In the current Chicago Marathon results, 81 runners have been removed from the published results. In most cases, these are runners that have missed multiple splits. In the case of Ivan, who I wrote about yesterday, it was because of bib swapping.
There should be more removals to come. Possibly some of the 81 runners that have been removed will be reinstated. In looking at those results, some may be the victim of timing issues.
Course Cutting
There are a number of points where Chicago can be cut. Some course cutters were obvious, others require more analysis to unearth.
Natalya, a runner from Russia, ran the first 5k in a time of 0:41:25 a pace of over 13:20 per mile. She missed all of the remaining splits until 40k. She finished with a time of 3:16:56, a 7:30 minute per mile pace.
Other runners seemed to have decided on running a portion of the course, not showing any spits until much later on the course. 35 of the 81 removed runners did not hit any splits until after the halfway point of the course. 20 of those runners entered the course after 40k.
More Disqualifications Needed
Philip – Boston Qualifying Time
Philip finished the 2015 Chicago Marathon in a time of 3:51:43. However he was disqualified from that race after missing the 25k split and posting these impossible split times.
| per mile | ||||
| km | miles | total time | pace overall | pace split |
| 13.1 | 1:52:14 | 0:08:34 | ||
| 25 | 15.53 | missed | ||
| 30 | 18.64 | 2:19:38 | 0:07:29 | 0:04:57 |
Philip has a seemingly legitimate 2014 Chicago Marathon of 4:17:42. He also has a Boston Qualifying time at The 2014 Crossroads of Indiana Marathon, winning his age group with a time of 3:24:34. No splits are available for that race.
There are others, and they will be reported. There is a woman who finished the half in 3:40:00 and finished the full marathon in 4:13:00. Her daughter jumped in at the half, and helped her cut to the finish. While the daughter was disqualified, the mother was not. Her time would qualify her for Boston.
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I really like how you work not only to have people removed for the right reasons but reinstated if they were removed for the wrong reasons! Timing issues happen and I like that you fight for both sides. Thank you!
How many of the 81 DQs had Boston qualifying times? From what we’ve learned, there are plenty of people who just want the medal and the kudos. This is fertile ground for a psychology post-doc out there somewhere.
For Philip there, I was a bit confused at first seeing times for all splits. But then I noticed that the splits after the half are in grey font and have an asterisk. I take it, then, that those are estimates. Would that be a correct assessment?
Yes, you are correct
Good work. Happy to kick in a meager $5 to support your efforts. I am interested to know how many cheaters actually gained something/anything besides a finishers medal (although some course cutters run far less than 26 miles and don’t deserve a finisher medal). I am thinking about Boston qualifying and also age group awards, of which there are many.
Thanks!
Hard to put a number. But, a significant # were detected as having run Boston on bogus times, or through copied and illegally transferred bibs. My focus now is to prevent runners from capitalizing on their cheating–stopping them from getting into Boston in the first place.
Ithink I’ve detected a couple of people who did the same thing this year in Chicago
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