On Sunday, Eagle Bicycles made a statement regarding their ambassador that was disqualified from Raleigh Ironman 70.3.
Coeur made a similar statement last week.
Nuun has stated that they were reviewing the situation but has yet to announce any action regarding her.
Despite the clear evidence, some commenters that describe this athlete as a friend have been defending her times. If she did give GPS data to these companies as well as to Ironman, it should be clear that there was an issue with the GPS data for her to have been disqualified and removed as ambassador from 2 different companies.
Also, I have heard from a couple of different people that Chicago had originally removed her from the 2015 Marathon results but added her back in after she supplied GPS data. I have purchased 2 photos of the runner from this marathon that shows her GPS watch face in her finisher photo.
The distance is not crystal clear. But to me, it does appear to read 22.xx miles. Her official finish time for Chicago is 4:30:32.
The pace differential from the first 20k where she hit all the timing mats to the finish is enough for me to question this finish.
She ran the 1st 20k at a 14:57 per mile pace
She ran the last 22k+ at a 6:10 per mile pace according to the official results.
Even if her GPS watch is correct, it seems unlikely. She would have gone from an initial 15 minute pace to an 8-1/2 minute pace for the remainder of her run.
I initially was not too concerned about this time – it didn’t qualify her for Boston, or anything else. But given the fact that she is denying that she cut cut the course, I felt it apporpriate to provide the additional analysis. I am reaching out to Chicago to see if they have a response.
If and when Nuun has a statement, I will share it as I have with Eagle and Coeur.
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Thanks to all of you that that support Marathon Investigation!
There are two troubling things about that photo of her watch:
1. It shows she only ran 22 miles, which is yet another smoking gun.
2. OH MY GOD HOW TIGHT IS THAT THING ON HER WRIST, I’M LOSING CIRCULATION JUST THINKING ABOUT IT
Dang it! I did not see that and had to go back and look. Now I think my hand is starting to go numb!
She should just come clean and ask for forgiveness, which most people would grant. The cover up is typically worse than the crime.
We should spend more time talking about this because it really impacts a lot of people.
Isn’t putting her race DQ enough? This is suppose to be just marathon and race investigations. You aired everything you needed to air out Derek. Let’s the companies do what they have to do. Why the constant follow up on the same story? Feel like this is just taking time away you could be using to catch other cheaters. This is a blog I follow to read cheaters. You posted what you needed to post. Let the companies do what they feel is right. Don’t feel like there’s a need to follow up with articles of the same individual until you get a response from every brand associated with. Seems far fetch but then again not telling you how to run your blog. Don’t lose creditablity though. Stay unbiased, post the cheaters and have the brands of associated with any of them handle what they feel is necessary. Let the public decide whether or not the brands are doing the right thing here. Don’t be an outlet for that. I like reading about race disqualifiers and you’re doing some honest and much needed work. Let brands be brands.. catch the cheaters.
Anonymous, in the initial article, I mentioned the brands specifically. It is only fair for me to publicize their reactions to this situation and to report whatever action they decide to take. The initial articles resulted in some P.R. headaches, it would be irresponsible for me to ignore their statements.
Not sure how you feel I’m losing credibility. I am not telling the brands how to respond. In the case of Eagle and Coeur, I posted the entirety of their responses. Again, I felt that was only fair since I called them out in the initial blog post.
Damn girl, this just keeps rolling over you 1455. Everyone is relatively omnipotent in what someone should have done, after the fact, but I still stand behind the assertation that she should have just had a mea culpa the day this story came out. I understand it “isn’t anyone’s business” but if she had told Derek that she screwed up, got caught up in the moment of needing to drop but wanting to save face with her sponsors/friends/online supporters, and she did something that she’s not proud of, Derek would have 1. never published this story probably or published a feel good piece about making a bad decision and being human, 2. she probably would have kept her sponsors even if he did publish it/it came out she effed up, because she realized her mistake, and 3. We would have gone on our merry way with nary a blip on her radar after 24-36 hours.
I understand the first instinct is to cover up our pecadillos, because we aren’t proud of them, but live by the social media fangirling and attention, sometimes die by the social media attention. I really do feel sorry for 1455, not because of all of this, but because she still feels like she has to maintain a lie. That’s rough and takes a toll physiologically. She could spin this narrative herself if she had just opted not to ignore it and call all the readers “F*cking idiots who need to read her garmin just like everyone else”. Sad
I seriously doubt Nuun will drop her. Remember the girl who ran Boston with Gia’s bib? She’s still one of their sponsored athletes.
