After a rather carb-heavy breakfast, lunch was protein packed!
Today’s lunch included scrambled eggs with sautéed onions and Italian chicken sausage, served with a toasted whole wheat English muffin, topped with a bit of olive oil and garlic salt.
Breakfast for lunch!
Marathon Cheaters
Late this morning, Danielle, a blog reader, emailed me a link to an interesting video about marathon cheaters.
The video mentions that many big marathons now take precautions to thwart cheating, with the New York City marathon requiring electronic tracking chips for all runners.
Earlier this month, I read an article about a marathoner in England who hitched a ride from the 20-mile mark to just before the finish of the race. He then hopped out of the car, hid behind a tree, and rejoined the race, placing third. (His medal was obviously revoked when race officials learned that he cheated.)
All of this marathon cheating talk made me think about how I would feel if I saw a person try to cheat in a race. Since I’m not particularly competitive and never have hopes of actually placing in a race, someone cheating wouldn’t take away my medal and affect me directly, but I would be peeved at them for cutting the course and disrespecting other runners, the sport of running, race organizers and volunteers.
I would then suggest to the race organizers that we punish the runner by making them spend an afternoon doing this:
Question of the Afternoon
- Have you ever witnessed someone cheating during a race or a sporting event?
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It’s sad that people try to cheat to win. Sure, I cheated on Candy Land when I was in kindergarten, but not at a race of endurance as an adult. Really?
Hi,
I really like your blog and congratulations to you and your husband on your 1/2 marathon 🙂
This is a bit unrelated but because you are a huge fan of Pinterest, I thought I would ask you.
Pinterest has not really taken off that much in Australia yet (where I live) but I am sure it will soon. Anyway, I requested an invite but I really have no idea what the waiting time is before I will get one. Do you have any idea???
Thanks, keep up the good blogging 🙂
Ughhhhh, cheating in races is so annoying! Every year my family eagerly awaits the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. It is a huge event and the t shirts aren’t given out until the end, meaning you have to cross the finish line, thus actually run the race. It is so frustrating to see so many people jump in in the later miles! I guess they don’t care about their time chip and they usually jump in earlier than their allotted corral. This crowds the faster runners who have worked hard to earn their fast time group number (sorry to say but it’s all the out-of-shapers that resort to his technique). Really annoying and against running etiquette!!!!
HA do you know what that sign is from? This guy from VA cheated on his wife and she made him stand in the busy intersection for an entire week as punishment!!!
HA do you know what that sign is from?! This guy from VA cheated on his wife and she made him stand in the busy intersection for an entire week as punishment!!!
thank you for sharing that! i was hoping it was a woman scorned who put him through that because it’s like the ultimate punishment–public humiliation. hell hath no fury…
What the heck! That is so crazy. I would totally make them stand outside with that sign, so wrong!
Haha, that picture is from Hot99.5 in DC is it not?
They created this false story that was HUGE for days, about a man that cheated on his wife and his punishment was to stand with that sign at this busy intersection at Tysons Corner, VA (which is the best mall ever btw) during rush hour for a week! So Hot99.5 started it all, and of course all the other not as good morning radio shows copied their coverage, and REALLY Hot99.5 had planted that guy there and created this big fake story to teach the other stations to do their HW.
Ironic right? Cheating with copying their stories about a cheating man.
cheating in h.s. and college sporting events, yes.
cheating on race courses? I have ran lots of really rinky dink 5k’s and 10k’s, and there have been times where I’ve seen people not run 10 extra feet to the turn around point or something, but it’s such a small potatoes event to begin with..not a huge deal.
now in a major marathon? yeah, I’d be ticked if I saw that!
why bother running if you’re going to cheat???
I had a patient a long time ago tell me a story that she did that…she was 80 and told me that for years, her friends thought she ran it, but she hitched a ride. I’m not sure if she was serious, or she was trying to make me laugh at the time.
I did a half-ironman earlier this year and the run portion was a double loop course (you ran a 6.5 mile loop twice). I was running my first loop when I saw a woman on a bike finish the bike portion and stop running. When I was on my second loop, she was shortly ahead of me and ran through the finish line instead of turning around and doing her second loop! She ended up being the second female in my age group so I got 3rd instead of 2nd. I was pissed, but honestly I was so tired I didn’t fight it. I took my free bottle of wine prize and drowned my sorrows, lol.
