I received an email from the 13.Wine Half Marathon on Monday asking me if a particular runner had ever crossed my radar. The runner was Maureen, and I informed the emailer that, yes I have featured her in a few different articles. He had not seen those articles, but relayed the following information to me.
Hi Derek-
I own the Michigan 13.Wine Half Marathon & 5K which took place this past Sunday August 20th. I have attached a course map for reference. First, we are not a large race with 288 starting participants in both races. I had 173 half marathoners start the race and our actual winner Amanda was in the lead by 200 yards at the 3 mile mark. Our volunteers at the aid stations are local high pom pom squad and Girl Scout cadets so they are VERY cognizant of the first female going through. The physical appearance was very different clothing (Amanda in all black and Maureen in neon) so there was no confusion identifying who came by first. It appears that Maureen cut the south end of the course and ran west on Shawnee Road to Lauer road. Amanda was identified in first place at all aid stations except the last 2 (10 mile and 11 1/2). Amanda was being told at every aid station that she was in first until she passed the mile 10 aid station. She was never passed by another female runner between mile 8.5 and 10. A few male runners mentioned that they passed Maureen standing by the side of the road at mile 12. (My assumption is she may have been very far ahead at that point and didn’t want to draw suspicion) We have law enforcement at every corner for traffic control and an officer also mentioned seeing a runner heading toward him from the west on Shawnee Rd and then head north on Lauer. He couldn’t offer an accurate description other than female and unprovoked mentioned to him that she was running a 5 mile run.
I heard about suspicion approximately 30 minutes after they finished as I was completing 5K awards when the first finishers were arriving. I requested several times within the next hour for Maureen to come see me via the PA system but it appeared she had left the venue. She was DQ’d based on the statements of runners and law enforcement. She did run the race in 2016 in 1:55 with no suspicion. Her time this year was 1:41.
In further messages with the owner Brad, he relayed that runners reported that Maureen was hanging around the finish but may have left when she heard other runners discussing her placement. She did not stay around for the awards ceremony.
Summary of Prior Results
Team In Training Coach Has Questionable Boston Qualifying Times
I wrote the above article about Maureen just before the 2017 Boston Marathon and mentioned her in other follow ups related to Disney’s refusal to remove or publicly review results of Boston qualifiers.
As detailed in the above article she has suspicious Boston Qualifying results in 2013,2015, 2016, and 2017. She has completed 13 consecutive Boston Marathons. Splits are not available to review for many of her earlier Boston Qualifying runs.
I did write another article with Team in Training’s response.
While we are unfortunately not in a position to verify the racing statistics that you reference in your article, in the interest of avoiding confusion in the future we have reminded all of our coaches that they should not wear their coaching jersey if they are only running as a participant (as was the case with the subject of your blog in the Disney 2016 marathon).
Thank you,
Bob Merrill, SVP, Team In Training
They also did confirm that the runner was not acting in a coaching capacity in the other years that she used Disney as her Boston Qualifier.
I will be forwarding this information, and the in formation on the other Disney runner with a questionable qualifying time to the BAA in hopes that they will require evidence from Disney before they validate the entries.
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“Double Letter Cheater Identification Protocol” holding true
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