I was thinking the same thing, I feel like Nuun wouldn’t give AF about this stuff, they have what seems like 700 people advertising for them on social media. It is like Oiselle, I think you get a mild discount for the pleasure to shill their product all over social media, and it is kind of gross tasting, IMO. I tried Nuun in 2012 and it was revolting. You have to let it sit out overnight so it doesn’t fizz in your handheld and explode in your face on your run, and it tasted horrid. It might be better now, but 70% of the people I see branded with their stuff online, are not my cup of tea, so that paired with bad taste in my mouth literally, keeps me away. I’ll stick with my skratch mixes.
It is no secret that Nuun and Oiselle are buddies. Think on that one.
They also have double letters in their brand name, much like many well-know cheaters [Kip Litton, Mike Rossi, Julie Miller, Kelly Roberts, and so on]
We can write a case study on this one. Are double lettered names more apt to cheat and why?
Don’t forget Kendall Schler
nuun has released a statement:
nuuniverse:
as some of you are aware, a member of our nuun family – an ambassador and nuun field hydration specialist – was recently identified as having not completed the full course at raleigh ironman 70.3. we were surprised at this because those of us who personally know the athlete have found a warm, enthusiastic woman who lived the #nuunlife similarly to many of us.
our stance has been clear from the start: nuun believes in and stands for a level playing field. this is very binary in our evaluation. that can be demonstrated at many levels including last year when we helped establish the non-profit the clean sport collective as a founding member (www.cleansport.org).
we balance the responsibility for communication and transparency with the nuun family of employees, ambassadors and friends, with our principle of understanding and gathering all pertinent information prior to making decisions. we did so here with empathy to a nuun family member who is undoubtedly struggling.
last week, our team member in this case resigned from team nuun and as our hydration specialist citing that they ‘did not want to cause any undue harm to our company and her treasured teammates.’
each of us at nuun wishes this individual strength as she navigates this part of her life, and hopes that she emerges wiser and in a better place.
https://www.facebook.com/nuunhydration/photos/a.172239832341.122700.17776052341/10155659082637342/?type=3&theater
“But given the fact that she is denying that she cut cut the course”…. DO NOT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH. I did not make an sort of statement to you. You are nothing but a man hiding behind his computer making money off of bulling people. 1- those are not my Chicago results. try again. 2- “I reached out to her but never heard back”- another LIE. try again. 3- I choose to live a life of positive in a world full of hate. Unlike you. 4- you are lucky I don’t get you for slander and defamation of charterer.
Yes I did reach out. I sent you a request on FB and emailed you at your published email address. Per the Coeur statement, you denied the allegations. How are those not your results? They are the results listed under your name, and your finish line photo corresponds with the finish time that you are credited with.
Did someone just let a firecracker off?
Please post your correct Chicago results.
Not slander. Maybe libel.
Not sure what ‘defamation of charterer’ is – maybe when you complain about a shitty boat rental.
Post the GPS and be done with it if you’re so squeaky clean
Hey Derek, can you get a “Like” or “Up” button added to the Comments someday?
I was wondering what ‘defamation of charterer’ was as well
For some reason I dont believe that this account is the cheater in question.
I think it’s quite possibly her. I have tied that poster directly to ‘Amy’ and ‘Susan’
Am I the “Susan” you speak of? I am tied to bib 1455 in that we were both on Team Coeur, but that is where the ties end. 1455 is a Caucasian woman. I am Asian. There are numerous other differences between 1455 and I, but I assure you, she is not me. You are more than welcome to email me at the address I submit with my comment and I can prove to you we are not the same person. 🙂
No, not you..”Susan Castillo” is the one that I tied back to the athlete.
either NoneOfYourBusiness is a fake, a friend of the cheater, or THE cheater. If it is the real cheater, she’s even more disturbed than anyone has imagined. Great work, Derek.
There is ZERO case for slander (actually libel) and defamation here.
And I will guarantee this. If you are able to produce the actual results and show you did run the entire course, Derek will have no problems exonerating you.
I won’t hold my breath.
