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?
