Derek, have the high misfortune and bad luck to miss so many timing mats, over and over again, at multiple events. Surprisingly, the start and finish mats always seem to function just fine… and the beginning intermediate mats that DO register seem to show a pace more commensurate with past performance. Funny how the 99+ percent of runners on courses with timing mats don’t have such seemingly disparate split errors.

        The 2015 Chicago splits tell enough of the story. Please, please, Susan C., Kristen, or Miss Cheater herself, PLEASE try to explain away this evidence.

        • Oh, and I bet she “ran” Houston Marathon and SF Half as “slow training runs,” but she’s able to pound out a 2-hour half after 56 bicycle miles? Mmm hmm.

      • Anya, I love your comments. I know you are as serious as a heart attack, but you nailed it. Truly nailed it. Innocence does not hide, ever.

        • Just so darn unnecessary to cheat, at a BQ, a faster time, whatever. It’s the saddest thing ever, in real life, real real life not social media, nobody gives AF about your times, unless they’re dicks you don’t need to concern yourself with or they are your paid coach/training partner who wI’ll celebrate your time and accomplishment whether sub 5 HIM or 8:29:59. He’ll even if you don’t make the cutoff.

          I cannot fathom someone is so concerned with what others think that they need to lie or cheat. She obviously loves the sport, she petitioned for sponsorship. If I wasn’t so damn fed up with cheaters I would truly feel sorry for 1455, to sell your integrity to obtain mediocrity… this is indicative of society to me. We are losing our humanity, I see it every day in the hospital. Doctors numb to patients, family numb to loved ones because it’s too hard. Life is hard, we don’t a lest she win, we don’t always get that finish, even though we train and train and sacrifice. DEAL the it with grace, not with cheating.

          And with that I am REALLY done. Nite everyone!

    • If she was running a half marathon under 2 hours in training, why did she run over 3 hours in a half-marathon just a couple months ago in the middle of the six months of training?

      And why has she slowed down so much since she for some reason walked the first half of the Chicago Marathon and then ran an elite level 1:25 second half? If she ran that, she was close to qualifying for the Olympic trials.

    • She didn’t even do that. She’d have the 3.3 mile split. She hung out on hillsborough street for an hour and a half then ran down the finishers chute. #likeaboss

  6. She is not on the list of Eagle Ambassadors for 2017 according to the announcement on IG. Definitely not cool to cheat…I have earned every single one of my 70.3’s.

  7. I’d suggest investigating the mats at the course or other types of error before dragging a truly wonderful person through the mud. She may not be a Boston Qualifier and she certainly is NOT a cheater.

    • She’s a miracle, that’s what she is. She ran a 1:19:52 half marathon AFTER running a half marathon. I bet if she ONLY ran that half she could have run an Olympic qualifier time. She could have gone to the 2016 Olympics trials! It’s a true festivus miracle!!!

    • Sorry. I work for a race timing company. One miss maybe, but several misses by the same person? Nope

    • Kristen, I’m sorry, but wonderful person or not the hard evidence is pretty damning. It’s not a matter of missed mats. It’s a matter of splits that are physically impossible. Every time another course cutter is exposed, people who know them are shocked, and jump to their defense because they can’t believe the person they know would do such a thing. I can understand why you’d feel that way, but she cut the course. The clock doesn’t care what kind of person the athlete is. It doesn’t lie. I’m sorry. It always makes me a little sad to learn of someone who, for whatever reason, felt it was necessary to cheat to formulate dishonest results.

  8. Her watch either says 22.48 or 77.48. The two first numbers are identical. I’d be surprised if anyone alive can run 77.48 miles in 4:52!

  9. Is the Chicago Marathon aware of these “splits”? I see crowd support for a 2 hour half in the comments, but 1:25? Even if the mats completely malfunctioned for her in the second half, she could not have covered the remaining distance in that time. So the only argument that remains would be that every mat on the course malfunctioned only for her?

    • I’m guessing nobody has notified them. Not close to a BQ, so they probably don’t care unless someone complains.