Mandie,
You and you alone are responsible for the outcries, opinions and comments. Derek is not. He is the Messenger, you created this MESS, not anyone else but you. You fooled your social media followers and your sponsors, who have all innocently trusted you. You have been offered help to get to the bottom of this emotional issue. I highly suggest you accept the offers for help. People really do care about you and your welfare. Failure to take that first step will only continue to hurt yourself and those around you. Take this as a learning experience and please seek the help you need for a better life.
User icon is very ironic.
You have dragged this on entirely way to far. LET IT FUCKING GO, Derek. She is no longer sponsored, enough!! How about we stop the god damn bulling and ruining of people’s life? How about we stop pushing people further into their problems. How about we fucking help one another? Enough already.
Amy, if you don’t like what Derek’s doing, just stop reading his blog. You might think he’s wrong, but most of us think he’s doing a great job. I for one like to see the follow up posts. People won’t stop cheating if they aren’t caught.
This is a clear example of cheating by your friend. You obviously believe her, and for that I think you are a good person, but she has duped you.
I had a coworker who is a pathological liar. She is the sweetest person you could ever meet. She was always friendly and polite; never raised her voice; never got ugly. I defended her until I became a victim of her lies. I think she honestly believed the lies she told, because she sweetly denied everything, and had a lot of good people fooled. Then she got fired for embezzling money from the company. (I’m not saying that the person above is a pathological liar, I’m just telling you, that you never truly know someone).
Amy, she did it to herself! What is wrong with you?
Amy, just stop reading the site: she’s not an “innocent”; she’s trying to profit off of this faux image of being an inspirational athlete when in reality she’s a fraud, at least as an athlete. Frankly, if she were some average “jane” who cheated then I would understand your sensitivity but she’s just another one of these “internet, instagram” 15 minutes of fame people who perpetrated a lie but was caught. Hopefully, she will get help from her friends and family and move on but her days of being a “inspiration” and ambassador are over. Great work, Derek!!!
Hey genius, every time you post here, Derek can see your IP address, so he knows that Amy, Susan, etc. are all coming from the same person (i.e., The “Alleged” Cheater).
And these all use the same style with obscenities and misspellings, even the same misspellings (“bulling”).
I’ve commented on the previous couple of posts Derek made and I don’t remember seeing any other Susans, so I imagine I am the one being referenced. I am NOT the alleged cheater. I happened to write some comments that weren’t all fire and brimstone bc I feel bad for 1455. Yes, the evidence from Derek’s investigation appears pretty damning. But, as someone that has been piled on via social media (on a very small scale by my husband’s family members when I posted something they didn’t like 🙄), I know how it can cut. And, from my armchair psychologist perspective, someone that is cheating/embellishing has some deeper emotional or mental issues. I honestly feared that 1455 would harm herself bc of the witch hunt. While I don’t agree with what she did, I don’t think her actions warrant bodily harm/loss of life. That’s just my two cents. If you want to know who I am and proof that I am not 1455, feel free to go to my blog: http://www.essentialoyl.com. It’s the best cyber version I can offer of a birth certificate for proof of identity! 🙂
No, not you. The poster I was referring to posted under Susan Castillo.
Double Letters!!! I KNEW it!!!
Derek HAD to post this one in the interest of fairness since the sponsor finally dropped the cheater. And as he says below, he’s done with this unless different evidence comes to light.
You can run, bike, and swim on your own all you want. When you enter a public sporting event, you are open to scrutiny. No different from Galen Rupp or LeBron James. People don’t care as much about your results as Rupp’s, but again, you are competing in a public sporting event not just a personal quest.
Wallace Spearmon lost an Olympic medal by stepping out of his lane. Robby Andrews got DQed in the Olympic semifinal by stepping inside the rail. People wrote articles about those DQs, the athletes were devastated, but nobody claimed it was bullying or cruel. We understand that you need to follow the rules. Nobody cares about their intent or personal life.
Derek only published the publicly available facts from the races. He didn’t make any personal attacks. Just because we’re at the back of the pack doesn’t mean it’s nobody’s business.
Galen Rupp may not be so good an example; he’s working with NOP & Salazar, so it’s pretty likely he’s doping
See your f-ing bulling him. It’s none of your bisniss what he does. you need to get dam life and be positive like me.
