11,000 marathon runners disqualified.

[Regular.Cyclist]

Another Google report, included this...

Some runners have claimed that their trackers were not working properly and that they did not cheat.

Instead, they argue that the faulty trackers caused their times to be recorded inaccurately despite passing through the checkpoints.

I suspect that there is more to the story than the sensationalism headline article.

Tracking is usually done using an RFID tag embedded into the participants number and that is picked up by antennas built into mats, connected to readers, that they run over, in the case of this event, every 5km.

Whilst not common it's not unheard of for an antenna not to pick up a tag from time to time. Typically though it's only one point that is missing and the rest are picked up ok. In rare cases tags can fail.

I know of a runner who was flagged at New York Marathon as they weren't picked up on two readers along the route. They were able to exonorate themselves by providing their gps data showing their route and matching times for crossing start and finish readers.

If anyone in this case is in the same boat then they very likely have the same option to exonorate themselves.

Joasia Zakrzewski cheated in an ultra marathon in April of this year and actually accepted the third place prize before later owning up and admitting she cheated.

People usually deny their infidelities when first asked about them, and most stick to the lie, bit a few due become remorseful and own up later.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Tracking is usually done using an RFID tag embedded into the participants number and that is picked up by antennas built into mats, connected to readers, that they run over, in the case of this event, every 5km.

Whilst not common it's not unheard of for an antenna not to pick up a tag from time to time. Typically though it's only one point that is missing and the rest are picked up ok. In rare cases tags can fail.

I know of a runner who was flagged at New York Marathon as they weren't picked up on two readers along the route. They were able to exonorate themselves by providing their gps data showing their route and matching times for crossing start and finish readers.

If anyone in this case is in the same boat then they very likely have the same option to exonorate themselves.

Joasia Zakrzewski cheated in an ultra marathon in April of this year and actually accepted the third place prize before later owning up and admitting she cheated.

People usually deny their infidelities when first asked about them, and most stick to the lie, bit a few due become remorseful and own up later.

I was going to say that a great deal of the more " serious " runners wear GPS devices, I've worn several Garmin devices over the years. It should be possible for those runners to upload their GPX files to show that they ran the route. A few years back the Manchester Marathon had to invalidate the results going back over a few years as the route had been altered and nobody thought to recertify the course. When remeasured it turned out to be short.
I was once inadvertently sent round an extra lap in the event i was competing in ( It was a hot day, I was knackered and wasn't really counting ) when this came to light after the event the organiser pointed out that if they'd called me in a lap short then the result wouldn't count, being under distance. Running overdistance was the lesser of two evils 😁

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

One possible reason for the sheer number of 'cheaters' was proposed on a Reddit feed.

It was suggested in some cases that those genuinely intending to cheat deviated from the route and those less familiar with the course followed unknowingly. The more people that followed the more likely others were to believe that was the actual route.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Another Google report, included this...

Some runners have claimed that their trackers were not working properly and that they did not cheat.

Instead, they argue that the faulty trackers caused their times to be recorded inaccurately despite passing through the checkpoints.

I suspect that there is more to the story than the sensationalism headline article.

Yes, my first thought was that for a whole third of the race to be affected I'd bet on mass technology failure rather than mass cheating. (Not that I know anything about the psychology of American marathons, just because I know how common hideous technical snafus are)

Maybe there was a lot of cheating going on anyway and the organisers found that to be a convenient way of hiding the fact that their tech didn't work.

 

[Tenkaykev]

One possible reason for the sheer number of 'cheaters' was proposed on a Reddit feed.

It was suggested in some cases that those genuinely intending to cheat deviated from the route and those less familiar with the course followed unknowingly. The more people that followed the more likely others were to believe that was the actual route.

Having done quite a few marathons over the years you develop a feel if there's a problem with the course. Ran Gillingham ( Dorset ) back in the mid 80's crossed the line and thought" that's a good time" then thought " thats too good a time for the way I feel ". It was confirmed when several club members reported achieving a PB.
As an aside, it's the only Marathon I've competed in where one of the aid stations was being run by the local W.I. and my water was served in a china tea cup 😮

 

[cyberknight]

Different attitudes there perhaps? Where the medal is more important than the actual achievement itself.

i knew someone years ago did the london marathon for charity but never did the run, collected the money and
disappeared to another job .

 

[Jameshow]

Having done quite a few marathons over the years you develop a feel if there's a problem with the course. Ran Gillingham ( Dorset ) back in the mid 80's crossed the line and thought" that's a good time" then thought " thats too good a time for the way I feel ". It was confirmed when several club members reported achieving a PB.
As an aside, it's the only Marathon I've competed in where one of the aid stations was being run by the local W.I. and my water was served in a china tea cup 😮

My sister did the Bradford 10k a few years back did a good time.. later found out it was 9k! I still remind her she's an excellent 9k runner!🤣🤣🤣

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

There is a run in Fife called Black Rock ‘5’. The reason for the 5 being presented as it is was due to the long held belief that the route was 5 miles long being eventually disproven when it was accurately measured. It’s actually only around 4.4 miles.

 

[Tenkaykev]

There is a run in Fife called Black Rock ‘5’. The reason for the 5 being presented as it is was due to the long held belief that the route was 5 miles long being eventually disproven when it was accurately measured. It’s actually only around 4.4 miles.

Our 12 mile Sunday run over the Purbecks became 10.5 miles with the advent of GPS watches, funny how we always overestimated the distances 🤔

 

[albion]

I suppose the answer could have political connections. So heating is encouraged.
Technology failure, am sure-ish.