In past years, the highest traffic for our humble blog has come the day after the marathon. Of course some people want to hear about the accomplishments of our friends and athletes. But if the comments and e-mails are any indication, the biggest attraction is the list of possible cheaters who cut the course but still come across the line and accept a medal. The most common, and easiest spot in which to do this is as the runners exit the Queensboro Bridge. There, the race course goes north, but for some, the attraction of Central Park is just too great, and they skip the trip north on 1st Avenue and through the Bronx. Our friends at NYRR have been attentive enough to this problem to add mats every mile after the QB Bridge, which you would think would be enough to stop folks from cheating. Well, think again.
NYRR hasn't yet published the full list of finishers (though the searchable database is alive and well.) When you use the athlete tracker, you can see all the splits for any runner. Just out of curiosity, I decided to check on a few of my old favorites who had apparently cut the course in the past. One such "runner" had some suspect times a couple of years back; 3:28 half marathon, 5:03 finish, no splits between 25k and the finish. Perhaps she's just a strong finisher with bad luck with electronic timing. This year, she returned to our fair city in search of another finisher's medal. Halfway through she clocked 2:24 (on pace for 4:48), and registered at every mat. At mile 16 (the exit of the QB Bridge, she hit a 2:58 split (which means she had slowed to a projected 4:51 finish). Then she magically stopped registering at the mats at every mile, as well as 30k and 35k, but still "finished" in 4:08, meaning that she somehow accelerated from 11 minute miles to sub-7. So, in her last two trips to the NYC Marathon she has baffled both the D-tag and Champion Chip system, and has put up mind boggling negative splits both times.
Is there a possible explanation other than that she cheated? Obviously, I'm searching for one before posting her name here. Does your opinion change (one way or the other) because she is a coach for a charitable organization?
Imagine How Slow She Would Have Been If She Hadn't Walked
Like many others, I posted a comment at her blog. And like many others, my comment was shot down by the author, who has no background in exercise science or athletics. While TPP may control her blog, I control mine and posted about the topic without her editorial comments. For those who can't be bothered to read what I opined at the time, I simply stated that while walking breaks are appropriate for those who are unprepared to run a marathon, the idea of a well trained runner going faster by incorporating walking breaks is in defiance of logic and science. But the Galloway and his cult like to give bits of anecdotal evidence (some of which is accurate and some - like their claim that Ronaldo da Costa used Galloway's method in his marathon wins - is patently false) to support their argument. Here's one they might want to leave out of the argument:
NYC MARATHON
November 1, 2009
Tara Parker-Pope
Finish Time:6:58:19
Pace:15:58/mile
As an postscript, it's interesting to note that TPP has now changed her tune. Walking breaks are no longer the way to do your best marathon or go faster as she has previously claimed. Now she says "The main benefit of the run-walk method is that it eases your body into exercise, makes marathon training less grueling and gives muscles time to recover, reducing the risk of injury. Walk breaks are an ideal way for new runners and older, less fit and overweight people to take part in a sport that would otherwise be off limits.
"The downside is that just as you are out on the marathon course about 50 percent longer than the average runner, your training time is much longer, too — four and five hours a weekend for long runs.
In other words, she is agreeing with what i said all along.
Posted at 07:33 PM in Coach's Comments, Myths | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)