nonstoppete wrote:Wow. He went to a substantial effort to cheat. Imagine if he had just enjoyed the events at whatever pace he ran for the day...
I agree.
In my opinion, there are two interesting issues surrounding the Kip Litton cheating.
First, there's the "how did he do it?" It seems that he dressed like a walker and placed himself near the back of the pack. This way the sub-3 hour marathoners would not see him. When he left the course, no one really paid attention. If he had started near the front of the pack, with the other sub-3 hour marathoners, people would have noticed him walking off the course.
When I first read about him wearing different clothes at the beginning versus the end of the race, I thought that this was a silly idea because it only made it obvious that he was cheating. No one changes clothes while running a sub-3 hour marathon (not that I have any experience in this department.)
But there was a method to his madness. He hoped that no one would think that the guy who walked off the course was the same guy who crossed the finish line. By covering his bib, he made it less likely that pictures would identify him.
As I understand it, many of the timing mats are very sensitive. So, he might have acted like a spectator and got very close to the timing mats from off the course. Then, he could have just moved close enough to the timing mat to get the mat to record his split, whether that would be at the 10K, half marathon or 30K split point.
Then there is the "why did he do it?" Was it all just about ego? Perhaps. But when I read the part about him being an Amway salesmen, even though he's a dentist and his wife is a lawyer, it made me think: This guy doesn't think there is such as thing as having too much money. So, he made himself appear to be an outstanding local (to the Michigan area) runner. He talks about how one of his sons has cystic fibrosis. He gains attention. He leverages that attention to get people to donate money to cystic fibrosis by clicking on his running web site. Except that maybe when someone donates to the web site the money doesn't really go to a cystic fibrosis foundation. Maybe it goes to Kip Litton's bank account.
Did he get enough money from the cystic fibrosis/running scam to pay for his airline tickets and hotels and rental cars to all of these marathon locations?
Or maybe he's just someone who is addicted to gaining accolades from people. So, he feels like he needs people to think that he's a sub-3 hour marathoner in his late 40s. Not only that, he can run a sub-3 hour marathon in each of the 50 states.
But Wyoming would be a tough state to run a sub-3 hour marathon, right? First, there aren't that many marathons in Wyoming. Second, you are running at a high elevation. Running a sub-3 hour marathon at altitude would be tough. Maybe that's why he invented the West Wyoming Marathon.
That way, he wouldn't even have to cheat. Just create a fictional character, a Rich Rodrigues (the name of a former University of Michigan Wolverines Football coach), to be the race director, pay someone to create a race web site. Then create 28 fictional runners from all over the country who decide to run in the West Wyoming Marathon. Say that there is no medal and no shirt, a bare bones marathon. Then post the fake race results to your web site and make yourself the winner of the race that never happened.
Then submit the race to MarathonGuide dot com. And have one of the fictional runners submit a "review" of the race. Problem is that it gets suspicious when people fly from all corners of the country to participate in a very small race that no one has ever heard of, not even the local news media. And all of the runners in the West Wyoming Marathon have never run a marathon prior to that race. Hmmmm.
In any case, it's a fascinating story about how someone could take a sport that should be about having fun and competing against oneself and turning into a humiliation when the cheating is uncovered. I can almost understand someone like Lance Armstrong's cheating. After all, he had something to gain from cheating. Did anyone really know who the heck Kip Litton was before he was caught cheating? Also, if you are competing against other people, maybe that increases the incentives to cheat, because people have egos and don't like being beat by their peers. But in running, you can tune out the performances of other runners if you want and just focus on getting faster, competing only against yourself.
The whole thing is strange.
Oh, yeah. I am not sure I would want Kip Litton doing my dental x-rays. Would he recommend that I have surgeries or fillings that weren't necessary just to pad his pocket book? If he's willing to cheat in the Missoula Marathon, he might be willing to cheat me out of some money. I'd find another dentist if I lived in his area of Michigan. Just sayin'