Chill out 1455. You set this train in motion, you could have stopped it a week ago. Much cursing, such brave. GROW UP
Okay stupid question but if she only has Chicago splits up till 13 miles or so and her watch says 22, how and where the heck did she run 9 miles and not hit an additional timing mat?
She cut the course. Many stops along Chicago to do that, I am told.
Chicago is an easy course to cut. I ran it last year…any course that has accessible mass transportation, cabs, etc makes it easy to do. I can’t nor do I care to delve into the hows. Not that you will get away with it but it’s not that hard there.
Perhaps the watch is set to km and it’s showing 22k not 22 miles?
Andy, 22k = 13.6 miles. No matter how you slice it, she did not run the 26.2 miles of the 2015 Chicago Marathon.
To my knowledge, my email address (yeah you know the one I had to use to make this comment) is not published anywhere. That is the only active email I have. If you found an old email address somewhere, that’s probably why you didn’t get a response from me, because they’re not in use anymore. As for Facebook, I get requests on the daily from people I don’t know, if I don’t know you personally or know where you’re coming from, I’m not going to accept a request. I received a coment on IG that referenced Raliegh, but before I could even respond (I see things on my watch while at work before I can aknolwlwdge them on my phone) Before I could respond, the whole world exploded. I had no idea my results were in question, I mean I’m slow as F, very open about that and I’m very content with that. Forward is the only speed I have. There was a post on my (no longer in existence) blog about Chicago, emails from the official and everything. I was very very public about that on all social media platforms. I’m just a mediocre gal trying to live her life, my social media was basically my diary, where many followed along. I talked about the goods and the bass of training and racing because its not all good. This, this kind of shit that you’re doing though, is harmful, if I didn’t have good people in my life who showed up to my apartment ready to bust my doors down, I probably would have drank my self into oblivion a few days ago and that’s not ok to send people into those kinds of moments by viciously attacking them from every angle (yes that’s why my social media had come down to minimize the number of places I could be attacked.) This was something you could have easily sent to my sponsors, there was need to send someone into a major anxiety attack and downward spiral of turning back to alcohol when I’m trying so god damn hard to recover from the alchcoholic I became when I lost my family. I let couer, eagle and nuun know upfront that I would step away from the companies as to not bring them any more negative attention. Not for any other reason than they didn’t deserve the negative attention and I as an adult needed to deal with the situation at hand. Yes, it took me several days to respond, but because when 1000 people have their pitchforks out calling for your head, it’s overwhelming. I’m just a gal trying to find her place in life and one minute I’m at work and the next I’m receiving tons of hate messages and trying to wrap my head around what the heck just happened. I’ve read through what my friends have posted, I’ve asked them not give answers on my behalf, if they want to be a part of the conversation fine but don’t say “she said”, because me and me only is the one who needs to deal with this. I’ve read through what everyone else has posted and I’m not going to even respond to individual comments. I’ve contacted ironman, I’ve offered them my garmin (because they are the only people who matter at this point) I’ve quit my job with nuun. I’ve sent eagle and couer their gear back. I decided not to race in 3 weeks. Im just trying to deal with life one day at a time right now and figure out what’s going on. This is the only time I’m acknowledging this post and I’m not going to come back to it.
The old email address was the email that was on your blog. Yes, I tried you through Instagram as well.
I hope you get whatever help and have whatever support you need.
If you do have evidence that you did not cut these 2 races, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t want it out there publicly.
Unless that evidence comes to light, I am done with this story.
I find it wild that she is trying to make you feel bad about bringing her cheating out, like it made her start drinking again. She was pretty enthusiastic about being a #beergirl in June.
It appears she has an overall authenticity problem.
I think that’s a good idea. This individual’s pseudonymous comments and her most recent final personal defiant denials (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) all point to something extremely sad and irrational.
This chick is off the rails, you did not cause her to relapse into alcohol (and she isn’t truly in recovery to even suggest that, as being in recovery teaches you that you are your own person, people don’t cause you to drink. You choose to drink). I can see why she cheated, she sounds very self involved, deflecting blame on everyone else, etc while maintaining her innocence that she refused to provide evidence. This isn’t a criminal case against her, any evidence she has to exonerate herself should have been provided long ago to stop this *bullying* in her mind.