      • I’m actually surprised Chicago didn’t DQ her. While, if you look at the map it’s very easy to cut the course after 20K, Chicago does have 1 or 2 unnanounced chip mats in the 2nd half of the race to weed out course-cutters from the results.

  10. This is sad. Just another case of an athlete feeling the pressure of social media and making poor choices. The brands she is an ambassador for hopefully see this remove her. I for one will not use Nuun now. It’s amazing how these people miss so many timing mats. The timing mats that matter. I’ve raced I’m quite sure more times than her and have never missed a single mat and if I did you can be sure my GPS data would be out instantly. I’m certain she spent a lot of time training and capturing PRs, but not here. This was a bad choice on her part as it seems she made in some other events. I know many triathletes and they spend 6-9 hours a DAY not a week training to be near the top in their AGs. Spending that little time in training is probably less than most people train for such a big event. Again, just think it’s unfortunate that you pay a coach, pay the registrations, put in some time training and then get a DQ.

    • Mike, tell Nuun. They are a good company (I don’t use their products, btw) but they need to hear that people will stop using their products because of this.

      • I love Nuun and use it a lot. She probably gave them a sob story and got some free stuff. Doesn’t make me think any less of Nuun.

        • I wouldn’t not use a product because she cheated. She’s not a sponsored athlete. She gets discounts and maybe a couple “freebies” to make post about them on social media. Already saw posts from Coeur and Eagle on the Facebook post and suspect her other “sponsors” will follow suit shortly.

  11. Wow. Way to take away the only thing she had. Mandie lost her husband and child, and found endurance sports in her grieving/ recovery. I’ve known this woman for years and she is NOT a cheater!

    • Amy, I am sorry about her horrific losses, but Derek did not take anything away from her. She is the person who chose to take the path she did on these races. She can still run and she can even still race, but evidence is black and white that she has cheated at the specified races. She chose to take those moments away from herself, not anyone else. If she is not a cheater, than she should stand up and provide the evidence that she has been asked to provide. As noted, she has ignored all inquiries. I am sorry.

    • Hi, my name is Ryan.

      My infant son, Owen, died in my arms in September of 2015. He was born full term the night before with severe complications, and we had to make the excruciating decision that the best thing that we could do for him in terms of quality of life was to let him go. You have no idea what that feels like unless you have experienced it. People try to relate. You can’t. Unless you’ve had to make that decision, unless you’ve felt that life slip away…you don’t have a clue.

      That all being said, this loss does not excuse her cutting the course of a triathlon. Period. End of sentence. Yes, endurance sports has the power to heal. But don’t tell me that it excuses the behavior of not actually doing the damn course. Inspiration comes from trying, and even failing, during the effort. But cutting the course has no excuse, ever.

    • She may be a wonderful person who went through some horrific stuff, but she cheated in at least two races. The evidence is clear. Wonderful people sometimes do rotten stuff.

    • It’s tragic and as stated nothing was taken away. She can do endurance events for as long as she wishes and feels it’s therapeutic. But the FACT is she has cheated on more than one occasion. It starts at least with Chicago. Her missing splits and what the second half time would be is not possible. Sorry for being truthful. Being such a good friend of hers, don’t enable. Check facts and data. That does not lie.

    • How do you know she’s not a cheater? What evidence do you have that’s contrary to the evidence presented?

      And losing a husband and child is tragic, but is completely irrelevant to whether or not she cheated.

    • Ladies and gentleman, here is the sob story finally. You know when your true integrity and the real type of person you are, in your soul, comes out? When you really experience adversity. Whatever machination that takes, a death, a loss, a diagnosis that changes everything. Grace under pressure. Not only is cheating and lying and telling everyone to “f**k off” not a modicum of grace, using your adversity to guilt others during a moment of weakness.

      I’m sorry, nobody who is human revels in anyone’s pain, so I take extreme offense to insinuating that here. What we don’t like is using that to manipulate others, which if your statement is true, is what you’re trying to do to us. It’s disgusting

    • I have a similar story. Still born. Unless you’ve had to spend time in the hospital, after your wife delivering, hearing all the other babies cry, but yours can’t, you will have no idea. I will never forget the feeling of having to leave the hospital empty handed, walking out seeing everyone else’s joy with their babies. But, the pain continues. Other people around you now have newborns and you don’t. After going through months of anticipation. You can’t ruin their joy. You have to bite your lip and hold back the tears.

