Post by Velar Fricative on Apr 17, 2015 11:08:18 GMT -5
And apparently her 2014 third-place finish was fake too, and now because of that she got disqualified from next week's Boston Marathon.
What a dumbass. This is 2015. There are ways they catch these things. Although if not for her likely accidentally jumping out to the front of the pack this time and getting all that extra attention with the win, her third-place finish would have stayed on the books and she'd be in Boston next week.
And the Rosie Ruiz story always makes me LOL because of taking the subway to the finish line. lololololololol
Having been the first woman to cross the finish line at the GO! St. Louis Marathon, Kendall Schler received the glory others had hoped to enjoy.
She was photographed with Jackie Joyner-Kersee on Sunday morning and stood to collect the $1,500 first prize. She also had improved her time from her third-place finish in 2014, a mark that was good enough to qualify for next week’s Boston Marathon.
But by Wednesday, officials had determined Schler did not run the marathon in downtown St. Louis either year. She is believed to have slipped onto the course after the last checkpoint in an attempt to fool race officials into believing she ran the entire 26.2 miles. Officials said that Schler did not register any times on the route, and that a review of last year’s marathon photos failed to turn up images of her on the course.
As a result, her times have been erased, her spot in Boston vacated and she will no longer be allowed to run in the local organization’s events.
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don’t get the recognition they should receive,” said Nancy Lieberman, president of GO! St. Louis. “I said to her, ‘It looks like you perpetrated a fraud.’ I have nothing legitimate that says she officially started and ran 26.2 miles in 2014 or 2015.”
Lieberman said incidents of dishonest runners happened but called this “an extreme case.”
In 1979, Rosie Ruiz used the public transit system to cut some of the distance from the New York Marathon. She was exposed as a cheat after she crossed the finish line first in Boston several months later, in 1980.
Andrea Karl, a doctoral candidate at Washington University, was the winner here Sunday, with a time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 28 seconds. But she crossed the finish line without much notice and was told another woman had won.
Lieberman said it was believed Schler had pulled the same trick last year, when she was credited with a third-place finish. Schler could not be reached for comment.
When Schler finished in 2014, officials manually entered a time of 3:13.04. The qualifying time for Boston in Schler’s age group is 3:35.00, and she was entered to run in the world’s best-known marathon this coming Monday.
As part of her investigation, Lieberman reviewed last year’s marathon photos. She didn’t find any of Schler, who lives in Columbia, Mo. They talked by phone Wednesday, Lieberman said.
“I said, ‘I’m going to disqualify you in 2014 unless you provide me photos of you along the course,’ ” Lieberman said. “I told her if she showed me photos within two hours I’d consider not disqualifying her.”
That didn’t happen, and Schler’s name was removed Thursday from the Boston Marathon’s online list of entrants. Lieberman said that nothing about Schler’s story made sense. She had her bib and number on her leg, contrary to marathon guidelines, and covered by a shirt. She told Lieberman she had removed the timing strip from the bib in each of the last two years.
The course has seven spots where that strip records a time — the starting line, the finish and five spots within the course. Lieberman said she did not register a time at any spot. A Post-Dispatch photograph shows Schler on the Eads Bridge early in the race.
The bicyclist who rides beside the female leader finished with Karl on Sunday. Lieberman checked with U.S. Track and Field officials on the course.
“They’re situated in specific places so that people can’t cheat and jump on at other times,” Lieberman said. “They didn’t see (Schler) anywhere on the course.”
Lieberman’s theory is that Schler might have miscalculated her entry onto the course, not knowing she had placed herself at the front of the pack.
Lieberman said she was disappointed for Karl, who did not have photos taken at the finish line as the winner typically does. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes after she finished that she knew she won.
So, when Runner’s World magazine called to request a photo of Karl, GO! St. Louis did not have one of her running.
“There’s a euphoria the winner gets, breaking the tape and having the crowd cheer,” Lieberman said. “The true winner did everything right and didn’t get her due.”
I'm glad they mentioned the cyclists. There's usually a cyclist or motorcycle cop escorting the leader to make sure the course is open ahead and everything is legit. I find it hard to believe someone could fake a win because of that. There's a LOT of attention on the person at the front. I have a friend who is running Boston and she blogs about her races, and it sounds very exciting to be first, and like something I will never know.
Post by Velar Fricative on Apr 17, 2015 11:12:23 GMT -5
There's a video of her "winning" here and dude, no. Her facial expression says it all. Marathon winners look elated and exhausted. She looks like she ate something funky.
Plus, marathon female winners barely wear anything because they run so fast. She's wearing what I wear for races. I get nowhere near the front of the pack.
I mean, what is the point of faking it?? It is not like the prize money was that significant. Winning a marathon is a huge athletic accomplishment and one I am in awe of, speaking as someone who runs hella slow, and so if you fake it WTF do you really have in the end except your own private shame? I don't get it. And the woman who should have won got cheated so hard. Rage.
