Comment by oxide | Hacker News Reader

Comment by oxide | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Personally I am fascinated by marathon cheats. Every time I see a story about someone cheating in a marathon I can't help but wonder what was going through the person's head before, during, and after.

I also wonder how often they do it, and why. You don't win any money, there is no incentive I can make out beyond bragging rights.

I mean, they aren't exactly footraces, right? It's an endurance test, IMO. Usually for charity, people usually participate for the exercise and show support for a good cause, or so I always assumed.

Winning seems totally arbitrary on one hand, but on the other hand I have to assume people do compete on some level, which makes the cheating more sensible, if you think about it in that sense.

I cheated once when I was a teenager at an online competitive game, so I'm not completely ignorant about the temptation of cheating. I'm used to people cheating at competitive online games, they're usually underskilled and looking to compensate, underage, just looking to spoil the fun, or some combination of those.

Maybe that's the intention here, to spoil the fun for those looking to compete. I suppose I'll never really know, but I can't help but ponder it whenever it comes up.

While the vast majority of participants in races are doing it for fun/exercise, there are a handful of sub-elite runners at most races who are in it for more competitive reasons.

It could be prize money, but that is usually small. There are other types of compensation though. Being a member of a race team, receiving free or discounted gear, free entries to races, and some level of celebrity within the running community.

It's fun and rewarding, and a ton of hard work.

I suspect that a significant portion of her world is now rocked. In order to run those times, she is running every day and probably participating in group workouts, etc. A significant part of her social network is likely tied to her success as a runner, even though it is not her primary job.

I can only imagine how difficult this must be, which makes her decision to cheat so baffling.

The New Yorker did an interesting article examining one such cheater http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man

Many races do have cash prizes. For a smaller race, it could be just a trophy, or a trophy plus something from a sponsor, but it could also be cash ($50-$100+ range).

I have to believe that most people can make $100 in much easier ways than running most of a marathon

I'm an avid runner. I can say with confidence there's next to no money in running if you're not a unicorn in the elite circuit. I follow the sub-elite scene moderately closely I'd say. The successful ones who are at it full time and have a sponsorship may live in a house or condo not much bigger than a shack. Some live out of their van.

This was a half marathon.

There was a famous example of cheating (using EPO) a few years ago.

"In that time [roughly two years, I think], he won nearly $40,000 in prize money in more than 75 races, including international competitions, United States championships and local road races."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/sports/runner-christian-he...

In this case the runner needed to achieve a certain qualification time for another event. So she was under pressure, which led to the poor decision.

I wish people would not refer to dishonest decisions as poor decisions.

It's an example of spin and was doubtless invented by a PR company for some politician caught with his pants down.

Why? If I choose to cheat on a test to pass a class and avoid studying it's a poor decision (from a risk vs reward perspective) and also a dishonest one (from a societal perspective). Many dishonest choices are poor ones.

I guess you're arguing that poor implies bad judgement which is a lesser crime than dishonesty? But actually in some cases I'd rather have the latter than the former.

Poor is deliberately chosen in an effort to understate things.

I can see why she would try to downplay her actions and hope that everyone else would play along.

Here's how I interpret the two phrases:

"I done fucked up" vs "I lied"

Personally I don't really read it as downplaying (though I accept I may not attach a normal level of stigma to dishonesty)

I specifically chose those words for their generous effect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com