      Hearing people try to use tragic events as justification for poor judgement calls should be considered unacceptable and disgraceful. We all have heartaches and obstacles we have to overcome and there is no way to judge whose is worse. Trying to justify her actions with this comment is like a slap in the face to us who have lived through it.

    • You can experience tragedy and still go on to do bad things.

      It looks like she has since been found out, disqualified and stripped of her sponsorships. So even event organizers have determined she did in fact cheat.

  12. Looks like she has a Garmin Fenix 3. If she is so proud and sure that she finished just like everyone else, let’s see your Garmin/Strava data…..

  14. For anyone curious, I saw on a Facebook group Couer is aware of this and taking serious steps about it.

  15. An improbably fast run leg by a bigger athlete. Yep I’m saying that because I am one too. My swim is around 37. My bike around 3hr20 and my run around 2hr45. My half marathon pb is around 2.15. There is absolutely no way a legitimate half pb for her is 1hr25.

    Last marathon I did I couldn’t find my final time. Before I realised I needed to refresh my app, I was panicked with luckily my garmin and runkeeper data available and knowing there were loads of photos of me on course. I couldn’t work quick enough to get my back up data ready.

    Texted my dad who could read the official results. Imagine the shame of being thought a cheater!

    By the looks of those backing her in these comments I’d be happy to wager that this is her using a gmail account or 3.

    But feel free to post all the pics that were taken of you in the run next to people running who had legitimate results.

    By best running is around 10.20 per mile. No way could I drop that by 4mins a mile in the last hour of a 70.3. Heck couldn’t even so that in a stand alone 5km.

    Derek you are spot on right again.

    Us slower athletes have a Code of honour and this woman is not one of us.

  16. There’s a fairly big disconnect between that bike speed and run pace. Seems to me that most people who could close a HIM with a 2 hour run leg could lay down a fair bit faster bike split than that.

    • Gary, not that this is the case here, but apparent disparities in performance between different legs isn’t evidence of cheating. Even when those disparities are significant. For example, one of the athletes I coach has a bone spur near his knee that irritates a tendon when cycling, but not when running because of the difference in knee flexion angles. His easy run pace is 7:30 per mile, but the bone spur limits his bike training and bike performance. Someone looking at his race splits when the tendon is flared up would wrongly conclude that he’s a course cutter.

      • Yes, there are legitimate reasons why somebody might have such a large disparity. But let’s not mince words, a nearly 4 hour bike split combine with a 2 hour run split in this race is very far out there on the bell curve. Of those in her age group who ran within +/- 5 minutes of her questionable 2:01 time, the average the average bike split was 2:49, and the slowest bike split (other than hers) was 3:14.

        Does the disparity alone make her overall performance suspect? No, not really. Does it add fuel to the fire of suspicion started by the multiple consecutive run splits missed? Yes, yes it does.

  17. She did ran the 2017 Chevron Houston Mararthon. Her time was 5:58:51. She did hit all the timing mats.

  18. She ran the 2017 Chevron Houston Mararthon. Her time was 5:58:51. She cross all of the timing mats.

  21. If someone calls me a liar or a cheater and I have solid proof I did nothing wrong you can damn sure believe I am stopping everything and I’m going and slap down hard the proof I am right. We now you are on here posting, we know you cheated

  22. I’m new to this website, so I apologize if I’m asking a very basic question. How do these athletes with questionable results get on your radar for investigation? I have no dog in this fight, I’m just curious! It looks like your website does a great job investigating! Very interesting stuff!

    • Thanks! I mainly focus on runners with Boston qualifying marathon times. But I constantly receive emails from runners that notice suspicious results (as was he case here).

      • Somehow I knew you’d end up investigating triathlons as well as runs. Will you be investigating questionable Kona results in October?

