{"id":5147,"date":"2017-07-17T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?p=5147"},"modified":"2017-07-15T17:53:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T21:53:50","slug":"cheating-expose-deeper-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
tswedensky<\/a> \/ Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m not going to lie – I love Marathon Investigation<\/a>. \u00a0This started as a way to track down people who cheated to get into Boston. \u00a0And it was amazing to see just how many people cheated, and the incredibly inventive way that they cheated. \u00a0The site then began to profile other cheaters, mostly people who cheated to get on the podium, but they also occasionally point out people who simply cheat so they can claim they finished. \u00a0They also pointed out people who bandited races, either by copying someone else’s bib or running with an old bib (or without a bib at all).<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong – cheating is always wrong. \u00a0I have seen course cutting so many times at Disney races and it makes me mad every time, even though those cheaters would argue that by cutting the course, they didn’t hurt anyone. \u00a0I can understand this argument. \u00a0They didn’t push someone else off the podium or take a Boston spot or take aid on the course that they didn’t pay for.<\/p>\n

But by cutting the course, by lying about their finish, they are harming the sport. \u00a0They are saying that it is okay to lie so that you can get a finisher’s medal and proudly proclaim that you finished the race. \u00a0I don’t understand this at all. \u00a0Why would you want to lie about your accomplishments? \u00a0What do you really gain? \u00a0And the fact that this doesn’t make sense to me says that there is probably something wrong in how we look at racing.<\/p>\n

This week, a teammate of mine got called out by Marathon Investigation for cutting a race course. \u00a0She had previously been disqualified by that race. \u00a0I admit that I didn’t know her well, and I haven’t talked to her since the piece was published. \u00a0I don’t know what happened, but the evidence does not look good for her. \u00a0She is no longer on our team, but that doesn’t mean that she is being shunned by the group. \u00a0Instead, the leadership has opted to reach out to her<\/a> and offer assistance.<\/p>\n

[W]e have reached out to the athlete and offered to find any resources that will be helpful to her in dealing with this. While it is right and mandatory to speak out against cheating and doping ALWAYS, we also recognize this is a human with feelings. We can all shame her mercilessly on social media and drive her deeper into a hole, or we can try to help her resolve any issues so they no longer hurt her or anyone else around her in the future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can understand being in the middle of a race and wanting to quit. \u00a0(And sometimes, quitting is the smart thing if you’re sick or injured.) \u00a0I have definitely been in races where I’ve thought “Hey, I could just cut the course there and be done!” \u00a0Of course, it wasn’t a serious thought. \u00a0I It was about as serious as thinking “I could just grow wings and fly through the rest of the race.”<\/p>\n

I also know that there have been races that I have been determined to finish because I didn’t want to tell people that I didn’t. \u00a0The fear of failure is honestly often my training motivation when I’m just not feeling it. \u00a0I don’t want to not finish a race and have to share that. \u00a0Not with my friends and family – they don’t care. \u00a0But since I do put all of my training out on the internet, it is scary to think that I might have to also share that I failed.<\/p>\n

But you know what? \u00a0A DNF isn’t failure. \u00a0Things happen. \u00a0Injuries, illnesses, weather, heck some days you’re just not feeling great for whatever reason. \u00a0A DNF says “I tried, and it wasn’t my day.”<\/p>\n

We need to remember to be supportive of people no matter what happens at their races. \u00a0We need to remember that we are all in this for fun (with the exception of the pros, who I hope are partly in it for fun), and that it will be more fun if we support each other. \u00a0Who knows what drives people to cheat. \u00a0But rather than point and laugh, we should offer help and be ready to listen when they want to talk. \u00a0Sure, some people may not want help. But simply by supporting others when they are successful and when they may be less successful, maybe we can reduce the number of people who think that they have to cut a course or lie about their finish times.<\/p>\n