1455 you are not the first person to have god awful want to kill yourself things happen to them, nor are you the first person to do something really shady, and you won’t be the last, but how you handle it makes a world of difference. Glad you have ample real friends, and aren’t relying on social media heatpats to get you through. I’m hoping your cautionary tale will be a warning to other social media that if you are going to get your validation from strangers by doing XYZ on social media, plz do it honorably and don’t cheat.
oh my! I’m working under the assumption that this is truly the person who derek has profiled: If you made a mistake, fine: it will pass; move on with you life. if you love running, triathlons, biking, etc. and you found salvation in the sport (s), continue to do so. Nobody is saying you cant ..But you cheated, got caught and haven’t provided any proof to anybody including the sponsors who do not need this aggravation.
You have, however, spent the past few days under pseudonyms attacking people who are rightfully outraged at the act (s).
Again, move on! find salvation in your friends and loved ones and hopefully through sport
With all due respect, Derek pointing out suspicious results is not a “vicious attack.” You’ve yet to acknowledge any wrongdoing despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The alternative is to provide exculpatory evidence, such as Garmin data. You say that you turned it over to Ironman, and yet, it seems that you are still disqualified, so it could not have been exculpatory. I don’t see anyone on this thread who would remotely be considered vicious, and I think most would be supportive if there was any sort of acknowledgement of wrongdoing and contrition.
PS – I like that you took the time to add an avatar to your profile, while hurling curse words at everyone, and blaming all of us for you getting drunk. Good times!
Lol
Note to all and future posters … do NOT mess with Anya
😂😂😂😂. These cheaters be cray! i vascillate between feeling immense pity and giving zero f**ks because they wanted attention so badly, be careful,what you strive for. Put energy into being a decent human being, not being a social media queen but any means necessary
For someone as slow as F*** you beat my full marathon time with that Chicago result. That last 22k was amazing. Your “diary” does a disservice when it’s not true and factual and course cutting and shortcuts come into play. Misleading others who follow you may be thearaputic for you but can actually lead to injury or a depressed state when they legitimately do the right thing and can’t obtain your stellar (questionable) results. You can sit back and lay blame on the internet blow ups but one thing many normal people, like myself, despise are those that take shortcuts and then brag to the internet for attention. Social media has ruined these sports.
Why does the photo of your Garmin watch show 22 miles and 4hr 53min?
Where is the Garmin data from the Chicago marathon?
Where is the Garmin data from the Raleigh 70.3?
Why are there no photos of you running during Raleigh 70.3 other than the last 500m?
Karen, stop being such a hater and bully 😂😂. And asking pertinent questions. We need to go back to sucking at life so 1455 can continue living a positive, productive, real-friend-having-in-abundance life 😘
Holy bleep!
Did anybody notice that these posts are different ?
17 July at 2:56 is “noneofyourbusiness”
But 17 July at 7:30 (badly misspelled ) is “noneofyourebussines”
sent using the same email account though – which is hidden to everybody but me.
Other replies have already handled the blatant cheating, narcissism, etc. It is sad, and hopefully she finds the help she needs to get to a better place.
All of that aside, by biggest question is: how does someone who walks races at a 15min/mile pace get sponsorships?
I don’t get it. Maybe I’m just naive to that whole part of racing, as I’ve run races only for personal reasons, but how does that happen? Maybe that’s why people like her cheat?
Back to the orignal statement about what Nuun has done; this is fromthere facebook page:
nuuniverse:
as some of you are aware, a member of our nuun family – an ambassador and nuun field hydration specialist – was recently identified as having not completed the full course at raleigh ironman 70.3. we were surprised at this because those of us who personally know the athlete have found a warm, enthusiastic woman who lived the #nuunlife similarly to many of us.
our stance has been clear from the start: nuun believes in and stands for a level playing field. this is very binary in our evaluation. that can be demonstrated at many levels including last year when we helped establish the non-profit the clean sport collective as a founding member (www.cleansport.org) .
we balance the responsibility for communication and transparency with the nuun family of employees, ambassadors and friends, with our principle of understanding and gathering all pertinent information prior to making decisions. we did so here with empathy to a nuun family member who is undoubtedly struggling.
last week, our team member in this case resigned from team nuun and as our hydration specialist citing that they ‘did not want to cause any undue harm to our company and her treasured teammates.’
each of us at nuun wishes this individual strength as she navigates this part of her life, and hopes that she emerges wiser and in a better place.
Oh. November Project. Explains it all.
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