Richard Perza cheated his way to a finish for the 5th consecutive year in Cleveland.
This time he won his division after finishing 3rd, 2nd, and 6th in the prior 3 years in Cleveland.
He was disqualified after I reported his result to the event last year.
The question is, why is he allowed to continue to run in this event?
Between Cleveland, Akron, and RNR Arizona, this is his 9th questionable result.
See below for the previous article detailing all of Richard’s prior results.
Richard Perza – 2016 RNR Arizona – 8th questionable result
Friday, January 22, 2016
Richard Perza – 2016 RNR Arizona – 8th questionable result
Once again he has no splits. This is the 8th marathon that he has missed splits while posting a BQ time. The only photos are at the finish line.
It is worth noting that since the original article, Richard has been DQ’d from 2015 RNR Arizona
The original article is below.
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Interesting case here. I was looking at this past weekend’s marathons, and was particularly interested in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. Looking at the course map, it seems there are multiple opportunities to cut the course. I have no background information on how tough it actually is and how responsive the RD is to issuing DQ’s or checking the splits. However, I decided to start clicking through the results starting with the slowest BQ times, to the fastest.
I came across Richard Perza. He had a B.Q. time and no splits.
I searched prior years and found similar results…2014
He doesn’t limit himself to Cleveland…
He also has similar times for 2013 Arizona and 2012 Cleveland with no splits.
I did find partial splits for a 4:52 marathon – Akron 2013. The only non B.Q. race I could find.
I searched photos for yesterday’s Cleveland Marathon. Only finish line photos appear. They are still processing. I also looked at the 2015 PF Chang’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon..Only 2 photos that aren’t right at the finish line.
In summary, there are 7 results that need to be questioned. All from Cleveland, Akron and RnR Arizona.
If anyone comes up with anything else of interest, post below or email me at the link on the bottom of the page.
Have they changed this Perza 3:27 to the half-marathon now?
I ran Cleveland today. It was the worst conditions imaginable. Hailstorms for a good 10 miles, wind @ 20-30 mph. They had the turn around point at mile 17.5 without a mat. Just a long out and back. Way too easy for someone to cut a lot of miles.
Yep now it's a halfmarathon!
All ELEVEN (3x Rnr Arizona, 5x Cleveland , 3x Akron) of his marathons from 2012 and later have missing intermediate splits. His many marathons before 2012 Cleveland appear reasonable.
I was disappointed there was no mat at the turn. There was a water station at 18 that serviced runners going in both directions. I saw a runner cut the course there, and I made a mental note of her number, but did not do anything about it because she had no chance to BQ unless she got a ride back to CLE. There were a lot of miserable people out there and I figured she was just trying to get it over with. The weather was unreal.
Races that don't have obvious checks like timing mats at turnarounds shouldn't be Boston qualifiers….IMO
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