Cheating at the Marine Corps Marathon

Runner's World's Amby Burfoot reports on the JeansMarines and Team in Training course-cutting cheaters. It seems like the relatively small Canadian-based JeansMarines group is taking all the heat here, and they deserve to be scorched. But what about the purple-shirted Team in Training runners who reportedly were doing the same? TnT brings a lot of registrants to major races — 850 to the Marine Corps Marathon — so they obviously wield much more clout. And Burfoot admits that his publication is a sponsor of TnT. I'm sure they'll receive a stern warning!

These charity groups need to strengthen their coaching programs and produce runners — not finishers. There's too much pressure on these people, many of whom have absolutely no business trying the marathon distance so soon in their running "careers," to finish so they can appease all their donors. Other than feeling that pressure, I can't understand why marathon runners would want to cheat themselves. In Chicago this year, at about about mile two, dozens of runners around me cut a corner (and about 10 seconds from their time) by streaming across a plaza. Based on my starting position, these were 3:30-3:45 marathoners.