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Is this man a Fraud?
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Hi again Jake.
Good on you to for making it round yesterday! With regards to your comment about the guys chairty - i think the charity would be disgusted if they knew that he was raising the money by running the marathon and then NOT running it to be honest.
I have no problem at all with people raising money for charities but at the end of the day do it fair and square. Sorry. I cant see past that.
From what you are saying, you and i earned every last penny of what we raised doing what we did yesterday, he on the other hand conned people into thinking that he did and that in my mind is cheatng. If he does give the money to charity then that is the least he can do as far as i am concerned - sounds like it is the only honest thing he does with the whole marathon experience and he should be ashamed of himself.
Just my humble opinion of course.
Guys, as I said earlier I DO think everyone should enter to attempt the full distance and I agree to what he is doing in relation to the spirit of the race. All I'm saying is that he's making a good bit of cash for charity. Up here he doesn't make a pretence to do the whole distance in races and people still put money in his bucket. Maybe he even has a chat to people on the way round and says he hasn't done the whole course? I just feel a bit uneasy at all the posts condemning a guy when we don't know the full story. And, I'm still not sure how he leaves then gets back on the course without anyone asking him anything!
Kittenkat - you have a fair point about the chaos that would ensue if more people did this.
I'm willing to continue to play devil's advocate until I find out he's done something serious.
Have a good day folks - my legs are sorer this morning
Jake, I guess this partly comes down to the old argument as to whether the event is really a marathon or a giant fund-raising event.
I'm guessing that many of us here view FLM primarily as a marathon - the fund raising thing is secondary. Therefore we are more likely to comdem someone who appeared to not be going the whole distance than would a group of peeps whose main concern was raising dosh for their chosen cause.
I'm with JB on this one - if he isn't doing the whole distance then he's not being straight with people.
Some people may be happy to give money regardless of whether he completes the course. That's their choice - but what about those who are giving money because they're expecting him to do the distance? It would still be conning them surely?
In 2000 I did MDS (Maratheon de Sables)and we had a bloke in a rabbit outfit "competing" he did something like the first day then for the rest of the time was filmed at strategic points on the course and did not complete the stages. A lot of us were really annoyed 1) It made it appear to the outside world that it was an "easy" race- if a guy in full furry rabbit outfit can do it anybody can 2) It was presenting a lie to the viewers of the tv coverage- and we all know the bad publicity surrounding that recently with fake phone ins and the like.
The organisers I suppose saw it as good publicity for the race at home in France- apparently every day on their news there was a comic "where's the rabbit?" slot. The race does focus its fund raising efforts on providing clean drinking water for the desert communities.
If and only if this guy is in the same position (ie: the organisers colluding with him) then:
My sense of fair play does not see the end justifying the means, in either case.
We all get silly questions about how far is a marathon and will you win but I don't particularly want to be asked if I plan to do the whole course just because some "clown" thinks it isn't necessary, and does it every year.
If my memory serves me right, when you sign your entry there is part of the "contract" that says you agree not to push any wheeled vehicle round the course....
On the day I saw many non runners at the charity support stations with buckets "working the crowd" at regular intervals when the charity's runners came past - I have no problem with that whatsoever (as long as they keep out of the way of the runners)
If I were in the crowd and saw a clown with trolley/buckets wearing a running number I'd be thinking "blimey, this bloke is running the marathon with all that stuff on and pushing a trolley" and probably give him some money... How many people in the crowd did exactly the same thing?
If he is taking shortcuts he is not only cheating, he is misleading people and therefore cheating others as well. I think FLM should take a stand against this guy if the allegations are correct. People earn the medal through hard graft and that they ran the distance which is an achievement. NOT from cutting corners and effectively being paid for doing that under the pretence that you are running the whole route.
I think the OP should send as copy of this forum to FLM (or bring it to their attention) and let them decide.
I completely agree with you on all counts Bill S.
As others have said, if he wants to raise money for charity then he needs to find another method than pretending to run marathons.
Year after year he is depriving someone of a GB place who is prepared to put in the effort of both training and fundraising, someone who is willing to complete the distance and bloody well earn their medal - like so many of us.
It stinks.
To add my 2p worth to this thread's bucket, every £1 that he collects from people thinking he's completing the whole distance is potentially £1 out of another charity's collection bucket.
It's not only other runners and donator's he'd defrauding, but other charities too.
If he's being up front about not completing the distance, why bother going through the finish every year, if not to collect a medal etc for himself? I suppose he might be one of those that put them up on ebay every year. It's not as though he'd have much chance to collect anything on the Mall. If he truly wanted to maximise the amount raised he'd just go as far as he could before dropping out.
Heres the email address of his nominated charity if anyone wants to enlighten them of this discussion:
/forum/smilies/confused_smiley.gif[/img]ha-admin@hdscotland.org.uk]sha-admin@hdscotland.org.uk
Not sure what happened there
www.sha-admin@hdscotland.org.uk
If he doesn't do the full course, but leads people to believe that he is, then I think he is obtaining money by deception, which is a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison (I think).
The fact that the money is going to charity is completely irrelevant as to whether a crime has been committed. If he were to steal money from people, would that be OK as long as he gave it to charity? No.
Well, I'm hugely peed off. I take a pocketful of pound coins out with me to throw into the collecting buckets as runners go past. However, I don't happen to have enough money to throw pound coins at all and sundry - so I have to choose. I gave money to Tommy the Clown and didn't give to another charity runner as a result. Who says Scottish Huntingtons Disease is a more deserving charity than the leukaemia one that I didn't support? I would say 99% of charities are deserving of my money, but I can't afford to give to all. It's exactly the same principle as sponsoring runners - you don't decide to sponsor someone £5 and another person £25 because you prefer the second person's charity, you sponsor them according to how well you know them, how much effort it costs them and how much you can afford to give. The charity is almost irrelevant when it comes to sponsorship - if you really care about a charity, you set up a direct debit anyway.
It looks to me like the guy simply jumped on the mainline train at Greenwich and either changed at London Bridge to get off at Blackfriars or got off at Waterloo East and walked over Blackfriars Bridge or Waterloo Bridge.
Whatever, I really resent the fact that he conned me out of money (even though it's only a couple of quid!). I don't care that it still goes to the charity, the point is that I gave it to him because he convinced me he was running 26.2 miles. I'd rather have given it to the guy just in front of him who really did complete a marathon.
Hmm.
Tommy the Clown
His placard says "Huntingdons Disease". The name of the disease is "Huntington's Disease". You'd think he would know the correct name of the charity he's running for...
I get the impression on here that most people who've posted have nothign against the guy if he's doing the whole race.
However - if he isn't then I really don't see it as a witch hunt. I simply dislike dishonesty - not unreasonable surely?