    • Damn, maybe her SPONSORS who have morality clauses (the bike company posted their online FYI). And also when did morality become a sliding scale? Nobody gives AF in the long run, but questionable morals sometimes get called out and sometimes you have to pay for it with pride. If you don’t care that she cut the course/cheated/whatever, she shouldn’t care that she is getting called out. She didn’t care about consequences when she broke the spirit of the sport. But that’s the thing about consequences, it takes a person with patience and introspection to weight them vs some shady sh*t that sounds fun at the time. My parents taught me that early on, too bad it sounds like adults who defend these cheaters, obviously aren’t teaching this to the next generation. Which is GREAT, should make the coming years a fun free-for-all.

    • All endurance sport sponsors want to promote fair play and clean sports. Her cheating matters because she is in breach of her contract with the sponsors to not do anything that would cast them in a negative light. Secondly, I never realized how sought after and coveted product ambassadorships are until I saw comments on Nuun and Eagle Bicycles’ Facebook pages. Many people are clamoring to take her soon-to-be vacant spot. By cheating, she took a spot from someone else who better represents the sponsors’ values.

  24. Why cheat? Has society become that low that one can no longer work hard for what they truly earn? I have done my share of sprints and a half IM but cheating never came to mind. Sure beating that young skinny person would be great but so is finishing off my hard work! I’m currently training for the Kona IM and I’m busting my ass just to finish and then I read this crap! Karma works in mysterious ways!

    • I despise how people use past adversity in life to justify their cheating or use it as a reason as to how they couldn’t have possibly cheated. It just irks me.

      This is about as clear cut a case as there can be. And the worst part about it is that she DOESNT HAVE TO CHEAT. Even with her slow times and “non-successful results” (i.e. lack of podium placements) – her sponsors still want her on because she WAS someone who overcame adversity, finished races, and represented herself well. All that was tossed out the window – WHY? So she can finish an hour or two faster than what she normally does? Even if she was able to finish legitly in the same time she finished while cheating – the end result (in terms of her “marketability”, etc) would be exactly the same. She literally gains nothing from it.

      It’s sad. And pathetic.

      BTW, in typical cheater fashion her facebook profile has gone private. Surprise surprise.

      What bothers me the most is how her “sponsors” refuse to name names and are dancing around the issue. I get why this site does it (legal reasons) – but still…

    • I am a triathlete, and agree that its nice to see a triathlon DQ article here. I’ve done the Raleigh 70.3 and the run is a hot sufferfest, not likely to elicit a PR. The evidence against this athlete is overwhelming.

      • RIGHT!!! What year did you do it? I did 2014-2016. I hated life and everyone during those races in 2015-2016, but it was my first triathlon of any kind and I had so much fun in 2014, since I literally studied none of the course topography or weather, I just went in completely naive. Very rare you can experience a completely new process like that, when you are ~30 years old. Everything was a surprise, I just packed food I liked (no calculations of sodium, potassium, carbohydrate grams per 30 minutes, all that minutae that suck the life out of it somewhat now). I have never been able to replicate that feeling of the first one, so much fun and so many new experiences during that 6 hours, just carefree. Now everything is calculated, stressed over, I dread every second waiting to get into the water wondering why I do this to myself, even though I as a whole love it. Someday I will do Raleigh again, fix my head, and not worry about anything but having a catered outside play date with the city.

    • I had a feeling Derek would be branching out at some point. After a 60 Minutes episode I saw within the last year, where professional cyclists install these small hidden electric motors to help them go uphill, I see yet another area of opportunity!

    • Agreed. I am current triathlete and former exclusive road runner, so nice to see some focus on the trio of suck, for me, that is triathlon. But I love training for it and love racing them for some reason.

  27. I don’t understand, I race and do well locally, finishing in the rope spots at most races, can’t get a sponsorship to save my life. I can’t even get a brand ambassador deal or anything. Yet people like her always seem to get these sponsorships and deals. To me it makes no sense at all maybe I’m just not meant to understand or I need to cheat.

    • If you can shamelessly cheat a race it stands to reason you’re brazen enough to shamelessly promote yourself well enough to get sponsorships you probably wouldn’t get otherwise.

