London Marathon Weirdness

JonathanRyan

JonathanRyan

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Anybody a fan of Towie? It seems that the sister of one of the "stars" ran the London Marathon yesterday. She's a minor c'leb and apparently quite popular so some of her fans were watching her stats.

She was doing alright up to 20k - running a very respectable 2h15ish. Then she managed to kick down and complete the next 20k in 48 minutes. Followed by the final 2ish K where she must have hit the wall and struggled to run it in about 40 mins. Cynics have been quick to point out
  1. Her chip failed to record at any of the timing points between 20 and 40k
  2. There's a well known dodgy loop shortly after 20k which cuts miles off the course but means you miss all the timing plates
  3. 48 minutes for 20K would actually be inside the world record. By quite a bit.
  4. It's suspiciously similar to the Miracle of Jason Scotland-Williams the year before last - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...h-cheating-claims-against-miracle-runner.html
Srsly, when will people learn?

Unfortunately the only paper that have it ATM is the Sun so follow this link at your own discretion
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...on-after-fans-spot-suspicious-time-sheet.html
 
I've done most of the Great West Run. Some on foot, most in/on motorised vehicles!

TOWIC - the only way is cheating?
 
I'm sure Marathon tracking is much more advanced, but for a laugh I tracked myself round work with my phone yesterday. Apparantly I made a few visits to outlying villages without ever having left the building!
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
I'm sure Marathon tracking is much more advanced
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It's not terribly high tech. Each runner has an RFID tag on their shoe. At various points on the course there are mats. When your tag passes over these it logs the time of day at that particular point. Organisers are pretty careful to put the mats at the apex of any out and back loops ;) Every single time people will complain the course is short/long because it doesn't match the GPS. It's always the GPS that's wrong. Unless it's Manchester :)

The lady in question has had her time placed "under investigation". Apparently there may be another 20 people under suspicion.
 
Mildly Off Topic but vaguely related!

After a conversation on here a while back regarding satnav/GPS watches as pedometers, I bought myself a Garmin golfer's watch which can be set up as either a golfing watch (distance to hazards, hole etc.) or as a GPS pedometer. I almost always play the same course so rarely use the golfy function but tend to wear the thing to keep a track of my walking distance. Depending on how well/badly I play (as well as my round partner{s}), it can vary between just under 2 miles and just over 2 1/2 over the 9 holes! The trolley has a more traditional type of odometer and does about 1 3/4 on the round (gets left near the greens rather than following me every step of the way!)

Maybe next year, the organisers should put an extra tracking mat somewhere on the short cut?
 
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The Daily Fail have a handy graphic for people who can't visualise where her chip mysteriously stopped working.....

3387FE7B00000578-3558243-Pictured_is_the_route_of_the_London_Marathon_The_green_lines_sho-a-20_1461612269265.jpg


And there's an interesting graph of her speed on the official finisher site - http://www.runpix.co/arace9/23/mp.php?id=55101&dt=42&hm=lon16&ev=lon16&NoSC=true

speedy.jpg


I've actually seen evidence of an even more unlikely case. A chap who took 1h 15 to run the first 10K but then when he was warmed up he managed the remaining 32k in an unbelievable 2h 15. In the final 7.2k he overtook 3,137 runners and not a single person overtook him. I'm amazed the TV cameras missed it and he sprinted those 5 miles.
 
Her 3rd 10k was at about 15MPH. You go, girl!
 
Nod said:
Her 3rd 10k was at about 15MPH. You go, girl!
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15mph. Or as I like to call it, sub 4 minute miles :)

In fairness I should point out that sources "close" to her are apparently saying that there's some kind of timing mistake and she actually finished in about 5 hours. Which makes the times stamps on the finish line photos a little peculiar.
 
JonathanRyan said:
15mph. Or as I like to call it, sub 4 minute miles :)

In fairness I should point out that sources "close" to her are apparently saying that there's some kind of timing mistake and she actually finished in about 5 hours. Which makes the times stamps on the finish line photos a little peculiar.
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6 sub 4minute miles on the bounce! Rio, here she comes!

Presumably, they can check with other runners who finished at the same time as her and look at footage/stills of the finish to check her finishing time (as in GMT/BST not ET.)
 
JonathanRyan said:
Positively sloth like compared to runner 7312.

speedier.jpg
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Indeed - I make that about 21/22 MPH. How fast is Bolt over 200m? (Or, to make things even [no standing start!], over the 2nd 100m of it?)
 
That's about twice as fast as I could drive through that bit of London on a Sunday morning.
 
Nod said:
Indeed - I make that about 21/22 MPH. How fast is Bolt over 200m? (Or, to make things even [no standing start!], over the 2nd 100m of it?)
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Bolt's 200m world record was 19.19, and apparently he ran the second half of it in 9.27. Unbelievable. So anyway 100m in 9.27s is 38.8 kph which is 24.1 mph.

The 35.9 kph recorded by that marathon competitor is equivalent to running 100m in 10.03 seconds.
 
Perhaps by the time she got to Deptford all the water had been stolen (now that trully is marathon weirdness and could only happen in certain parts of London) she needed to take a short cut to ensure there would still be water left at other watering stations.
 
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I think the word is 'oops'.

Is there ANY chance she could just simply have missed the correct route, rather than condemn her as the otherwise obvious (and stupid) cheat that she seems to be?
 
