Marathon Cheaters

I chose not to post about Paul Ryan’s ridiculous marathon claim, simply because I didn’t want to spark a political debate (or at least throw more gasoline on the fire). However, when I read the story in the New Yorker about Kip Litton, I couldn’t resist this one. Lying is certainly annoying. Cheating is reprehensible.

You can buy a finisher's shirt for a race that doesn't exist.

For those that haven’t read it, Mark Singer wrote a remarkable story (Warning: give yourself time to read it - it's a LONG story) about a guy who claims to run sub-3 hour marathons (sound familiar). However, unlike Ryan, Litton did so much more than make an untrue claim. Litton appears to have cheated in nearly every race he’s run, including the “Western Wyoming Marathon,” which he actually made up completely (including a full list of other “finishers” and their times, not to mention profiles on Athlinks.com).

The reason Litton’s story is so unbelievable is because it’s such an anomaly in the world of running. Honestly, when I’ve been on an out-and-back during some races, I have wondered how easy it would be to simply pull an about-face without going to the turnaround point (it would generally be undetectable because there is rarely a timing mat at the turnaround point). Back in my high school cross country days, I sometimes ran close to another runner, simply hoping he would clip my heel and send me tumbling down a hill, giving me an excuse not to finish.

You know why neither of those things ever happened? Because, like most sports, running has an unwritten code. But unlike other sports, running is individual. So the code is not meant to protect teammates, like a hockey fight to protect your star player or hitting a batter with a pitch to retaliate for a teammate that’s been plunked.

The code in running is based almost entirely on oneself. If I was to cut a course or otherwise cheat, I wouldn’t deserve to wear that medal at the end of the race. I wouldn’t deserve to add it to my list of completed races. And I certainly wouldn’t deserve to accept an award for an exceptional finish, like a top age group finish. For almost all of us, that’s enough to deter us. That and, of course, there’s really no point in doing so. At the end of the day, unless you’re in the hunt for the win, your finish means nothing to anyone except yourself.

Rosie Ruiz sure looked tired after running a mile.

That code is why most marathoners can tell you all about Rosie Ruiz. In 1980, Ruiz acted as though she had won the Boston Marathon. It didn’t take long to realize that she actually had jumped into the race with only a mile to go. Likewise, at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Frank Shorter likely would have been declared the winner (therefore repeating as Olympic champion) if drug testing had been as advanced as it is today, because East German Waldemar Ciepinski was almost certainly doping, based on evidence collected from the Stasi. And, a clown in the United Kingdom named Rob Sloan accepted third place in last year’s Kielder Marathon for a 2:51:00 finish, despite the fact that his “run” included a six-mile bus ride from Miles 20-26.

These, like Litton, are the exceptions. According to MarathonGuide.com, there were approximately 523,000 marathon finishes in 2011. Add in the number of half marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks and other distances, and the number of racers last year was staggering. Almost every one of those finishers ran the race without cheating, and I’d be willing to bet nearly all of them were proud of their performance, despite how it may have matched up with the other runners in the race.

People like Litton, Ruiz, Ciepinski and Sloan really frustrate me as a runner. Most of us have good races and bad races, but like all but a handful of other runners, we know that those finishes are ours. And I know that we ran the same course – and same distance – as the winner, the person who finished last and everybody inbetween.

Yesterday, 2,166 people finished the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon, and 8,138 people finished the half marathon. To all 10,304 finishers of that race, and all the finishers of races around the world, congratulations on your accomplishment. And, thank you for doing it the right way. You have every right to be proud, regardless of how long it took.

Side Note: Originally, I planned on writing about the infamous false claim by a certain politician. While I chose not to post it, I came across the following celebrities in marathon finishes, and I can’t resist posting this excerpt.

Will Ferrell has run a few marathons - and he went all 26.2.

I commend people like George W. Bush (3:44 in the 1993 Houston Marathon), Al Gore (4:54 in the 1997 Marine Corp Marathon), Sarah Palin (3:59 at the 2005 Humpy’s Marathon), Jill Biden (4:30 at the 1998 Marine Crop Marathon), Mike Huckabee (4:37 at the 2005 Marine Corp Marathon), William Baldwin (3:24 at the 1992 New York City Marathon), Will Ferrell (3:56 at the 2003 Boston Marathon), Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs (4:14 in the 2003 New York City Marathon), Oprah Winfrey (4:29 at the 1994 Marine Corp Marathon), Freddie Prinze Jr. (5:50 at the 2006 Los Angeles Marathon), David Lee Roth (6:04 at the 2010 New York City Marathon), Al Roker (7:09 at the 2010 New York City Marathon) and whoever was in the Teddy Roosevelt mascot costume from the Washington Nationals (6:26 at the 2009 Marine Corp Marathon).

Regardless of whether I like their political views or entertainment value, each of them had the guts to train for and tackle at least one marathon.

I’d be willing to bet all of them could tell you their PR’s, too.