After the 2015 Boston Project, I have shifted much of my attention trying to identify runners that cheated their way to Boston qualifying times and identifying them BEFORE they have the opportunity to run Boston.
Below are a few examples that I have written about previously. There are otheres that have been DQ’d, and hopefully more that have been deterred from attempting to cheat after being caught previously.
Using the same logic that I have been using to identify those that cheated to qualify after they cheated to enter Boston 2015, I have begun to identify additional runners that are still registered for Boston 2017.
In a nutshell, I have a list of all 2017 registrants for Boston. I am cross referencing these runners against a database of marathon results from the past 3 years. I am looking for outliers in their results – a qualifying time that is outside what you would expect looking at their history of race results. For example, if someone has multiple 5 hour marathons, and one 3 hour marathon that they used to enter Boston, that will raise a red flag and I will dig deeper. I have identified multiple runners through this process.
Here is one example of a runner I identified. I will be writing about others in the coming days.
2016 San Franciso Marathon
Bib # 50340
Female Runner
Registered for Boston
As you can see, this runner is not female. This is the only time that this runner could have used to qualify for Boston.
Below is her recent race history.
I also noticed that the 2016 LA Marathon was much faster than her typical 6:30:00 Marathon times. Here is a photo from that marathon. I thought that this runner looks younger than 42.
Pulling the 2015 LA Marathon photos, I found a picture of the woman that appears to be the actual runner along with what may be the runner that qualified for her in San Francisco.
An additional photo from the 2016 LA Marathon shows all three of the runners.
Runner 12395 ran the 2016 LA Marathon in a time of 3:23:21. Comparing photos, I am 100% certain that he is the runner that ran a qualifying time for this woman at the 2016 San Francisco Marathon.
I am notifying the San Franciso Marathon and Boston Marathons of my findings.
Busted. Nice work.
Until I started reading your website I didn't realize how many people cheat in marathons! I imagine we'll start to see the same thing in Ultra Running, since it is increasing in popularity and the most popular races have qualifiers. Thank you for your work!
Woot!
Mom, dad, and daughter? Might be non-nefarious bib-swapping within family and not a scheme to get mom a BQ.
I have a hard time believing he ran a 3:02 on the San Francisco course. I suspect he's a course cutter as well
Except the only reason he found out was because she registered for Boston.
This is awesome, thanks for the hard work.
– One day (hopefully) BQ qualifier
Maybe Husband or Daughter wanted to run Boston but couldn't BQ at their age/sex but could with mom's requirements. Either way, cheater cheater pumpkin eater.
Maybe not initially, but she used a time that was not hers to register for Boston.
that's an age adjusted time. The net time was 3:19:45. The splits look legit.
Legit in that HE ran the time, not her.
He also ran LA in 3:23 hitting all the mats. Looks can be deceiving.
How are you able to copy the marathon photos? When I right click on marathonfotos, it won't let me copy/cut/paste? Is there a workaround so I can get the photos directly from the website?
Press your "Print Screen" button to take a screen shot, then paste and crop the document into something like Paint or Photo Shop. I'm posting this purely in the spirit of irony.
Can we please talk about the guy in the suit?
There are even more cheaters in Ultras, in my experience. Most courses are easy to short and don't have timing mats. There is also the free ride in the pace team van that a few ultra runners have to known to use.
SWEET BUTTERY JEBUS, we so need to. Someone has to. For Johnny…
Keep up the good work!!!!
Right!
Great work you are doing! I wonder why these people cheat?
I've also, often wondered if someone looked at my times what they would think, I've been running marathons for the past 11 + years and in most years I've gotten BQ's (I've only run Boston once but I am running in 2017) but I also have marathon times in the high 4 and low 5 hour range. My pics are always online however since I have been wearing a race belt sometimes they are in the lost & found. I have valid reasons for my "slower" results but been interested to see what an "investigator" would think. If you are interested in taking a look let me know your email address and I'll shoot you over my info, thanks
Shouldn't be wearing a belt over the bib anyway, because it interferes with RFID chip transmission. I am a race timer.
HR belts under bib may also interfere.
It is usually part of race instructions or at start line for smaller events
cheers
Eugenia Lepiz has not been disqualified from the San Francisco Marathon results, but rather, the gender associated with the result has been changed from "female" to "male". The male runner did legitimately run the full course distance.
This nonetheless invalidates Eugenia's entry into the 2017 Boston Marathon.
The Boston Athletic Association has been notified with screen captures of the adjusted result and the race photo of the male runner wearing her bib. I expect to see her name drop from the invited list in the near future. 🙂
�������������� that's hilarious. But love this site and calling out cheaters!
The 2016 LA Marathon happened to be on Valentine's Day and you could get married/renew your vows on course (Mile 10). Guess he might be one of those.
The Boston Athletic Association has invalidated the qualification acceptance of Eugenia Lepiz for the 2017 Boston Marathon. 🙂
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