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Tony finished in 2nd place at The Badger 100. He crossed the finish line in a time of 20:47:41. During a review of the results, the timer brought some anomalies to the attention of the Race Director, Scott Kummer. Scott is also the host of the Ten Junk Miles Podcast, and was co-host of The Marathon Investigation Podcast during it’s short run.
Missing Splits
The Badger 100 is an out and back, and out again course. There are multiple timing checkpoints. Tony registered at all checkpoints through 39.3 miles, but not again until the finish. At mile 39.3, he was in approximately 43rd place with a time of 9:00:01. He finished in 2nd place.
The last split he registered showed that Tony slowed significantly. He ran the 8.4 mile split from 30.9 to 39.3 at a 21:11 mile pace. It took him about 3 hours for that section. From that point on, he did not register at any of the official splits until the end of the race.
It was also reported by the timer that his chip was picked up approximately 30 miles away from here Tony should have been at the time.
Given the missed splits, and the fact that he moved up approximately 41 places over the last 60 miles, Scott reached out to Tony in an attempt to get evidence to validate the run. In his initial email to Tony, Scott asked Tony for any GPS data that he might have.
Tony responded that his watch “died early on in the race” and that his bib was in rough shape and that he dumped a lot of water on himself as a possible explanation for not registering at the timing mats. He also claimed that he ran much of the race with a group of runners.
Scott reached out to Marathon Investigation. I suggested that Scott ask for the names of the runners he was with to help corroborate Tony’s time. I also suggested that he request the data from Tony up until the point the watch died.
Tony responded that he was “stuck using my Apple Watch for this race” and that his COROS was “out of commission”. In his email to Scott he indicated that he only recently got his COROS in the mail to use again.
In additional emails, Scott asked Tony if he received a bandana from The Hollywood Aid Station – they gave those out the last time through. Tony says that he forgot to grab one but that they gave him a shot of fireball and a piece of pizza.
Additional Evidence Supporting Disqualification
The Apple Watch Defense:
“I was stuck using my Apple Watch for this race”
Email from Tony to Scott Kummer
Tony told Scott that he was wearing his Apple watch. The photos show that he was wearing his COROS. I exchanged emails with Tony. When I mentioned that the photos conflicted with what he told Scott, Tony then told me that he wore his COROS until it died and that he forgot his charger, but had his Apple watch in the event that the COROS died. This information completely conflicts with the story he told Scott.
He also told me that he was able to get the 41 or so miles data from the COROS once his watch was charged. Scott specifically asked for this information, and that was when Tony said the watch was out of commission, and that he only recently received it back in the mail.
The Hollywood Aid Station
Tony did not have the bandana given to all runners the last time through the aid station. Additionally he mentioned that he was excited to grab a “slice of pizza”. In fact there was no pizza at this aid station, only pizza rolls.
The missed timing splits, inconsistent statements from the runner, lack of on course witnesses, and the lack of GPS data made the decision to remove Tony from the results cut and dry. Scott went above and beyond in giving the runner a chance to provide information that he completed the race.
Statement from The Race Director
Derek: The timer brought a suspicious result to my attention shortly after the runner finished. He indicated that he had taken down a note hours earlier that this runner was a drop because there were no splits after 40, but that the timing machine picked up the presence of his chip during the night, when the runner should have been 30 miles away. He figured the runner went home and just didn’t tell us. After his finish the timer indicated he thought the result was illegitimate.
After the dust of the race settled I tried in every imaginable way to legitimize the result in spite of the fact that the general rule is “no chip no time.” The lack of splits alone would have been grounds to remove the result. Nonetheless, I made exhaustive efforts to find a way to prove the runner completed the course…by contacting the runner seeking more data/proof, talking to aid station captains and talking to other runners. We also reviewed the photographs of the runner. We were unable to obtain any proof or evidence that the runner completed the course. To the contrary, there were several pieces of information that indicated he did not and/or that he was being untruthful. None of this evidence directly established any wrongdoing, but at the same time it did not provide sufficient data to include him in the official results, so I removed his result.
Tony made the below post to his social media a week after finishing 2nd in the Badger 100, and three days after being informed that he would be removed from the results for not running the entire course.
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Some folks are just shameless.
Another sociopath runner, with zero respect for the race, rules or the other runners. After a DQ, he then posted on social media — what’s wrong with this guy? I feel sorry for the real 2nd place and 3rd place finishers, who didn’t learn about their podium position until a week later — that celebration moment was lost. I wish that the ultrasignup community would help impose a temporary ban (if not permamently) to blackball him for at least a few years to send a strong message to anyone, who is contemplating cheating.
Chris, I agree completely! I’ve witnessed cheating, and it doesn’t irk me nearly as much as knowing that some honest runner lost their moment in the sun.
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