Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
London Marathon Doctored Numbers
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Totally agree. And also how on earth do they "spoil" it for other runners.
As for comparing it to Boston, I find that massively disrepectful to the victims of that day. I really can't see why it's a point of comparison. The Boston bombers were in the crowd...
But as you yourself said, You wont get an official time, so it wont affect your cat rankings...
Please do try and be consistent
Doh you really don't understand race results do you. some people who do have legit numbers and chips pass them on to mates, surely you have heard of that happening.
No.. How shocking, what is the world coming to ?
(But then again it isn't really the point of this thread is it ?)
I'm more interested in how runner 9037 managed a sex change half way round
Its easy to colour photocopy a race number -they do change them slightly each year - but you can have copies available from mid week before the race.
Emergency details - well normally you write them on the back of your number.
The impostor would have to go ill (unconscious I guess) and then you'd have to have the genuine runner not phoning his or her partner or whatever. In this day and age of mobiles and chip timing and times being displayed - I can't see thats much of a risk.
Wristbands sound like the best idea. it might get rid of the chancers in last years numbers - but I believe the marshals on the mall do take out the fake or no numbers - so they just get the chance to run 26 miles with no record of them ever having being there. A waste.
Fascinating - Aunty Lynne looks to be the imposter runner, which is incredible as she's running in a CRY Charity vest. Very naughty. I think so many people are DNS then it shouldn't impact too much, it's just not a very cool thing to do - I am a stickler for the rules, though!
When you go to your start area at London, you only need to show your number. If a fake one will let you in, the security measure isn't so great.
Also at Berlin, only official bags were allowed in and to go to the baggage drop.
So feel free to explain how :-
stops a spectator setting off a device ?
You can join in 150 metres after the start and run up to just short of the 26 mile mark with no number, none of the things above would stop that.
And how would any of this stop a spectator setting off a device somewhere on the course....it wouldn't.
Which I said on page one.
Far easier to set off an explosive device as a spectator than go through all the hassle of pretending to be a runner at the start. Why would you?
Whether it's "fair" is a different debate.
You ask why people wouldn't just use last year's band, simply make it a totally different colour! Not rocket science, even print the year on it!
I hate to be coming across flippant when we are talking about people losing their lives but surely to prevent something similar to Boston happening banning spectators would be a much better plan rather than clamping down on fake numbers. Or did you watch 3 Lions and think it was a documentary?
Maybe we should also ban spectators with rucksacks on the tube?
I know my post may read somewhat crass and inappropriate, but how on earth this equates to a terrorist risk is beyond me. London is one of the most paranoid city's on earth, if the police felt that there was a real risk MUCH tougher procedures would be in place at the start. Of course a nutter could run amok with a gun or a knife but they probably won't. And if they did it would be fuck all to do with Boston and a sad refelection of the times we live in where that risk (however small) is ever present
Think people have been watching Four Lions too much.
Exactly a wrist band with the year on and a different colour each year, simple.
hahaha This is Aunty Lynne no 9037......Aunty Lynne has run the London marathon for CRY, she didn't gain her place through the ballot, neither did she gain a GFA, neither did she get a charity bond place, but Lynne just rocked up at the start line with a number from a previous VLM entrant, she just put a sticker over the bottom of the boost logo and put 'Wales' on it, so no-one would ever know that it wasn't this years race no. Aunty Lynne ran the whole race, she's a good egg and collected her race medal, t shirt and goody bag along with the 35,000 others who had waited year on year and paid for their entries. How many more like Aunty Lynne are out there?
Cant believe the outright bloody cheek of these people using old numbers. For those that say what harm is it doing? well they are getting medals, shirt gels and drinks and the full race experience at NO COST. they are cheating the system and putting future entrants at risk! It makes my blood boil to think how many people have struggled to get places in VLM for these CHEATS to walk all over the system and laugh at the honest conscientious running community who abide by the rules and respect the integrity of the race...
Flat Footed wrote (see)
Bugger that's the film I meant?
This is not new - I had someone use the same number as me when I ran in 2003. As someone has stated above, the marshals either stop them before the finish or they get moved on from the finish area so don't get the medals, T-shirts (or get an official time). Yes, they'll get the water, gels & whatever else but it would cause chaos at the water stations if they had to check the validity of each runner.
Did Paris last week and there were some spectators (I saw 2 who did this) who joined in at various stages to accompany their friends. Presumably they pulled away before the finish but I didn't notice. We also had a cyclist join us for some of the route but I think he got moved on.
Is it a problem? A minor one. Marshals can't be everywhere along the route so you can't feasibly stop someone if they want to do a bandit run.
How does this put future entrants at risk?
Free loading bandit runners have been getting a free medal, free t-shirt, drinks, gels and enjoyed a good day out during Marathons for many years. Bandit running is a sneaky way of gaining access to major sporting event. It is easy to run the middle 20+ miles of a marathon and experience the atmosphere of doing a training run that coincidentally collides with a marathon.
One nearly got kicked off at the mall.
I think CRY will be very interested to hear about the Aunty Lynne incident.
I think they would be a little put out if they lost all future VLM places because of 'non-runners' running and were banned. Perhaps they checked sponsor income from all their registered runners, and Aunty Lynne trousered her pledges to pay for a relaxing weekend in Blackpool.
Ultimately I agree with the majority, that there will always be bandit runners. Yes it shouldn't happen but it does.
The easiest way to bandit run is to a make a copy of a legitimate entry. Both bibs will look identical and the fake entry will be undetectable. Only 40,000 entries in major marathon events and only like a 1 in 25 chance of gaining an entry via the lottery. Assuming 1 million applicants and 40,000 entries in the event.
And if you had a legitimate entry - would you let your mate copy it ? I don't think I would. I'd not want to risk a ban for future years and a possible DQ for that race ?
Wearing old numbers or someone else's number - bring back hanging. Sure u go first won't u Aunty Lynne. At least Jason Lee who had the real number still got his medal and goodies. With cheats and gits running I bet some genuine runners miss out on getting theirs if they've run out of t-shirt sizes etc etc