"Hmmm... Everyone else is going that way. Maybe they're all wrong and the real route is down this alley?"
 
I suppose she could of done that bit faster then Mo Farrah,right?

ancient_mariner said:
Is there ANY chance she could just simply have missed the correct route, rather than condemn her as the otherwise obvious (and stupid) cheat that she seems to be?
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it'd be a substantial effort to make that mistake, involving jumping a barrier. I suppose anything is possible but it seems somewhat unlikely
 
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boyfalldown said:
I suppose she could of done that bit faster then Mo Farrah,right?



it'd be a substantial effort to make that mistake, involving jumping a barrier. I suppose anything is possible but it seems somewhat unlikely
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My sources say there's an underpass involved as well. Apparently it's not even a route that might occur to you on the day.

But she's handed her medal back - which is as close to admitting she cheated as she's going to get. I don't doubt she'll be on a chat show about this with a follow up spot on Ready Steady Mastechef Bakeoff Get me out of Here celebrity Pointless.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I don't doubt she'll be on a chat show about this with a follow up spot on Ready Steady Mastechef Bakeoff Get me out of Here celebrity Pointless.
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But surely she's now too famous to be eligible for that crap, I mean exciting viewing ?
:D
 
You were right first time.
 
She can dress it up and fanny about all she likes.
The official term is cheating.
 
andy700 said:
That route has changed a bit since I did it Jonathan. It looks as though she "forgot" to do around nine miles?

"I had a panic attack, when I thought I had nearly finished and I hadn't even reached the halfway mark".
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Yes. Strangely that wasn't what she said a couple of days after the marathon when she was adamant she had run the whole thing. Maybe she got confused.

BTW in case people are confused why a lot of runners are so angry - there was about a 1 in 35 chance of getting into the London Marathon via the ballot. "Celebrities" get automatic qualification. That's one of the reasons the ballot has such bad odds. You'd honestly expect somebody who was given a free entry to behave just a little better. She also raised £510 for charity which many charity runners have described as "pitiful". To get a charity place you usually need to raise > £2K and if she'd actually had a charity place then her charity would have lost money on her.
 
andy700 said:
"I had a panic attack, when I thought I had nearly finished and I hadn't even reached the halfway mark".
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"I had a panic attack shortly after crossing tower bridge, jumped a barrier and found lots of people running the opposing direction" you mean?
 
boyfalldown said:
I could tell you, but you're happier not knowing. An I wouldn't wish to spoil your day
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That was a public service broadcast on behalf of the "save your sanity party" :thumbs:
 
Years ago, I was asked by a close relative if she could train for a marathon on a treadmill in a gym, and not bother with any road running. My response elicited a rather nasty reply from her mother, stating that I didn't need to be so harsh and horrible.
I replied that harsh and horrible are what you find when running a marathon, so she had better get used to it.
 
andy700 said:
Years ago, I was asked by a close relative if she could train for a marathon on a treadmill in a gym, and not bother with any road running. My response elicited a rather nasty reply from her mother, stating that I didn't need to be so harsh and horrible.
I replied that harsh and horrible are what you find when running a marathon, so she had better get used to it.
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I know a couple of people who have trained for marathons on treadmill only - not ideal but they did OK.

FWIW I find distance running to be one of the most supportive and inclusive sports I've ever come across. I mean, unless you're a cheat ;)
 
JonathanRyan said:
I know a couple of people who have trained for marathons on treadmill only - not ideal but they did OK.
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Our DHL courier chappie at work just did it too for this years LM.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I know a couple of people who have trained for marathons on treadmill only - not ideal but they did OK.

FWIW I find distance running to be one of the most supportive and inclusive sports I've ever come across. I mean, unless you're a cheat ;)
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How on earth do they cope with the reality of it though, the sheer pain which hits you as the body starts to shut down?
What sort of times did they do, because anyone can walk a marathon.
 
andy700 said:
How on earth do they cope with the reality of it though, the sheer pain which hits you as the body starts to shut down?
What sort of times did they do, because anyone can walk a marathon.
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I'm not sure of times but one person I'm thinking of trained 100% on a dreadmill (there were reasons for this) then ran a couple of marathons in a short space of time at least one of them with some sort of broken leg. It may have been around the 5 hour mark.

FWIW I don't think the pain of running for 4 hours or so is anything like the mind numbing agony of running indoors for hours without actually getting anywhere. I did 30k on a rower once and that was bad enough.
 
JonathanRyan said:
FWIW I don't think the pain of running for 4 hours or so is anything like the mind numbing agony of running indoors for hours without actually getting anywhere. I did 30k on a rower once and that was bad enough.
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Whether it is a treadmill, rower, bike or cross trainer, I'm bored within 5 minutes, being outdoors and actually going somewhere with it wouldn't make it any better.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I'm not sure of times but one person I'm thinking of trained 100% on a dreadmill (there were reasons for this) then ran a couple of marathons in a short space of time at least one of them with some sort of broken leg. It may have been around the 5 hour mark.

FWIW I don't think the pain of running for 4 hours or so is anything like the mind numbing agony of running indoors for hours without actually getting anywhere. I did 30k on a rower once and that was bad enough.
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That must have been torture, the most I have ever done was 35 minutes, which was around 7500 metres.
 
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