Regardless of the cheating, this type of post doesn't fully sit right with me. Given the permanence of record on the internet, this does bring up the issue of how we police bad behavior, and how we incorporate forgiveness into that.<p>That said, the poster was pretty fair, and generally refer to her as "the runner". It definitely reads as an obsessive sleuthing, no doubt in part because there were follow-on discoveries made. As the saying goes, "one is a fluke, two is a coincidence, three is a trend", and it seems there's a trend here.<p>What's interesting is someone in the comments mentioned this:<p>> The majority of those "30K" instagram followers are fake accounts - many of the likes on her recent photos are spam bots. She 100 percent buys followers/likes.<p>My guess is a lot of people probably do this to bump up their social status a bit. It's relatively innocent (if a bit narcissistic), though if its true in her case, it fits a clear pattern. Can't verify though, given it seems she's shut down her social media presence.<p>This is one of those cases where sympathy and revulsion are equally valid emotions. I wouldn't want to be on the other end of the hive-mind, but it is a self-inflicted wound.
For me the most interesting tidbit is that she biked the entire race afterwards in a cover up attempt.
Are there any studies on doing something wrong and escalating it with coverup attempts? Or is there a name for this that I'm not aware of? I know it has to be the theme of at least one classical drama...sort of a reverse "Hans in Luck" of sorts...I dunno.<p>I have witnessed this pattern before and the spiral that person went on was completely out of character and a progression of small pieces. I wouldn't be shocked if a good number of serious crimes had almost comically trivial root causes that escalated that way.
Personally I am fascinated by marathon cheats. Every time I see a story about someone cheating in a marathon I can't help but wonder what was going through the person's head before, during, and after.<p>I also wonder how often they do it, and why. You don't win any money, there is no incentive I can make out beyond bragging rights.<p>I mean, they aren't exactly footraces, right? It's an endurance test, IMO. Usually for charity, people usually participate for the exercise and show support for a good cause, or so I always assumed.<p>Winning seems totally arbitrary on one hand, but on the other hand I have to assume people do compete on some level, which makes the cheating more sensible, if you think about it in that sense.<p>I cheated once when I was a teenager at an online competitive game, so I'm not completely ignorant about the temptation of cheating. I'm used to people cheating at competitive online games, they're usually underskilled and looking to compensate, underage, just looking to spoil the fun, or some combination of those.<p>Maybe that's the intention here, to spoil the fun for those looking to compete. I suppose I'll never really know, but I can't help but ponder it whenever it comes up.
I am not of the few vocal minority here who sympathizes with the person who cheated. Marathons are shared, sacred experiences organized by a community of volunteers. The marathoninvestigation.com author is protecting that which is sacred and shared among the running community. That is a noble cause and worth commending.
I know nothing about running and this post was like looking into a whole world I did not know existed, all of this tech used in something as basic as running, so many opportunities for entrepreneurs in every aspect of life. Every one lives in their own world, some people wonder why gamers like to finish all side quests in a game, others may wonder why someone cares about running marathons so much, using all this tech, but most interestingly of all, the lengths someone would go to cheat in a run, and the lengths someone would go to uncover it all. The apology on instagram if real is a bit lame.
You would think the turnaround point would be a natural place for the race organisers to put a timing mat. They would capture an extra split time and be able to automatically identify runners succumbing to this temptation.
Why? What drives people to do it?<p>Is there money on the line? sponsorships for products.<p>It obviously wasn't just a momentary weakness it was an elaborate plan and for what to brag about it at work or on Instagram? But wouldn't she know she cheated every time she thought or talked about it. That would be hard thing to live with it seems<p>Edit: wonder how I'd feel if a friend or co-worker did this. I could see it creating some serious trust issues
A much more interesting "marathon cheating" story: <a href="http://time.com/3822577/rosie-ruiz-history/" rel="nofollow">http://time.com/3822577/rosie-ruiz-history/</a><p>Also related to Boston: <a href="http://www.runnersworld.com/boston-marathon/dozens-suspected-of-cheating-to-enter-boston-marathon" rel="nofollow">http://www.runnersworld.com/boston-marathon/dozens-suspected...</a>
These sorts of situations keep appearing with lots of attention. One of the most (in)famous instances has a thread with thousands of pages on the Letsrun.com forum<p><a href="http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539" rel="nofollow">http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539</a><p>There's also the case of the guy who was faking his run accross America<p><a href="http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7355147" rel="nofollow">http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7355147</a><p>For whatever reason, this group of people in the online running community gets really into discovering who is cheating.
I did this by accident before, at a 5K. I arrived to the race so late that when I crossed the starting line to BEGIN the race it registered that as my finish time and I'm posted on the result website as finishing in 2nd place.
Publicly shaming people for money is not right way for holding the true, athletic, fair-play spirit of running. While his work and methods are outstanding, it's still ethical burden to ask for donations just to humiliate wrongdoers. Don't get me wrong, i'm a runner myself and i'm all about reporting, but making it opportunistic just doesn't feel right for me.
Not to be too tangential but I'm actually looking for a good running watch (I'm just getting back into running) and possibly heart rate monitor + gps. I noticed in the article they show her watch (to show the discrepancy in distance). What watch is that? What is the running software?<p>EDIT (I missed the Garmin 235 link and paragraph). I am not sure how I missed it over and over (I was using my phone) and yes I feel dumb for posting the comment.
Reserving a domain to publish this "investigation" seems unnecessary and somewhat troubling -- as does the extent of the investigation itself.<p>EDIT: I was mistaken -- this site is dedicated to ratting out cheating runners. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.
I am surprised by the new, gentle and forgiving approach of the crowd towards this runner here. It contrasts drastically with some attacks I see here against some politicians or corporate leaders when they fail to meet the HN-echo chamber standards.<p>Also, isn't this what the media usually does? Find dirt and expose it, damn the consequences to those involved?<p>Damsel in Distress?