Bandits In The Marathon
This is one of those thing that isn't really news but I guess that the Boston Marathon went well enough that folks with fake numbers were caught running in the race.
Road Racing and especially big races are big business along with all the other things that jogging is or was. I have run in probably one hundred races over the years. I finished the Orange Bowl Marathon in 1983. My time was 4:33. I really don't remember how many people I beat in the race. I didn't get a medal, I got a tee shirt. North Carolina Blue and the finish line was in the Orange Bowl. A victory lap after a lot of training. I still have the tee shirt.
Lots of folks ran than in races unofficially without numbers. Rosie Ruiz took the subway in New York and made a name for herself that will live in infamy.
I ran in the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th a long time ago. 50,000+ runners/joggers and you qualified for a tee shirt if you ran the ran the race in less than an hour. It took a few minutes to cross the Starting Line. Piedmont Park, the sight of the Olympic Bomber was amazing. My Dad was watching the race and he said he now understood what a guy that had served in the Korean War was talking about when he said the Chinese just kept coming in waves. 50,000 people is a lot of folks. I finished close enough to the 60 minute cut off for the t-shirt that there were enough left for folks like me
The Boston Marathon used to require that you run in a Marathon with a time of 4:00 or less to qualify to run in the race officially. I'm not sure if they have changed the qualifying time. Lots of folks want to run in The Boston Marathon. I'm positive they have always had "cheaters" of one sort or another, some maybe could not afford the entry fee or weren't fast enough for a number but getting in the race was the thing.
I took the tee shirt along with a lot of others. I paid my money and ran as fast as the crowd would let me. I doubt anyone cared the next day.
Road Racing and especially big races are big business along with all the other things that jogging is or was. I have run in probably one hundred races over the years. I finished the Orange Bowl Marathon in 1983. My time was 4:33. I really don't remember how many people I beat in the race. I didn't get a medal, I got a tee shirt. North Carolina Blue and the finish line was in the Orange Bowl. A victory lap after a lot of training. I still have the tee shirt.
Lots of folks ran than in races unofficially without numbers. Rosie Ruiz took the subway in New York and made a name for herself that will live in infamy.
I ran in the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th a long time ago. 50,000+ runners/joggers and you qualified for a tee shirt if you ran the ran the race in less than an hour. It took a few minutes to cross the Starting Line. Piedmont Park, the sight of the Olympic Bomber was amazing. My Dad was watching the race and he said he now understood what a guy that had served in the Korean War was talking about when he said the Chinese just kept coming in waves. 50,000 people is a lot of folks. I finished close enough to the 60 minute cut off for the t-shirt that there were enough left for folks like me
The Boston Marathon used to require that you run in a Marathon with a time of 4:00 or less to qualify to run in the race officially. I'm not sure if they have changed the qualifying time. Lots of folks want to run in The Boston Marathon. I'm positive they have always had "cheaters" of one sort or another, some maybe could not afford the entry fee or weren't fast enough for a number but getting in the race was the thing.
I took the tee shirt along with a lot of others. I paid my money and ran as fast as the crowd would let me. I doubt anyone cared the next day.
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