The Charleston Distance Run pays out a bit of prize money for AG awards.  I won my AG this year and got a $100 check.  However, while they give out the AG award plaques immediately post race, they don't send the checks out for a couple of weeks.  In talking to one of the race organizers, he said that they double check every prize winner's splits at intermediate and final checkpoints just to make sure nothing looks whacky.  It's also the only race I have ever seen where they have volunteers at perhaps three points along the race with one volunteer calling out every bib number that passes and another volunteer writing all of them down.

They do it right. Run this race many times and recall on several occasions the volunteers calling out bib numbers as we sailed along Kanawha Blvd. Back in the 80's they used to seed runners and write your assigned row on your bib where volunteers would walk past checking to make sure you were lined up correctly. The good old days.

Yes, Cat, those are the times I saw on Athlinks. If it's the same Hamilton from GA, it's hard to believe that she went from being a steady 4:00/5:00 marathon runner to a 2:55 one, in such a short time...

At a race I did last spring, one woman crossed the 21k mat seconds behind me, in 1:44. At mile 16, it was getting really hot, above 75F, and we were all slowing down. She ran mile 16 just a few feet in front of me and she was looking pretty bad, just like I was. I passed her and never saw her again. I finished in 3:42 and she finished in 3:16. When I saw that, I wrote the race director and explained the situation. I also had photographic evidence that we were running together at mile 16 and her splits were like I was describing. First half in 1:44, second one in 1:32. For a race that had the temperature rise up dramatically from first to second half, it was hard to believe she could have run the second split so much faster. The woman was contacted by the director. She said she had run the course too far for the first half, because of bad signage. So she decided to take a shortcut for the second half. The race director wrote me to give me her explanation. It looked like he was not going to do anything about it. I told him that the race website clearly indicated that the runners were responsible for understanding the course beforehand and that I had had no problem with it because I had studied it before the start. All signs were where they were supposed to be, you just had to read them. But if they had no rules regarding disqualification for running a different course, then I was ok with the decision. I guess he changed his mind, because a week later, her name had been removed from the list of finishers.

Yes, Cat, those are the times I saw on Athlinks. If it's the same Hamilton from GA, it's hard to believe that she went from being a steady 4:00/5:00 marathon runner to a 2:55 one, in such a short time...

 

At a race I did last spring, one woman crossed the 21k mat seconds behind me, in 1:44. At mile 16, it was getting really hot, above 75F, and we were all slowing down. She ran mile 16 just a few feet in front of me and she was looking pretty bad, just like I was. I passed her and never saw her again. I finished in 3:42 and she finished in 3:16. When I saw that, I wrote the race director and explained the situation. I also had photographic evidence that we were running together at mile 16 and her splits were like I was describing. First half in 1:44, second one in 1:32. For a race that had the temperature rise up dramatically from first to second half, it was hard to believe she could have run the second split so much faster. The woman was contacted by the director. She said she had run the course too far for the first half, because of bad signage. So she decided to take a shortcut for the second half. The race director wrote me to give me her explanation. It looked like he was not going to do anything about it. I told him that the race website clearly indicated that the runners were responsible for understanding the course beforehand and that I had had no problem with it because I had studied it before the start. All signs were where they were supposed to be, you just had to read them. But if they had no rules regarding disqualification for running a different course, then I was ok with the decision. I guess he changed his mind, because a week later, her name had been removed from the list of finishers.

Seriously?  I ran too much on the first, so I cut the second part?  Fucking idiot!

I get that mistakes happen and I don't get worked up if my Garmin is slightly off.  I have run races the Garmin said was short and had other people in the same race say they measured it long.  I have had the reverse happen as well.  Last year, it said the Charleston Distance Run was 15 miles.  This year, it said it was 15.1.  I came up short one year.  Well, the course didn't change.  I get that it's not terribly difficult on some courses to maybe make a turn when you shouldn't make a turn.  If I did that and my Garmin said I ran 26.1 miles, I wouldn't have any idea that I cut the course; I'd just think it was a typical measuring error.  I would think that even on a certified course.  I also know that on a course with lots of turns, you can actually run those turns a bit tighter than the bike rode them when the course was certified.

I get even more that inexperienced runners could make a mistake.  I'd be very suspicious if my Garmin came up half a mile short or if I ran the second half of a race 4-5 minutes faster than the first half but an inexperienced runner might not.  An inexperienced runner could well believe that he/she ran a 1:45 in the first half and a 1:40 in the second half - as unlikely as a negative split of that magnitude might be in a marathon.

But, even if I take her at her word that she ran the first half in 1:36, that's a 7:19 pace.  While that's not lollygagging, a 7:19 is kind of the pace I'll run if I just feel like stretching out my legs in the last couple of miles of a run.  But, a 1:18 second half is a 5:56 pace.  That's roughly the pace I'll run VO2max intervals.  The difference in effort level between those two is huge.  No one suddenly slips from what I might call a "stretching out the legs" effort to a 5K effort.  No one.  So yeah, she's not even a good liar about it.  I wouldn't even believe her if she had dropped all of those 4+ hour marathons and then suddenly went sub 3.  People can improve rapidly but not that rapidly.

What is wrong with just being honest?  Mistakes happen.  If you get to the finish line in a time you know can't be right, and it's way, way off, just admit you made a mistake.  I thought that had happened in a half marathon when every one of my splits was slower than my PR yet I PR'd by about 30 seconds.  In that case though, everyone said the course was short so it wasn't just me.  So you don't get the award.  Big deal.  Just admit to the RD that, while it wasn't your intention, you obviously cut the course somewhere.  By putting up a fight like this rather than simply admitting she made a mistake, she risks being banned from other races as well.

lol