In sum, be nice to people. \u00a0It’s a simple rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not going to lie – I love Marathon Investigation. \u00a0This started as a way to track down people who cheated to get into Boston. \u00a0And it was amazing to see just how many people cheated, and the incredibly inventive way that they cheated. \u00a0The site then began to profile other cheaters, mostly people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m not going to lie – I love Marathon Investigation. \u00a0This started as a way to track down people who cheated to get into Boston. \u00a0And it was amazing to see just how many people cheated, and the incredibly inventive way that they cheated. \u00a0The site then began to profile other cheaters, mostly people who […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Elbowglitter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cheat_1500155073-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6\"},\"headline\":\"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\"},\"wordCount\":787,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Triathlon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\",\"name\":\"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Elbowglitter\",\"description\":\"Getting back to running and other adventures\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6\",\"name\":\"Megan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4db1c919d5cef58581b42cbf04a4878?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4db1c919d5cef58581b42cbf04a4878?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Megan\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/author\/megan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter","og_description":"I’m not going to lie – I love Marathon Investigation. \u00a0This started as a way to track down people who cheated to get into Boston. \u00a0And it was amazing to see just how many people cheated, and the incredibly inventive way that they cheated. \u00a0The site then began to profile other cheaters, mostly people who […]","og_url":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/","og_site_name":"Elbowglitter","article_published_time":"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cheat_1500155073-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Megan","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Megan","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/"},"author":{"name":"Megan","@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6"},"headline":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem?","datePublished":"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/"},"wordCount":787,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6"},"articleSection":["Triathlon"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/","url":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/","name":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem? - Elbowglitter","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-17T13:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-15T21:53:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/cheating-expose-deeper-problem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does Cheating Expose a Deeper Problem?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#website","url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/","name":"Elbowglitter","description":"Getting back to running and other adventures","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f22c797e4ef4db1718a066ac354deba6","name":"Megan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4db1c919d5cef58581b42cbf04a4878?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4db1c919d5cef58581b42cbf04a4878?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Megan"},"logo":{"@id":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/author\/megan\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfIrH-1l1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4212,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/26\/4212\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":0},"title":"The Internet is Not Private","date":"January 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Right now, there are a couple of runDisney related Facebook groups seemingly fighting with each other. \u00a0I'll be honest, I find it pretty amusing. \u00a0What it ultimately comes down to is that people forget that nothing on the internet is private. \u00a0Okay, so maybe you can have your secret Facebook\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tantrum_1453815271-300x264.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4817,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/15\/calling-out-cheaters\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":1},"title":"Calling out Cheaters","date":"December 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In the running community, there's a pretty popular blog that calls out marathon cheaters. \u00a0The guy who runs it does an impressive job of reviewing race results and calling out course cutters and people who have someone else run with their bib so they can get a Boston Marathon qualifying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Running"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/cheat_1481809571-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6694,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/08\/the-prevalence-of-cheating-at-races\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":2},"title":"The Prevalence of Cheating at Races","date":"February 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"tswedensky \/ Pixabay I've talked about cheating at races before, including about the people I've seen cheating at Disney races. But it seems to be an ongoing problem. If you aren't already following Marathon Investigation, you should. Derek does an amazing job calling out cheaters at races. While his articles\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cheat_1500155073.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1319,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/07\/cant-we-all-just-get-along\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":3},"title":"Can’t We All Just Get Along?","date":"February 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, bib numbers for the runDisney Princess Half Marathon were unofficially released.\u00a0 (Unofficially meaning that the site worked to pull up waivers but it hadn't been linked on the runDisney website yet.) And immediately, the complaining started. Some of it was standard.\u00a0 \"I'm so far back!\"\u00a0 \"I won't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Running"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4364,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/05\/cheaters-never-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":4},"title":"Cheaters Never Win","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With the Boston Marathon coming up soon, stories are coming out about people being disqualified from running the race. For those new to the running scene (or who just don't care), Boston is a \"Big Deal\" for a lot of runners.\u00a0 To get into Boston, you have to run a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Running"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/finish__1457357205-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1272,"url":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/23\/review-racer-wall-frames\/","url_meta":{"origin":5147,"position":5},"title":"Review – RACER Wall Frames","date":"January 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago, the lovely folks at RACER contacted me about reviewing their wall frames, perfect for race bibs. My first thought was \"Well, my race bibs are mostly in a binder, so I'm not sure this is for me.\" My second thought was \"Wait, I am running\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Product Review"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5149,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions\/5149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}