Marathon cheaters, are you that desperate for recognition?

A week ahead of the 2018 Mexico City marathon I know there are thousands of runners out there pounding the pavement 5 or 6 days a week to fullfill their goal, whether it is to get a new PB or simply to complete it without walking. Sadly, there are some others that are preparing themselves in a different way. They are studying the course to see where they can take shortcuts. They are checking metro stations where they can jump in for a few stops and re-join the race. Or simply, they are just thinking "hey, I can join the race half way through, run a half marathon and still collect my t-shirt and my medal". Win-win situation all around isn't it?

Only it's not. I'm not naive. I know that cheating happens in every race, specially the big ones. I suppose the same motivation exists for cheaters in the Boston marathon as it does in the Mexico City marathon. What's annoying is the scale of cheating at Mexico City. Marathon investigations published a really detailed analysis of the stats on the day. You can read it here. 5 or 6,000 runners were disqualified afterwards by the organisers. That didn't take away their medal and their selfie though.

Some people may say what's the problem? I paid for that t-shirt and that medal why wouldn't I collect it? No! You paid for the opportunity to test yourself and your training. As crazy as it sounds, you paid for the opportunity to see if you can endure 4 or 5 or 6 hours of pain and still put one foot in front of the other until you cross the finish line.

As a Mexican, it pained me to see that the Mexico City marathon made the headlines all around the world for the wrong reasons. I hope it doesn't repeat itself.

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