Still Running (weakly). Issue 123

PAST – inspiration – On 9th October 2011, I completed the Chicago Marathon and with it my set of the Major Marathons as they were at that time – namely, London, Berlin, New York City, Boston and Chicago.

The trip was memorable for a number of reasons, probably least of all for my own slow trudge round the city.  Among the literal high points was the view from the glass-bottomed lookout platform on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower, which, let’s be honest, it took me a good while to step onto!!

The low point was a female from our group cheating.  She clocked 3:41:33, but I remember passing her at about 4 miles, when I estimate she was running about 15-minute miles.

Checking the results later showed that she took 45 minutes for the first 5km and then didn’t register a chip-time at 10km or 15km but passed halfway in 1:18 (i.e. about 18-minute 5km pace)!

She proceeded not to register a split at 25km but recorded 5km times of between 44 and 46 minutes for 30-35 and 35-40km.  A quick look at the course map showed how straightforward it would have been for her to take a shortcut at these places.  Thankfully, she was officially disqualified by the organisers.

PRESENT – perspiration – A more recent example of cheating concerns, of all people, Joasia Zakrzewski.  Zakrzewski is a top-notch international ultrarunner, competing for Great Britain many times and indeed setting the women’s world 48-hour record as recently as February 2023. 

However, competing in the Manchester to Liverpool 50 mile ultra on 7th April 2023, Zakrzewski crossed the finish line as third lady and accepted the relevant trophy, posing for photos with said trophy and her finisher’s medal.  However, earlier in the race she had started feeling unwell and got into a friend’s car.  Strava data shows her taking around 1 minute 40 seconds a mile for the 2.5-mile section during which she was thus assisted.

She claims that she told the officials at the next checkpoint that she was dropping out, but they persuaded her to continue: “You’ll hate yourself if you stop.”  So she continued to the finish.

But the Strava data, as well as statements from officials and other competitors, were brought to the attention of the organisers, and Zakrzewski was disqualified.

She maintained that she got into the car because she was dropping out of the race, that it was a “massive mistake” to accept the trophy, that she was sleep-deprived and spaced-out at the finish, having arrived from Australia (where she now lives) just hours before the race, and that it was all down to miscommunication and not intentional deceit.

I think that the decisive piece of evidence is that Zakrzewski did not try to right the wrong.  I can just about believe that she was so spaced out after the race that she accepted the trophy and had her photo taken, etc. in a daze, but surely, after you eat and sleep and recover, you realise your error and humbly own up.  Don’t you?

On this point, race director Wayne Drinkwater said, “After the event, there was no attempt by Joasia to make us aware of what had happened and to give us an opportunity to correct the results or return the third-place trophy during the course of the subsequent seven days.”

Contrast this with the conduct of Jack Scott in the Spine Race 2023 (268 miles on the Pennine Way in January.)  When he mistakenly looked at the GPS navigation on his phone upside-down and took an unintended short-cut to the next checkpoint, he immediately informed the race organisers; they calculated the time he had gained and doubled it as his penalty.  He eventually came second; if he had kept his mouth shut, he would have won.

Going back to Zakrzewski, “There was no attempt by Joasia to make us aware of what had happened……. during the course of the subsequent seven days….”  That to me, I’m afraid, is the damning phrase: it is that week of silence and inaction that I can’t forgive, and that’s the part that will probably continue to besmirch Zakrzewski’s reputation.

FUTURE – suggestion – These are not the only examples of cheating that I have encountered or heard about unfortunately.  Running in the 20km de Paris in the mid-80s, I was amazed to see thousands of runners cutting through the Bois de Boulogne, thus saving themselves the bother of covering the intervening three or four miles!

But what is the point?

I can almost understand elite athletes taking drugs, if that will win them a gold medal and a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal.  There is a kind of perverted logic to that.  But the rest of us surely run for our own satisfaction – and that satisfaction can only come from putting in the hard work and sacrifice that enables us to achieve something we thought might be beyond our reach.

(The recent case of 69-year-old US Masters shot champion, Michael Hooker, testing positive for testosterone and mesterolone, and being banned for three years, somewhat blurs the lines between amateur/clean and professional/might cheat.)

If that longed-for sub-3 marathon, sub-40 10km or sub-30 parkrun comes, not by dint of rigorous training over many years and commitment on the day, but because you ducked under a few barriers, cut a few corners or got a lift in a car, then it’s an extremely warped moral compass that does not immediately recognise the act for what it is, and thus disallow and dispel any last vestige of fulfilment or contentment in the wake of such sacrilege.

Run the straight race.