  28. Just like some people don’t understand the “Moneyball” numbers of baseball, some of the people defending cheaters do not understand the numbers being posted. It has nothing to do with missed timing mats! It has everything to do with a runner having 14min/mile pace for the first part of the race, then having a 7 min/mile pace for the second part of the race! While reasons for slower paces can be due to the first part of the race being very hilly, nobody goes 14min miles to 7 min miles on the second part of the race!!

  29. So, did Derek report to Chicago yet? It’s insane that she’s still showing up in the results with those wacky splits.

    • Her garmin data was verified by Chicago officials, for 6 weeks following the race she wasn’t listed, Chicago officials stated the according the her garmin gps, she never left the course and she was reinstated as an official finisher.

        • @Derek- I don’t know the answers to that. All I know is that it was verified. I do know they told her that they would not adjust the splits, that she can not use this result (Chicago) for anything, she simply gets listed as a finisher and that’s it.

          • Also, I’m not necessarily defending her. I’m just relaying info that I know. That’s all I can do as someone who knows her in real life. Her real life friends want answers too, but we also want to make sure this doesn’t send her down a rabbit hole. We are trying to help get answers

          • Pretty easy to prove it to the haters then. If Chicago officials verified it, she still has it on file and can prove it to everyone!

      • Could you get me in touch with your coach? I too would love to run 6:10 pace. Then I could finally keep up with my husband who typically places in his age group with paces close to that and runs 75+ mi/wk. You sure are fast!

  30. I have never cheated in my life. I have also completed every distance up to and including Ironman.

    In this comments section/on Facebook people have said not providing a response/GPS data is ‘the attitude of a cheater’.

    If I was accused of cheating and being harassed/insulted by total strangers on a random website I’d be telling them to get f**ked too.

    Just my opinion.

    • I respect your opinion, but I’d say you’re the exception to the rule. If I was accused of cheating and had the data to prove otherwise, I’d disclose it asap. I certainly wouldn’t claim to be too busy, etc. like this lady apparently did.

        • DID she? If so, she still remains DQ’d and at least one of her sponsors dropped her so it must not have been convincing. I’m sure that everyone on this thread would love to see it and be proven wrong if she is inclined to share it further.

        • Amy, read Coeur’s release yesterday. Does that sound like a sponsor who was convinced by Garmin data?

          Sincere advice. People will forgive and forget quickly if you/your friend quit denying the obvious and just issue a sincere apology (wouldn’t need to include your name). If you continue to deny without any evidence, this will continue to snowball though. You/your friend cheated, period. Admit it and move on with your life. As embarrassing as this incident is, it WILL blow over if you let it. You have the rest of your life to live. Learn something, move on, and DON’T let this escalate further.

          • @TriGuy- I can’t make her apologize. I can’t make her respond to this thread. I can’t make her publicaly acknowledge what’s going on…. All I can do is communicate what I know as her real life friend that she is telling me. I am her friend regardless if I believe her or not, I know her as a human being that would never change. We all want answers just as the internet does. I know she said to me that ironman official said they’d review it, but they didn’t say when. She also let me know that when her sponsors contacted her her response was that she wouldn’t associate her self with them any longer and was sorry for the embarrassment that she caused and was working with ironman to resolve the issue and offered for them too to see her garmin just so they knew but understood it didn’t change the fact that she would no longer be on the team.

          • @Amy,

            This is completely opposite of what the sponsors are saying. If she truly has the data and showed it to the sponsors, the sponsors should have NO problems keeping her on the team. She is simply lying to you, unless she provides evidence (which she obviously has).

    • If I was brazen enough to cheat and wasn’t caught red handed I’d probably tell accusers to get f**ked as well.

  31. It’s fascinating how cheaters in the lower levels of sport behave the same as pros that cheat. Everyone denies it, even when confronted with proof. And plenty of them will enlist friends/fans to vouch for them. Remember Lance, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton? Landis was even taking contributions for his defense from his fans. These people are wired differently – they have absolutely no shame.

  32. “Her pace from 20k to the finish are highly improbable. She covered that distance in approximately 1:25:00 – a 6:10 minute per mile pace. She ran the first 20k at a 15 minute per mile pace…”

    Who believes this person ran a 6:10 pace from 20k to the finish?

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