Post by jeaniebueller on Apr 17, 2015 11:35:09 GMT -5
I don't get the faking it. And seriously, that video is sad. She looks like she is going to cry. And not to be whatever, but she doesn't look like someone who wins marathons, KWIM? She looks like she just finished a 5K. Definitely not sweaty or disheveled enough.
So, was there another race going on that day too? If you look behind her in the footage - it shows 2:52 on the clock and lots of women coming over the finish - but the real winner didn't come in until 2:54? What did I miss?
So, was there another race going on that day too? If you look behind her in the footage - it shows 2:52 on the clock and lots of women coming over the finish - but the real winner didn't come in until 2:54? What did I miss?
I think you're seeing men cross, not women.
ETA - Oh wait. There are women. Maybe they are half finishers?
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
That article is SO good. And weird. And just ... stinks of catfish. A dentist from Michigan who makes up an entire race and 29 participants, and no one can figure out how he cheated the Boston Marathon. It's so bizarre.
J/k, I'd be the lady riding the subway to the finish and that would be the only way I could win. I consider it good enough that I can run a marathon in less than twice the average time it takes for a female winner to run it!
Yikes. That's pretty bad. I wonder if the first time was just to see if she could do it? and then this time she got caught.
But what the hell did she think was going to happen in Boston??
My guess is she probably just wanted to run it without raising money.
There are lots of slow charity runners, so she probably figured she could just run it and claim she had an off day if any questioned.
But since her actual finish time, based on her other times, would be closer to 5 hours and 30 minutes, that would be one hell of a bad day and probably would have raised some eyebrows if anyone was looking closely.
Yikes. That's pretty bad. I wonder if the first time was just to see if she could do it? and then this time she got caught.
But what the hell did she think was going to happen in Boston??
That's what I don't get and there must be some underlying reasons here. She already qualified for Boston with her (fake) third-place finish. What a dumb move to do this.
I know a lot of people who legit qualify for Boston don't run that marathon as fast as usual since it's the experience that was most important to them and they want to soak it in, plus you have runners who might be pregnant, getting over a previous injury, etc., so if she had finished Boston in 5 hours she could easily chalk it up to food poisoning the night before or some shit if she wanted to. Or that she was running with a slower friend.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Apr 17, 2015 13:13:13 GMT -5
Kathrine Switzer is the only marathon "cheater" who comes to mind as someone I approve of. And she wasn't really a cheater, but a completely justified bandit.
ETA - And I'm wrong. She wasn't a bandit. Roberta Gibb was. She registered, just under her initials as opposed to Kathrine.
Post by jeaniebueller on Apr 17, 2015 13:18:52 GMT -5
Does the group who runs the marathon events really have any recourse when people cheat like this? I mean, other than stripping them of their title. Just curious?
But I'm assuming in Boston she would start in a different wave than the charity runners, right? so it would be a lot more obvious as she was getting trampled by the elite runners. I guess she could have started farther back but then people would have given her lots of dirty looks.
LOL. I like how I think she would have been concerned over some dirty looks. Ha.
She wouldn't have been on the elite team.
They won't let people move up in the corrals, but they can move back to later waves if they want to.
My guess is they would have put her in Wave Two, and she would have been okay there (not able to keep up, but probably not trampled), or moved further back to Wave Four with people more in line with her time.
Post by downtoearth on Apr 17, 2015 13:31:19 GMT -5
What a load of bull!
I had to check FB - I found her pretty easy, but everything is locked down. I was just curious if she also fake trains and talks about training all the time. I think she's also ex-military.
Here's her quote next to a picutre of a bunch of youngin's in STL. Doesn't that imply past military? How embarrassing and disrespectful!
"Major Joe Warner, US Army Special Forces. BFF's and Minutemen.
Joe, it was during the 1016 Challenge on the stairs of the STL Arch when I realized we would have a glorious and painful friendship. You looked straight into my eyes, deep into my soul and yelled, "Kendall, get the fuck up and run these stairs until you puke." That was the moment I knew you were just a Xooter-toting softie who wanted a hug from every GRT you were crushing physically and mentally. Daww, the memories. wink emoticon
Post by underwaterrhymes on Apr 17, 2015 13:44:54 GMT -5
And you know what? She would have still kicked major ass with those times, even if it meant she had to run as a charity participant for Boston and she "only" got a finisher medal. I didn't train for my first full and finished in just under 7 hours, just a few minutes before they shut off the clock. I ran my second in 5:30 and sobbed for the last half mile because even though I wasn't winning any prizes, I felt like a damn CHAMPION for blowing my first time out of the water. I was so fucking proud that day. There is no shame in a 2:45 half marathon, or a 5:30 full marathon.
There is a hell of a lot of shame in cheating, though.