I kind of know how it feels to cheat. Before I got my Garmin I was running on a “3 mile” loop….not exactly 3 miles and I thought it was. Using the fact that it was 3 miles I guessed at how far the extra 0.1 was and would time myself and after a while I was doing really well. Then I got my Garmin and realized that I was significantly off and I was sooooo mad. My time was off and I didnt feel as accomplished. So I cant even imagine doing it on purpose! Blah!
I guess the thing is I don’t see why other runners would care, to me the question is more: what’s the point? I thought doing things like running races are achievements you do for yourself, so if you cheat… you know you didn’t actually run the race? I just don’t see the value in doing that at all. It seems silly, really!
I read about that English guy and thought it was so lame- I run for personal achievement…whether you not you wear a medal that places you as 3rd place, deep down how can u really revel in the glory!
Your lunch looks delicious – I’ll be buying some chicken sausage this weekend and having this for sure!!
I live in VA and actually saw that guy with the sign standing on the street, it was so strange to see. Can’t believe it ended up being part of a radio station stunt. I think it’s a good idea if he was really someone who cheated on his spouse…..cheating happens way too often these days.
I ran my first-ever race (a 5K) a little over a month ago. I trained really hard, working up from not even being able to run a single step. At about the two-mile mark, there was a point where we circled back, passing by people who were only like a mile in. This group of girls saw some of their friends in front of me and they just crossed right over and started running with them, skipping out on a full mile of the course! One of them even said, “Well it’s not like we’re really competing anyway. It’s just for charity…” I was so angry I wanted to scream at the finish, “NO, DON’T CLAP FOR THEM! THEY DIDN’T REALLY FINISH! THEY DO *NOT* DESERVE CHEERS!” I was so mad because I had worked hard to get to that point and here were these stupid girls just jumping in front of me.
But seriously, WHO CHEATS IN A 5K FOR CHARITY?!?! Like, WHY DID YOU SIGN UP IN THE FIRST PLACE, YOU STUPID IDIOT?!?!? Can you tell I’m still bitter? 🙂
I was running a 5k(for charity) and these girls infront of me cut down this hill which saved them about .5km…. I was just so annoyed WHO DOES THAT
It is actually very interesting that you wrote this post right after Savannah because I think I might have witnessed a cheater in that race! Maybe. At the beginning of the race, I was going over that first bridge and a nice guy from Atlanta started talking to me. He was telling me what his goal pace was and how many marathons he ran and we chatted for almost the whole first mile. He didn’t have a Garmin, so I told him that he was EXACTLY on target for a 1:50 pace because he was running an 8:23 mile. We chatted a bit more then I told him that I needed to pick it up a little to get down to my goal pace for the remaining miles. I never saw him again after that until about mile 12.5 when I picked up my pace substantially (woohoo negative split!) and someone tapped my shoulder as I was running by and it was him!! I can’t figure out how he ended up so far in front of me when I never saw him pass me. He was wearing a bright blue shirt that I think I would have noticed, plus there was almost NO crowding around me the entire race after the first mile so I don’t know how I could have missed him. AND if he made an effort to say something at mile 12.5, why wouldn’t he have said something if he passed me earlier? And how the heck was he running over 5+ minutes faster than a goal that he had already said was a little lofty?! Anyway, maybe he just is awesome and passed me and I didn’t see it, but I am still very skeptical….
Savannah had all of these out and back loops… and I am SURE there were people who hopped on over ’em and cut some mileage off of the course… i kept trying to keep a lookout for it, but didn’t see anyone do it. Not too sure what I could have done if I did see it though… as I doubt I would’ve been able to see their bib# (and let’s face it, there’s no way i would’ve been able to speed up any to track ’em down!)
I’m an average half marathon runner. In May 2010 I made the trip over the waters to support a friend of mine that was running the Comrades marathon. This is a well-known ultra-marathon (56 miles) in South Africa. I was horrified when I saw a runner BIB number 9073 firstly getting a lift, and secondly re-joining the race. Another friend of mine, who was also supporting spoke to some of the officials about it but their comments were, as he is in the back half of the field, no prize money is involved and therefore nothing will be done. This is unethical. If they want to keep the sport clean people should become pre-occupied with cheating. Cheating in a marathon or for that matter any race, irrespective if you come last or first should not be tolerate. Apart from expelling the guy from future participation he should stand like the photo you have shown at the start of the next year’s race. Us here in Europe are not use to such bad attitude of the race organisers.
Klaus
Hello Klaus
That runner is Peet Venter
Harold