It was shown that Valerie has run many races with forged bibs. The article I published yesterday only showed some of the examples of this behavior. There were more egregious instances of bib copying.
The picture at the top of this article is from a local Turkey trot. It was pulled from Val’s Instagram account (before she made it private).
Notice the bibs. Five bibs are visible. All five runners are wearing bib number 4092. Since I am thorough, I checked the photo gallery of the Turkey Trot website, and can confirm that there was not some printing mix up and that all runners that were pictured had unique bib numbers. Not surprisingly Valerie did not appear in the race results.
I’ve seen a few comments stating that this behavior is not a big deal. Races make enough money, etc. In this case the Turkey Trot supports the local Rotary Club. These runners are not stealing from big business, they are stealing from their own community.
It is baffling to me why anyone would think this is acceptable behavior, let alone how five friends felt it was a good idea to copy a bib for a local Turkey Trot in a race that is meant to support the community.
2019 Surf City Half Marathon
While the original article focused on Val. Her friend Kim is a regular accomplice. It is her bib that was often duplicated. Looking through the Surf City Half photos, her bib number shows up on Valerie, and another unknown runner.
Below are zoomed in versions of the bibs. The first bib is the real bib, worn by Kim. Notice that you can see the holes for the pins.
Compare to Valerie’s bib. You can see that the holes are not pre-cut. There are white circles where the pin holes should be.
The same with the third bib.
To top it off, here is Kim’s result:
Kim cut the course. Her pace between 10k and 10 mile calculates to 0:04:31 minutes per mile.
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Good work, Derek! Hope the races find out about this & ban all of them permanently.
It does not surprise me at all that people who would cheat the race and the charities that depend on it from proceeds would also cheat other runners by cutting the course.
These people are just gross. Who steals from a f**king charity
These three, apparently
Disgusting behavior. The concept of integrity seems to allude this troupe of self-entitled and self-absorbed thieves.
I would like to see the race directors step up and issue written bans to the two named individuals, and threaten to sue them for theft of service if they ever show up at one of their races again. An empty threat, no doubt, but got to start somewhere.
Looks like she was removed from the Justin Turner Foundation’s Charity team for the 2019 LA Marathon. Good move for them.
Definitely don’t want to see this woman’s life ruined (like some people calling for her to be fired), but consequences like being removed from a charity team are justified.
Make copies and show them publicly on social media and races. These people redefined dumb n dumber.
The company I work for produces one of the largest Thanksgiving Day races in the country. I look at that picture and calculate the lost reg fees and translate it to the groceries for 1600 meals that won’t be received by children, women and men needing them. Makes me sad 😞
Kjluce: Interesting math; I can’t think of any way that 5 bib bandits (and one who paid) could net 1600 meals.
Would you mind clarifying how much the entry fee is for your race and how much of that makes it to the charity? Most of us honestly don’t know the financial details of how these races work. (There also seems to be big differences between cities where the local cops help close the roads and provide security versus those places where the race has to pay the city for the cops to do that.)
Mathematically, if the race entry is $35…..
5 bibs at $35 = $320 320/1600= Each meal is approximately 20 cents. Which is legit if mass produced.
5 times $35 is $175, which would be less than 11 cents per 1600 meals. (and that is assume the entire entry fee goes to the charity)
20 cents gets you rice or beans, but not both. Certainly not a meal. The National Chicken Council says the wholesale price for chickens last year was 89 cents per pound. Just sayin…
Some charity gives bibs out only to runners who have min. amount to fund for charity. Say it’s $500 per runner, then go figure.
This is so bad. Especially when it hurts others.
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